Overnight News: Exploring the epistemological mysteries of the dog park: How do dogs identify each other as dogs?

When first I met Miss Cleopatra Chioux, coming on a year ago, I would take her every Sunday to Rio Vista Park – for socialization with people, but especially with other dogs. We stopped when it got too hot for her – not hard for flat-faced dogs. Because she gets to meet everyone at her church, she is very good with people, but, so far, not so much with dogs.

She’s not a problem, she’s just awkward and uncertain how to proceed. Usus est magister optimus, and she just isn’t around dogs enough.

Until now. Moving back to Sun City puts us back into Duffeeland Dog Park, about which I have written much in the past. It’s a great place for her: There cannot be any bad dogs in Sun City; they get trained or rehomed. All of the dogs are pampered, and quite a few of them are overfed.

Cleo loves it, but she doesn’t know what to make of it. She races around to greet every dog, but she doesn’t stick around to play. By the time she’s run the circuit, she’s exhausted. No kidding: I have to carry her out.

It’s fun to watch her – all those dogs, all off-lead! – but I’m sure she’ll get used to it in time. But the dog park raises yet another epistemological question for me:

How does Miss Chioux know those other critters are dogs?

She didn’t know rabbits were prey until one ran away from her. How does she know that other dogs are dogs – and how does she know they’re not predators? Tail-signaling, of course, although Cleo doesn’t have a tail, but I wonder how – or even if – she knows that she and the other dogs are the same thing.

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