``The Indian sage Ramana Maharishi believed, against other Hindus, that animals
are souls working off some aspect of Karma, and that some animals achieve Mukti,
or liberation.  And one has the distinct sense, with certain dogs, that in their
seriousness, in their refusal to jump about showing their willingness and pleasure,
in their devotion to the task at hand, they are indeed working on a spiritual
problem.  It would please me if the AKC managed to show some respect for this
phenomenon in dogs, but of course it would please me in general if the AKC managed
to show some respect.

``This business of judging a dog by the extent to which he appears to be having fun
is misleading in a number of ways.  Popularly, and sometimes in the show ring, a high,
gay tail is thought to be a sign of well-being and willingness in a dog.  As it
happens, a dog whose heart is in her work will often carry the tail lower - you can
see this in a young sheepdog who starts to ``click,'' to get the point of her work;
the tail moves down, curved between the legs.

``The tail is curved in concentration, as the back of Rodin's thinker is curved in
concentration; the dog does not look as though she is having fun!  Well, she isn't,
and probably doesn't want to.  A passion for work is not necessarily ``fun,'' though the
deep laughter that goes with artistic triumph is nonetheless a true laughter.  And
some dogs with hearts so deeply meticulous it would break yours if you knew about it
respond to the sight of the hurdles or the dumbbell or the tracking equipment by setting
themselves into as square and serious position as they can manage.  On the way to a jump,
you will sometimes see the tail carried low in a dog who wants each paw to land exactly
here, exactly where the dog in his fastidious, tyrannically fastidious, heart intends
it to land.

``So I quibble with the AKC for insisting that ``lack of willingness or enjoyment on the
part of the dog must be penalized,'' for the same reason I become irritable with people
who want to penalize Wittgenstein or Beethoven, take off moral points, for their lack
of ``enjoyment.''  Either this sport is serious or it is not.  If it is serious, then
the dog who does the best job should win, and if a dog who is tense about the show
situation, or excessively worried or conscientious about the jumps, trimuphs over
fear and turns in the most correct performance, that dog should be honored.

``If this sport is not serious, then each dog should come out and romp with the handler
for ninety seconds, and the one who gives the most romp should win.

``Be my quibbles as they may, the rules, in specifying will, or willingness, on the
dog's part, are an acknowledgment, albeit a confused one, of the nature of the
activity for the dogs.  The confusion lies in holding the handler responsible for the
dog's intentions in a way that discounts and belies the dog's moral powers - that is,
the dog's ability to intend her actions.  Dogs intend whatever they do, even when
``pattern trained'' by handlers who do not know how much a good dog can intend, even
when the ``utmost willingness'' requirement promps some handlers to induce artificial
hyperthyroidism in their dogs - which, as a recent article in Front and Finish noted,
causes anxiety rather than true willingness.''

Vicki Hearne _Bandit_ p.290