Employed by a Dog: Yair & Luna

Some people get a dog and their life changes. Yair's life was always going to look like this. Luna just made it official.

For over forty years, Yair has shared time and place — "passion, grace, and muddy paws" — with a series of tailed companions across some of the wildest country on earth. Today that companion is Luna, a border collie who, by Yair's own cheerful admission, does not have an owner. She has staff.

The years before Luna

There was a stretch early on with no dog at all — years of remote travel, risk, and long absences that made the commitment impossible to honour properly. So Yair waited. "I accepted that the right time and circumstances will present itself." Then he spent the next four decades making up for it. "It's been magical," he says, and you believe him.

An ordinary Tuesday (which starts before the sun)

Their day begins long before the daystar gets out of bed — "mostly around 3 AM, but definitely by 5." Luna checks in through the night, encouraging an outing, and over the years the two of them have developed a working code for the negotiation:

• WTE — Waaaay Too Early
• IAW — In A While (Yair admits this one is cheating)
• STE — Still Too Early
• IGUN — I'll Get Up Now

The tent door — or the house door, when they're home — mostly stays open, so Luna can come and go as she pleases and attend to "secret dog business" under the stars.

When the day properly starts, it means a hike of 6 to 12 kilometres. Usually up a mountain. Often across a freezing river to reach a different mountain — "because the mountain is always better, greener, whiter, on the other side, right?" By the time they're back, it's breakfast. Then Luna takes a well-earned snooze while "others work for a living" to fund her luxury lifestyle. An afternoon swim in the river (solo in winter; with staff in summer). Another snooze. A pre-dinner "hoody" walk. Dinner. And an after-dinner walk before bed, where they play Hide & Stick — Luna pretends she doesn't know where Yair hid the stick, finds it immediately, and kindly goes along with the silly game anyway.

"Staff" was never a joke, exactly

Yes, it's funny — most dog people will nod knowingly at the idea that border collies keep humans, not the other way around. But for Yair it's also a genuine philosophy. "I've never subscribed to the idea that we possess living beings. We at best learn to share life with them."

It shows in how he's trained every companion he's had. No obedience drills — "I'll save you the details, but I have a strong personal dislike of the 'sit, stay, blah blah' mentality." Instead: context. Wait — something's changed here, so we need to understand what and act accordingly. Wait for me. Watch me, then follow. Instructions that make sense to an intelligent, multi-sensory being. "Trust me — they can navigate very complex situations, from wilderness to the wilderness of city traffic. I have forty years to prove it."

What Luna knows that Yair never taught her

Out there, Luna uses the full spectrum of her senses to inhabit a place — sight, smell, sound, the feel of the terrain underfoot. She'll often just sit, looking at the distance, "absorbing the space and all that's in it."

"A wonderful teacher to me — in the art of seeing, not just looking."

She sets the pace

When they move through that country together, Luna's in charge of the tempo. There are sniff stops. Scent detours. Direct routes "no human should attempt, but the silly follow." Rest stops. The occasional where-are-you-Dad-I-just-got-sidetracked event. Between Luna and a lifetime spent learning from indigenous hunters and guides, Yair says the lessons never cease and the insights grow aplenty.

Who is Luna?

Not her breed. Not her age. Just who she is:

"A non-human guide, filled with exuberance and joy of the vibe. A lesson in how to connect with the other — and in how to access things you never could without the company of such a creature."

Ask him for the single moment that captures it all, and he won't give you one. "I doubt a single moment — unless we delve into the quantum world — could capture the universe of experiences we've shared. It's an evolving, unfolding event on an ever-expanding horizon."

Yair & Luna are somewhere out there right now — 2 degrees, ice in the rocks, porridge with honey and cinnamon cooking as the sun comes up over the ridge. Still staff. Still magical.

We'll dance until it rains.