There Is A Tide In The Affairs Of Dogs

Being a prairie boy I've always had a vague notion of tides.  My reading of historical fiction has given me to understand that press gangs raided coastal pubs for sailors just in time to get the poor souls onboard to make the last tide.  I am lead to believe there are tidal powered electrical generation facilities.  And of course, Shakespeare.  Brutus declaims in Julius Caesar,
"There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries."

Now that's pretty serious stuff.  It seems these tides are not something to pass off lightly.

Jake seems to get the tide thing.  Though a prairie dog, he has some internal wiring that is tide aware.  The tide can be out as we set off on our beach walk with lots of room to wander about on the sand.  Jake, who would normally walk a bit ahead of us and keep going until we let him know it's time to turn around, lurks behind us, unsure of going forward.  As soon as we turn to go home he is much relieved and bounds ahead of us, anxious to get off the beach.  Back at the house, we check the tide tables.  While we were walking the tide was coming in.

Of course, this marine savvy dog understands the opposite.  The beach can be covered with water.  The tide is in.  No problem for Jake who happily goes ahead, splashing along, thoroughly enjoying himself.  When it's time to turn around, he's not that interested.  Back home a check of the tide tables confirms the obvious.  The tide is on its way out.

I'm as proud as the next homo sapien of this large brain case we own.  Hopefully, my lack of the tidal awareness that a labrador retriever has, keeps me from getting too smug about the value my three pound brain offers versus Jake's three ounce brain.  

As Jake keeps reminding me, "it's not the size that matters".