Yesterday, when I was on a woods walk, an unleashed shelty ran by me. I’ve seen this dog before and thought he might be allowed to run along the paths unsupervised. But when I saw him 20 minutes later trotting down the main street of our neighborhood, I knew I had an escapee on my hands. The little guy wouldn’t let me close enough to read his tags, so I followed him until he darted into a house at the end of a cul-de-sac. He was safely home.

What impressed me about this dog was his self-possession. He seemed to know where he was going. He was never lost. He was just out exploring. He was the perfect illustration of what self-defense experts tell us: Always act like you know where you’re going, even when you don’t.