Question:
My daughter in Bozeman, Mont., has a 5-year-old sheltie dog. When he is outside on a sunny day, he just sits with his nose in the air, scanning the sky. If he sees the vapor trail of a jet in the sky he goes crazy, barking and running back and forth like he is trying to catch it or scare it away. On a cloudy day he just sits passively in the yard. Can you explain this reaction, or have you heard of it?.
M.R.H., Grand Forks, ND Oct 03, 2004
Answer:
Many dogs, especially Shetland sheep dogs, are what I call "sky gazers." Your daughter's dog reveals something about dogs' imaginations and response to novel stimuli. One sheltie I recall would always bark and leap around when jet planes were flying overhead, a behavior that developed after the dog was subjected to a long and presumably traumatic plane ride in a cargo hold.Most dogs keep their noses to the ground and rarely look up. Sky gazing, in my estimation, is a sign of canine intelligence, but in some dogs it can become an obsession.
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