It all just went to the dogs!

     We were gifted with this wee little pup that's eyes did not look like it would have much of a personality. Her momma was a dingo that wandered out of the desert to mate with a local half German Shepard on a farm. Her momma was all white with a brindle patch here, a brown patch there, a black one elsewhere. She had the narrow snout and gentlest, most conscious spirit. She was so wild that once she got pregnant she'd disappear back into the desert. We got this pup because this time, the farmer's wife had decided to lock her in the yard so they could keep the pups.
     On the way to get her, the children, of course, were already wondering what they'd name the pup, who was as it was yet, sight unseen. The name came to me: Cinnamon. The children weren't impressed. As we got closer to the farm I smelled cinnamon. No one else among us could smell it. My daughter chose the pup and decided her name was Shadow. She had little brown feet, so her name became "Shadow Cinnamon Socks".
     Oh,the first time she experienced real grass! We had left our little trailer in Slab City and were heading northeast. Shadow got her feet in the grass and had to taste every blade, every flower and she rolled and she rolled. Then came the snow! oh, how she was invigorated by it! She ran circles of pure exuberance for half an hour; darting in toward my my children then "escaping" to run circles again. She knew the moment one of us would begin to wake even before we did. She'd jump up on the bed to begin the play. She has her "baby", a stuffed dog, that she'll carry with her. She's chock full of personality!
    Our first dwelling circumstances A.S. (after Shadow) were in a tiny commune that was wanting to become a primitive tribal village and had a depressed mountain mix dog of the same age as Shadow. When we arrived, the already depressed dog wanted nothing to do with Shadow and the residents were resentful of her presence. Turns out that a previous resident had a German Shepard that attacked the commune's dog. Shepards  were not welcome. Another came to live with his dog who had the "my child can do no wrong" fatherly relationship with his dog. Needless to say, everything Shadow did was demonized and for every doggy disruption she was made to blame. Our Shadow eventually won them all over. The daddy'd dog left and Shadow and the no longer depressed dog became the best of friends.
     That commune disbanded and we went to a place that calls it's self The Sanctuary. There lived an Akita momma dog with two of her adult pups and one more unrelated dog. They just never stopped being mean to Shadow. It came out that the momma dog had gotten torn up by a wild dingo who had wandered out of the woods to come to stay with them for a bit. Eventually, Shadow won the momma dog, the male pup and the unrelated dog over by the time we moved on. Shadow inherited her momma's gentle, conscious spirit and is able to help other dogs and people recover from trauma.
     In both those circumstances, the people asserted that their dogs are living true to their original nature and that's why they were the way they were. The people were all trying to live "rewilded", "back to the earth" off-grid experiences. I suppose they imagine they're rewilding their dogs as well.
     Research is showing that a wolf pup taken from the wild and raised among dogs still retains a lack of need for human interaction. Experience has shown that feral dogs remain around human occupied areas, though remaining shy of them from mistreatment or becoming a threat to humans because of it. Dogs evolved to inherently need human interaction. It's in their genes. They've retained enough canine to need to have an established pecking order, so the human needs to be pack leader or the dog will take that roll. You're not going to find a feral dog running with a pack of wolves deep in the Oxbows of Montana and you're not going to find a safe dog that's been undisciplined among humans. Dogs could only be rewilded the same way they were domesticated; over generations and gradually. It's not going to happen with the pup you get from a breeder or pet store. If our Shadow was not fixed, her already part wild dog pups could be fathered by a wolf and head off into the Oxbows with a wild pack and MAY be just fine. Shadow's mother proved Shadow couldn't. She herself was drawn to humankind instinctively. Needless to say, Shadow has blossomed and flourished and become chock full of personality among people who know they are pack leaders when it comes to her. That makes Miss Shadow Cinnamon Socks one happy pupper who will wear her big human brother's coat and give us that platypus face which means "Can I go out?".
Besides which; who doesn't love Cesar Millan? (that's rhetorical, I don't really want to know)