Thread by @gauravsabnis

Hehe @skinnylatte, the east coast Cookie is a chocolate lab with a discerning palate for ripe strawberries. 😂😂😂

Evolution is so fascinating, no? This is an 18 month old labrador retriever raised entirely in suburbia, fed only kibble and *some* human food. Nothing in her short life has taught her to tell ripe strawberries as edible and unripe ones as inedible.
She's born with it!

I know there's some recent research showing that dog breeds don't really define personalities, human owners do.

So these anecdotes are just...anecdotal. But here's the stories of 2 different dogs who've spent a day at #OurWawar, a thickly wooded Catskills forest plot.

Piper is a rescue pitbull that friends of ours adopted during the pandemic. She is EXTREMELY friendly with humans. You'll remember pics of her sitting on me or @k_rupal like we're furniture, lol. And she is just generally a travel happy and social dog. A chill pitbull.

But at the land, she got tense and nervous like we've never seen her before. She almost seemed overwhelmed by the amount of newness in these wooded surroundings. Like an information overload on her senses. She whined to go back in the car. They let her, for a while, where she sat

She was eventually coaxed out. And got comfortable on the land. Sat with us (or on us 😂) by the fire mostly. But every twenty minutes or so, she did something peculiar, as if it were hardwired into her as a pitbull. She'd do a 360 degree security scan almost!

Stare in one direction, her nose sniffing extra hard. Then move about 60 degrees and do the same. All the way till she had confirmed that there were no intruders in this wall-less place.

Then she'd relax and go back to hanging with us or somewhat exploring nearby objects.

Cookie is a lab retriever purchased from a breeder, and has been raised entirely in the city or suburbs. Though she does get taken outdoors in the Jersey suburbs on trails and such, she is firmly a home dog.

But first time at our land, she was like, ah, this old place!

She just went about examining the grass and shrubs and different fallen logs and twigs and such. No anxiety of any kind being in a new place. She was instantly at home in the forest.

And she never did Piper style security scans. Nothing scared or phased her.

Again, this is anecdotal, but it's been fascinating to observe these differences.

And also the strawberry thing.

Remember, Cookie can't see color. But she can still tell ripe strawberries apart from unripe ones.