Marley

There are just no ordinary days at the Humane Society. As I did a walk through today to see who had not yet had a walk, I noticed Marley, a year old "mostly Kelpie" (Australian herd dog). He likely had not yet had a walk because he would not come out of his kennel. One of the shelter staffers got him on a leash for me. He was so very timid that it was a struggle to get him to walk as far as the exercise yard, where he sat under my legs for about 15 minutes, then moved to sit as close to me as possible for another 15 minutes with his head planted firmly on my lap. He appeared to be happy just sniffing and watching all the comings and goings of the passers by. I eventually convinced him to go for a walk and it was interesting to watch his breed behavior start to come out. Every few yards he turned around and made eye contact. Like all the dogs I've walked, he responded with a little spike of energy when I talked to him or petted him during the walk, but he is the first one that seemed to take responsibility for maintaining regular contact via his eyes. This is apparently a trait of this breed, not only herding using eye contact but staying in extremely close communication with their person. I think Marley will get a lot more confident; I found out after our "walk" that this was just his third day at the shelter. He is going to make someone a wonderful friend.