What you’ll learn in this episode:
- The theory that humans and dogs have co-evolved over tens of thousands of years
- The joys and benefits of developing deep and intimate bonds with your dogs
- The challenges of developing bonds with adult dogs and the rewards of doing so
- Dogs and their “Geography of Injury”
- How all living beings have levels of consciousness and that is how we connect
Welcome to another episode of Free Range Dogs
In this episode, Web speaks with Chris Madson, who has an MS in wildlife ecology from the University of Wisconsin. He has been editor of Kansas Wildlife and Wyoming Wildlife. A freelance writer and photographer, he has been published in Audubon, Outdoor Life, National Wildlife, Nature Conservancy Magazine, High Country News, DU, Wing and Shot, Pheasants Forever, and Sporting Classics, to name some of the many publications that carry his work regularly. He lives in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Chris has just written a new book about dogs and living and hunting with them. He talks about the various dog breeds he grew up with, and how, in the words of a good friend, he became a “Brittany Spaniel man First, Foremost, and Forever.”
He got Lee, an adult Brittany, as he left a job working at the NILO Farms Winchester Hunting and Shooting Preserve for his first job as a wildlife biologist in Kansas. Lee had been a working dog on the Preserve and was fully trained. He was, however, very slow in making up his mind to fully commit to Chris. Chris describes the moment, a full year later, when Lee finally relaxes and lays his head on his knee while they are driving home.
Web and Chris talk about adult dogs coming with experiences and history with people that make it difficult for them to trust and bond with someone new. Once that happens, however, it can be life-changing for both.
Chris talks about different evolutionary histories of dogs and people, and how there is evidence that dogs and wolves split apart a very long time ago and that dogs and people are theorized to have “co-evolved” over 100,000 years. No wonder they are our True Companions.
FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE:
Chris Madson
True Companions: Life in the Field and Home with our Hunting Dogs
Available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble
For autographed copies, please reach out to Chris at his email