reader feedback

Our friend Emily said she'd read the Regal Vizsla to-date and loved it, but there was too much dog and not enough ballet. I have no idea what this means, but in an effort to accomodate Emily, here's a few words from Donald McCaig's Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men:

"Any athlete, dog or man, must master the flowing gestalt of things, must comprehend physical meaning, must be slightly ahead of the action. Amateurs think of a sheepdog trial as static geometry: a pattern of invisible straight lines the sheep must traverse. That's mistaking the choreography for the ballet." (p.51)

Charles Fergus uses the phrase "this state of excited equilibrium" (p. 16) to describe a similar kind of synchronicity and anticipation when it comes to hunters, gamebirds, and bird-dogs. For him, that balletic balance is 'the upland equation.'

There will be no pictures of Vizslas in tutus. But I hope this makes you even happier, Emily.