All of the dogs up here look like wolves. Their chests are broader, their hips narrower. Smooth canine fur has been replaced with tufts of lupine gray, ruffling around predatory faces and fringing exuberant curling tails. Is this a function of environment? Has this twenty mile move north moved us into a harsher plain, one where animals live that much closer to their basic nature -- where the difference between dinner and non-dinner is not "Is it in my dish?" but "Is it in a fence?" The one straying lab-type I've seen may prove the rule by being the exception, although he does play out elaborate pack-behavior type games with the neighbor's huge black fuzzball of a dog. How much is said simply by waggling one's hindquarters.

That last bit is actually true for people, too, BTW.