Great Expectations

I participated in a conversation about tail carriage in working Border Collies yesterday.  The conversation was about a young dog that was looking very good in his training, but carried his tail high. I was amazed that people were prioritizing the carriage of the tail as much (or more) as the quality of the work.  It seems that many believe the tail is like the needle on a very accurate meter of the dog’s mind set towards the job and stock.  Some handlers, self-described “tail snobs”, like the tail either tucked or tight to the dog’s legs. 

Border Collies carry their tails low when working. High tails generally indicate a dog that is distracted or playing, not settled into the job.  Some Border Collies actually tuck their tail tight to their bellies while working, some have the tail down along the hind legs.  Some carry their tails out a bit from the body, down at a 45 degree angle or steeper.  I’ve noticed that dogs with short, thick tails tend not to tuck them, and most of the extreme tucks are dogs with long, slender tails.  Very stylish workers, slinky and crouched, also seem more likely to have their tails tucked tight.  I have watched a number of very good dogs that do not carry their tails tucked or tight to their legs.  Mostly these are plain dogs in their work.

A dog’s tail carriage is indicative of their mind set, though hardly a precision meter of such.  The dog’s work is a far better indicator of their mind set.  The work is a complex combination of moves and decisions that is not as easy to judge as looking at the tail.  Humans like to have clear cut indicators that allow them to interpret and predict events.  We set expectations on those indicators, and expectations have a way of being fulfilled.  There is a great blog post on this:  How Great Teachers See.  Once we have established an indicator in our head, we quickly recognize all events that reinforce that indicator and subconsciously work to fulfill the expectations.  I had a superstitious friend who felt that bad things happened on Friday the 13th.  Indeed bad things happened on the 13th on any day of the week, and in fact bad things happened around the 13th, the middle of the month.  As the 13th approached she carefully itemized every event that could be considered unfortunate.   Had she been so attentive to finding ways to interpret events as unfortunate at other times she would have seen just as many bad things.  Another generalization is that black sheep are more difficult to manage.   Go to a trial where there are black sheep mixed in a predominantly white flock.  Watch the stock carefully, dropping any bias against black sheep if you can, and listen to handler comments.  Anything that goes wrong on the field will be attributed to the black sheep in the draw.  Folks will groan if they see a black sheep waiting for them at the top.  Yet often I watch and see that the black sheep is not difficult and not a leader.  It is simply following an independent white sheep.    Or the black sheep may seem difficult but what I’m seeing is the dog/handler team mismanaging a situation and then blaming the “difficult” black sheep.  In some flocks the colored sheep tend to be more difficult, but color is hardly the accurate indicator that many handlers believe it to be.

When a dog with who carries his tail a bit high make an error or indiscretion in his work folks will note how that tail carriage surely told them the dog’s mind was not right thus the indiscretion was inevitable.  When a dog with a tail tucked or tight to the legs makes an inappropriate move then it is simply an indiscretion.  When people dislike a dog for any reason, whether it be tail or work style or color or blood lines, they will remember everything that went wrong on the field and attribute the problems to the dog itself rather than handling or stock.

Sheep don’t look at the tail.