Hamish Macbeth
Photo Pualani K.

There are service dogs that guide the blind and service dogs that can detect when their person is about to have a seizure, these wonderful dogs can even be trained to take care of their person during medical events and stress related events.

My dog doesn’t fall under the category of a service dog, or an emotional support animal ( even though he sort of does both things anyway ). None the less, my dog sees things for me that I can’t.

I am not visually impaired, I don’t have health issues.  The thing is I am a really very bad judge of character, which means that the people I let close to me do me dirt, the people I  think I can’t  actually trust  turn out to be great friends. It’s a blindness all the same and my dog helps me through it.

Hamish has a good sense about people, I can tell right off the bat by his demeanor if this is a person I should talk to, be around or trust.

I’ve noticed that there are people Hamish  loves being around- you can see it in his body language, in his eyes, the way he brings them toys and watches their faces when they talk to him. He literally shivers with glee.

Then there are people he sort of hangs around and just keeps his eye on.

He will interact with them, he is friendly, but there is something about the ways he keeps his eye on them that I suppose hearkens back to his bloodline. I’ve never used him for hunting, but I’ve had hunters offer me top dollar to breed him because his raw talent is that obvious. With training, he’d be a great hunting dog like his Dad Leroy and his Grandma Mocha and his Mom and great grandparents too.

You’d never guess by his carefree spirit, but Hamish comes from a long line of champion hunting and tracking dogs.

So he will keep track of these people until they leave- his attention span is scary long. That means if you show up on his radar you are going to stay there until you leave the room. If you show up again he will act the same way.

I’ve learned to give those people that Hamish feels like he needs to track a lot of  space.

And when we are out and we run into strangers that he has an issue with,  he isn’t that subtle- he’ll stand, do that pointing thing that tracking dogs- right at them – and then he will turn and want to walk away.

He doesn’t lead me on his walks, but when he calls time I always listen to him.

My instincts suck, but Hamish Macbeth’s do not.

In dog I trust.

Hamish Macbeth
Photo P.C. Knapp