Your natural dog is a nature-loving girl who will follow the wind where it takes her. Like her primitive and feral predecessors, she is directed by powerful senses and instincts. Her relationship to the natural world around her—the birds in the trees, the rustling of the leaves, the smells in the air, approaching storms or other trouble on the horizon—can be so powerful that she may seem to disappear into another realm. Don’t take it personally if you fall right off her radar. She is far more at home amid the natural landscapes of forests and fields, and all the creatures within them—a world that is increasingly rare in the twenty-first century.

You might be inclined to enroll her in a meditation class for all the time she seems to spend peacefully sitting in silence in a spot of sun. For all the patience and stealth she exhibits hunting squirrels in the yard, you could swear she's been watching your old samurai movies. She is economy of movement, action, and energy in every way.

Your natural dog is less interested in hobbies than she is in endeavors. She is concerned with all that is practical and has little use for anything frivolous. A pioneer dog, she has the well-rounded skills she needs to get by in a demanding world. She will track and hunt, or protect that which is hers, when it seems necessary. She is always pragmatically interested in the more productive means to an end, almost exclusively for her own self-interest (occasionally including those in her intimate social circle). She follows her own internal compass at all times and will heed the summons of the natural world—even in a modern one.

Education

Forget obedience school. Enroll your natural dog in the school of life. Remember that she can be hard to impress and motivate—even with the best treats and toys on the market. You’ll need to get real smart, real quick when you sign up to be her teacher, and to learn how to leverage what she actually cares about. Any energy you spend trying to change her mind will be totally wasted. She was not bred to be a “pet,” much less to be “obedient.”

But she is your pet. So even if you lower your standards about how well she must listen to you, you will need to find ways to have her handle life appropriately.