SparkysMom
New member
I adopted my Sparky from Animal Rescue League, so I wouldn't swear in court that he's a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. But that's how they labeled him, and he looks exactly like the pictures.
Sparky has recently become oddly purposeful about carrying rocks and directing my attention to where he placed them. He seems to go for 3" long, somewhat cylindrical rocks, and he prefers light colors to dark colors. Several weeks ago, he found such a rock in the grass, and got extremely excited about it. He carried it proudly, waved his tail like a flag, and trotted down the sidewalk like he found a trophy. He set it right in the middle of a smooth, sawed-off tree stump, glanced at me, glanced at the rock, and waved his tail. When I caught up with him, he took the rock off the stump and put it in the grass on the opposite side of the sidewalk. He became ecstatically wriggly when I picked it up and put it in my pocket to take along.
Yesterday, he chased a squirrel into the woods. He was leashed, so I stopped him before he got into the woods. I think it was the first squirrel we'd seen on that patch of ground; usually it's just robins. Anyway, I wouldn't let him go after it, and we went home. At my apartment building, there was a 3" long gravel rock on the sidewalk, and Sparky pounced on it. I picked it up and intended to continue entering the building, but Sparky became a stubborn mule. He put his head down and braced himself, and I would have had to carry him into the building. So I gave him back the rock and let him lead the way. With the rock tucked in his mouth, he quickly trotted back down the sidewalk and across the lawn straight to the woods' edge. This was about 5 minutes since we saw the squirrel. He made a beeline to the exact spot where the squirrel had fled. He dropped the rock into a patch of bare dirt there, scuffed the dirt with his front paws, and batted the rock around nimbly a little, rolling it in the scuffed dirt. Then he picked up the rock neatly in his mouth again and trotted briskly back to the sidewalk.
I didn't know what he was doing, but he seemed to be a dog on a mission, and I didn't have the heart to interfere. He was prancing and waving his tail, and seemed so proud of himself.
Sparky led me down the sidewalk to the corner of a street we seldom cross. Across the street is the largest building in the vicinity; it's a large office building where I happen to work. Sparky didn't lunge, but he tugged forcefully and made it very clear he wanted to cross the street. So we did, and he pulled straight up the driveway to the building entrance. Once there, he trotted back and forth in front of the glass doors a few times, looking inside, still holding the rock. I waited. A few small moths were buzzing around. Sparky glanced at me and made eye contact, then snapped at one of the moths, missing. When he snapped for the moth, he dropped the rock and ignored it. He didn't even glance down at it. (He's investigated crawling beetles, but I've never seen him snap at a flying insect before.) Then he urinated for only about 1 second on the nearest grass. Again, that was the first time I'd seen him do that -- it's usually a waterfall.
I picked up the rock and put it in my pocket. Playing along, I said, "The message got through, you brave boy, you good dog." Sparky waved his tail forcefully a few times and looked happy. We went home.
Knowing that King Charles's court was riddled with conspiracies and espionage, is it possible that this breed was not developed just for companionship, but for signaling and message-carrying behavior? This could be intentional or unintentional. I.e., if you select for good lapdogs, do you also pick the genes that happen to favor purposeful disposition of small objects? Maybe the king saw an opportunity in dogs' "normal" bone-seeking and bone-burying behavior. "Find objects of this size and carry them to the human entryway of the biggest building in the neighborhood" would be a good algorithm to transport secret artifacts to the palace, for instance.
Just speculating.
--Rachel
P. S. Sparky approves this message.
Sparky has recently become oddly purposeful about carrying rocks and directing my attention to where he placed them. He seems to go for 3" long, somewhat cylindrical rocks, and he prefers light colors to dark colors. Several weeks ago, he found such a rock in the grass, and got extremely excited about it. He carried it proudly, waved his tail like a flag, and trotted down the sidewalk like he found a trophy. He set it right in the middle of a smooth, sawed-off tree stump, glanced at me, glanced at the rock, and waved his tail. When I caught up with him, he took the rock off the stump and put it in the grass on the opposite side of the sidewalk. He became ecstatically wriggly when I picked it up and put it in my pocket to take along.
Yesterday, he chased a squirrel into the woods. He was leashed, so I stopped him before he got into the woods. I think it was the first squirrel we'd seen on that patch of ground; usually it's just robins. Anyway, I wouldn't let him go after it, and we went home. At my apartment building, there was a 3" long gravel rock on the sidewalk, and Sparky pounced on it. I picked it up and intended to continue entering the building, but Sparky became a stubborn mule. He put his head down and braced himself, and I would have had to carry him into the building. So I gave him back the rock and let him lead the way. With the rock tucked in his mouth, he quickly trotted back down the sidewalk and across the lawn straight to the woods' edge. This was about 5 minutes since we saw the squirrel. He made a beeline to the exact spot where the squirrel had fled. He dropped the rock into a patch of bare dirt there, scuffed the dirt with his front paws, and batted the rock around nimbly a little, rolling it in the scuffed dirt. Then he picked up the rock neatly in his mouth again and trotted briskly back to the sidewalk.
I didn't know what he was doing, but he seemed to be a dog on a mission, and I didn't have the heart to interfere. He was prancing and waving his tail, and seemed so proud of himself.
Sparky led me down the sidewalk to the corner of a street we seldom cross. Across the street is the largest building in the vicinity; it's a large office building where I happen to work. Sparky didn't lunge, but he tugged forcefully and made it very clear he wanted to cross the street. So we did, and he pulled straight up the driveway to the building entrance. Once there, he trotted back and forth in front of the glass doors a few times, looking inside, still holding the rock. I waited. A few small moths were buzzing around. Sparky glanced at me and made eye contact, then snapped at one of the moths, missing. When he snapped for the moth, he dropped the rock and ignored it. He didn't even glance down at it. (He's investigated crawling beetles, but I've never seen him snap at a flying insect before.) Then he urinated for only about 1 second on the nearest grass. Again, that was the first time I'd seen him do that -- it's usually a waterfall.
I picked up the rock and put it in my pocket. Playing along, I said, "The message got through, you brave boy, you good dog." Sparky waved his tail forcefully a few times and looked happy. We went home.
Knowing that King Charles's court was riddled with conspiracies and espionage, is it possible that this breed was not developed just for companionship, but for signaling and message-carrying behavior? This could be intentional or unintentional. I.e., if you select for good lapdogs, do you also pick the genes that happen to favor purposeful disposition of small objects? Maybe the king saw an opportunity in dogs' "normal" bone-seeking and bone-burying behavior. "Find objects of this size and carry them to the human entryway of the biggest building in the neighborhood" would be a good algorithm to transport secret artifacts to the palace, for instance.
Just speculating.
--Rachel
P. S. Sparky approves this message.