Dogs of Labor – Circling the Yard
I’ve walked my dog more than five thousand times. That’s not an estimate — that’s lived experience. Twice a day for nine years, with only the occasional break for travel. And after five thousand reps, you learn a thing or two about another creature’s rhythms. You start noticing patterns that no handbook ever mentions.
Take the morning ritual. Sage steps into the yard, nose low, tail steady, doing that slow, deliberate circle dogs do before they handle their business. You’ve seen it. Everyone has. And the experts will tell you a dozen reasons for it — magnetic fields, ancestral instincts, scanning for predators.
Maybe.
But after these many years, I’ve landed on a simpler truth:
The circling has nothing to do with fear.
It has everything to do with readiness.
When Sage takes forever to find the right spot, it isn’t because she’s nervous or unsure. It’s because the system isn’t ready yet. Things are a little backed up. She needs the right angle, the right pressure, the right moment.
And when everything lines up?
She stops circling and gets on with it.
That little lesson sneaks up on you.
Because people do the same thing.
We circle when the idea is not there yet.
We circle when the instructions are muddy.
We circle when we’re expected to make something happen, but the internal gears haven’t caught up.
It’s not hesitation. It’s not resistance. It’s not fear.
Most of the time?
We’re just not ready.
A good leader can tell the difference. They don’t bark orders at someone who’s circling the yard. They don’t shove them toward a decision. They pay attention. They fix the conditions. They give a nudge where it helps and space where it matters.
Because once readiness hits — once the internal system catches up — people move with the same quiet decisiveness Sage shows when she finally plants her feet.
One thing I’ve learned: I may not have been able to observe any of this if Sage had been on a leash. Sometimes clarity only shows up when you give something — or someone — room to move.
And here’s the line I’ve learned the hard way:
You can’t rush output when the system is backed up.
Dogs know it. Humans forget it. Good leaders remember it.
Reflection
Reflection
Leadership isn’t about forcing pace — it’s about reading readiness. When people circle, they’re not avoiding responsibility. They’re aligning themselves so the work can actually move. And if you watch closely — really closely — you’ll learn that the circling itself is communication. It tells you where the pressure is. It tells you what isn’t clear. It tells you what needs space instead of direction.
Sage taught me this in a hundred quiet mornings in the yard. No agenda, no schedule, no leash — just observation. The kind of truth you only learn by being present long enough to see the patterns.
Leaders don’t eliminate the circling.
They make sure it leads somewhere.
John Hamerlinck