Guiding Eyes Hildy, who had no desire to be called Hayley, Hilly, or anything else, has proven an outstanding addition to the Thinking Dog pack.

She’s taken to the neighborhoods of St. Petersburg like the pro that she is, unfazed by wind, strange birds — even very large ones blocking the sidewalk — and large palm fronds blowing around or also blocking her way. She expertly guides past construction, broken sidewalks, cars, bikes, boats, and anything else in her path. She was momentarily startled once by a dog-and-raccoon kerfuffle (don’t ask) but even took that in stride.

She’s charmed the groomer, the vet, the neighbors, the yoga class, and fellow concert-goers throughout the city. She enjoys watching yoga, perched on her own mat, with her paws delicately crossed, though she often chooses to join in, performing each pose with natural grace.

Best of all, she’s an excellent traveler. Hildy is quickly learning all of the tricks of the trade, finding Sky Clubs, identifying her suitcase on the carousel, and finding the correct restroom as needed. She’s calm on the plane. Well, except for that incident with the severe turbulence … but even then, all she wanted was a cuddle. After a long travel day with many delays, Hildy made peace with airport restrooms-for-dogs and understood the value of an opportunity to take a break.

She’s playful and silly when she’s off duty, and she shares Koala’s and Alberta’s love of the midday treat-ball break, efficiently bringing the ball to be filled, emptying it, then putting it away. (Maybe she’ll teach Orly and Dotty??)

Good girl!

Artist Emilie Gossiaux’s recent fellowship at the Queens Museum resulted in an art installation centered on her guide dog, London. Three Londons, in fact, dancing around a maypole. The maypole is actually a 15-foot-tall white cane, a symbol of how she regained freedom following an accident that caused her to lose her eyesight.

Her artwork since then has often focused on London, her 13-year-old Labrador guide — and more broadly, on removing barriers between animals and humans and celebrating their partnership and mutual dependency.

The Queens Museum exhibit, while Gossiaux’s first solo museum exhibit, is not London’s first starring role in her art. Gossiaux told the New York Times that her work featuring London has been influenced by the writer and scholar Donna Haraway, who examined relationships between humans and non-humans in multiple works, including The Companion Species Manifesto.

In addition to the human-adult-sized dancing Londons, Gossiaux has created other sculptures and drawings focusing on other aspects of her life with London and of other interspecies relationships.

Other Worlding is on exhibit at the Queens Museum until April 7, 2024. If you’re lucky enough to be in New York before then — and can arrange to visit the museum — let me know what you thought!

The Thinking Dog family has welcomed a new member, Guiding Eyes Hildy. Or Hil, Hilly, Hillary … or maybe Hayley. Miss H is Deni’s new guide dog from Guiding Eyes for the Blind, and she arrived at the end of November!

Whatever Deni ends up calling her, she’s off to a very promising start.

Hildy is a creative problem-solver and a bubbly and affectionate pup, wrapped in a compact black Lab body. She’s been with Deni for just over a week as I write this and has already explored some of St. Petersburg’s best restaurants, shops, and parks, as well as visiting the airport, the vet, and, of course, the dog beach.

Hildy shares many characteristics with Alberta, Deni’s first Guiding Eyes dog: Her sense of humor; her willingness to try new things; her silly, licky, wriggly love for physical contact; and a penchant for sitting with her hands crossed during rare moments of calm.

That may be because they are closely related: Hildy’s grandma is Alberta’s half-sister!

Hildy loves toys; a favorite is a squeaky koala. She likes to be challenged and is already a bit bored with the morning walk along the waterfront. She was delighted with the dog beach, unsurprisingly. After an moment of hesitation, she entered the water cautiously — and within a minute, was racing up and down the surf, swimming, and splashing.

I hope that Deni and Hil…ly enjoy many years of working and playing together!

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I’m going to try out a biweekly publishing schedule for a few months.

(By biweekly, I mean every two weeks, though I know that some people use biweekly to mean semiweekly or twice a week.)

Remember: You can sign up to get an email each time a new Thinking Dog blog post is published! Sign up using the box on the right-hand side of the screen!

Summer is winding down here in Missoula.

Orly and Dotty are practicing their berry-gathering skills: The transplanted raspberries (well, some of them) produced a minuscule late-summer crop. The girls gleefully discovered this bounty a few days ago and quickly demolished the handful of berries, mostly under-ripe. Patience and delayed gratification are not their strengths … Though persistence is. They check and recheck for new or missed berries several times a day. Several times an hour if I let them.

When not searching for berries — and the occasional fallen apple from the neighbors’ tree — Dotty is energetically pouncing on every floating leaf and fallen stick, which makes her play time in the yard, and even more so, our walks … interesting.

I’m trying hard to break her habit of zooming off after each moving object and, of course, coming to a jarring hard stop at the end of the leash. Turns out that many dog trainers’ insistence that when dogs self-correct like that they learn not to bolt on the leash is hilarious … and wholly false, at least in Dotty’s case.

She does love to carry things in her mouth on our walks, which may be a useful skill in her service dog work. Especially if she’s partnered with someone who loves sticks and candy wrappers. (Or maybe I need to work on broadening Dotty’s interests.)

As the trees turn, I look at all those leaves and wonder whether Dotty would settle for mall walking for a few weeks. My arms just can’t take it!

I take comfort from the memory that Orly went through a similar distracted phase, pouncing on leaves and taking off in every direction while on leash; it wasn’t even very long ago. And she’s now a wonderful walking companion.

As Dotty leaps and pounces and twirls through fall, I try to savor this phase — even as I wish for it to end.