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9/10/12

Can dogs Cry?

Watching the American Kennel Club/Eukanuba National Championship on TV two nights ago, my husband and I marveled at the beautiful dogs striding and sleeking around the stadium. "Look how happy that guy looks," my husband said of the Siberian husky. "He looks like he's laughing."

The standard poodle looked snooty. The Irish setter looked proud. But were they, really? Were what looked like smiles and smirks just functions of each species' particular anatomy -- or were we actually discerning the dogs' emotions in their eyes?

Not long ago, I interviewed Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson about animal emotions. He used to own dogs. But not anymore. And never again, he said.

In the late ‘90s, this noted ex-psychoanalyst, Sanskrit professor and author of nearly two dozen books adopted three mixed-breeds. He ran with them, took them on vacations, and wrote about them in his book Dogs Never Lie About Love. But in the years since, Masson -- whose 1981 dismissal from the directorship of the Freud Archives sparked volcanic intellectual debate -- has come to view dog ownership as a form of animal cruelty.

 
"I still love dogs," Masson told me. "I think they're amazing."

But we aren't fit to be their companions, because "I don't believe we can give them the ideal life. Living with us, they're not living the life they were meant to live, which among other things would mean our spending the whole day with them." Dogs are too social, too loyal, too energetic, too eager for physical attention and bonding to be confined in solitude for as long as we typically leave them while pursuing our own human priorities. Masson looks just as harshly at keeping cats indoors -- or, as he put it, "confined."

ten reasons not to buy fake indoor grass for dogs

Fake indoor grass for dogs

When I said using indoor grass for dogs is lazy, I learned some people are convinced fake grass for dogs is the world’s greatest invention. I disagree. I still think it’s lazy.

Here are 10 reasons not to buy fake grass for your dog. Some of the ideas came from comments on my last post. For more information, check out my post on 10 reasons to buy fake indoor grass for dogs.

1. Owners of small dogs have enough problems with housebreaking.




We all know at least one person who owns a Yorkie, Maltese, Chihuahua or Pomeranian that pees in the house. I’m not talking about old dogs that can’t hold it. I’m talking about 2-year-old dogs that still aren’t potty trained.

If the owner can’t train her dog to go to the bathroom outside (one of the easiest things to teach a dog), how will she train her dog to pee on fake grass? This will only encourage the dog to pee on carpet, rugs, couches and mattresses. I am a professional pet sitter and I see examples of this every week.

2. What about dogs that lift their legs?

break a dog’s possessiveness


What do you do when your dog becomes possessive of a certain object such as a bone, a toy or a sock?

Here are my suggestions for dealing with a dog’s possessiveness:
First of all, nothing should ever be given to a dog for free. Even if certain objects “belong” to the dog, he should only be allowed to touch them with permission from his owner.

Some people will allow aggressive behavior from a dog when the dog is being possessive of food or toys that “belong” to him. It’s easy to make excuses for the dog, but possessiveness of toys or food or random objects should never be tolerated.

Some dog owners even believe their dog is showing aggression because the dog is “protecting” the toy or believes the toy is his baby. Trust me, dogs do not think their toys or other objects are their babies. Believing so would be humanizing the dog.

What starts out as minor possessiveness of a stuffed toy can easily escalate to much more serious aggression. Dogs that are allowed to show possessiveness of their food and toys often begin to show possessiveness of other objects such as socks, table scraps or even people.

How to prevent a dog’s possessive behavior


These are some tips you can use to work with your puppy or dog to prevent issues with possessiveness from developing. It’s much easier to prevent a problem than correct a problem!

1. A dog should always be given a clear set of rules.
The owner is in charge, not the dog.

My mutt Ace works for his food, works for my attention and works for playtime. If he wants something, I will make him sit or lie down before he can have it. Ace understands I can take his food or toys away at any given time, and I often do. And just because something is in his mouth does not mean it’s off limits to me or any other person. I take things from him all the time just to prove my point. I also give things back to him as a reward or I trade him for something even better!

2. Make sure you “claim” anything you give your dog.
At feeding time, I always require that Ace gives me about five feet of space before he is given permission to approach his bowl. Just because I set the bowl on the ground does not give him permission to come running up and grabbing it. He has to wait. I wish I could teach my cat the same!

It’s also a good idea to take your dog’s food away while he is eating. Have him sit or lie down, and then give the food back. If necessary, step over the bowl and move into your dog’s space the way a dominant dog would do.

With toys, it is the same concept. You own the toys. You can take them away at any time, and you should. Don’t allow the dog to grab toys out of your hand until you say it’s OK.

3. When your dog has a toy, offer him something even better!
Drop random pieces of chicken in your dog’s bowl while he is eating so he learns that good things happen when you approach his bowl! When he’s chewing on a bone, randomly come up to him and sprinkle liver treats or other goodies around him.

4. Teach the dog the command “leave it.”
I use the “leave it” command for any object, and all it means is “Do not touch.”

Teach this command by rewarding the dog with food when he leaves the object alone. Since my dog loves tennis balls, I’ll put a ball on the ground and say “leave it.” When I’m ready for him to pick up the ball I say “OK!” You could also say “Take it!” Ace now understands that “leave it” can be transferred to anything such as food or even nasty things he finds out in the yard.

Preventing possessive behavior is much easier than correcting it, so the most important part is to set clear rules for the dog before any issues come up.

I also want to point out that a dog can be obsessive without being possessive, but neither behavior should be encouraged. My dog is obsessed with retrieving and will bring a ball to someone over and over, but he has no problem allowing any person or dog to take the ball right out of his mouth.

How to stop a dog from showing possessiveness


1. Do not make up excuses for your dog’s possessive or aggressive behavior.
Small problems lead to bigger problems when dog owners do not take a dog’s mild aggression or possessive issues seriously.

Of course, some dogs sound aggressive when they are playing with toys. This is normal as long as the dog is just playing and will allow you to take the toy and end the game at any time. For more information, see my post on why does my dog growl at other dogs?

2. Begin “claiming” everything you give the dog, even if you consider it “his.”
Deliberately place the object on the ground and do not allow the dog to approach or take the object until you give him permission. If the dog tries to take the object too early, correct him instantly and put him in a sit or down position. Stand over the object the way another dog would.

Be careful not to frustrate your dog. Deliberately requiring your dog to wait for an object should be a healthy challenge for him. If he seems stressed out about this process, then give him treats while he waits for the original object. Remember to tell him how good he is. Then, give a command such as “OK” to take the original object.

3. Create situations where the dog is likely to become possessive.

Unfortunately, the only way to break a dog from a certain behavior is to catch him in the act. It does not work to simply take the bone away and hide it. This is like a “time out” and teaches the dog nothing. If the dog is possessive about rawhides, you’re going to have to present rawhides to him every day and correct him the second he becomes possessive.

Put a leash on the dog to give yourself more control and confidence. Then, purposely drop a rawhide and correct him the second he goes for it. The dog must learn to wait until you give him permission to take the rawhide. Practice this multiple times a day. Dogs need a lot of repetitions before a behavior becomes conditioned, so be patient.

Give your dog highly valued treats whenever he drops the object or waits to pick up the object. Make this process fun rather than stressful. You want to be the leader, but you want to be a fun leader.

4. Teach the dog that you can take anything at any time.
In order to practice this, you will have to allow the dog to pick up the object. Make sure to do so once you have claimed it and given him permission to take it. Once he has it in his mouth, take it away again but give it back as a reward. Practice this over and over every day. Taking something, holding it for a few seconds while praising your dog and then giving it back will teach your dog that you’re not necessarily taking the object away for good.

5. When the dog shows aggression, “trade” him for something better.
Do not hesitate to seek help from a professional dog trainer in your area if you are at all hesitant about approaching your aggressive dog. If you are tentative and giving off a weak energy, your dog is more likely to bite you.

If your dog becomes aggressive once he has an object in his mouth, do not allow him to keep the object. If you allow your dog to keep his bone every time he growls at you, then he will be rewarded for growling. The aggression is reinforced.

To get the desired object away from your dog once he is showing aggression, I recommend using the “trade” method. Give him something better than what he has. Practice this over and over again.
What do you do to prevent possessive behavior from your dog?

Stop your dog crying

Stop your dog from barking and crying all day when left alone

Most dogs or puppies will settle down and stop crying or barking within a half-hour after they are left alone. However, some dogs simply cannot relax. They bark or cry for the entire eight hours their owner is at work. Obviously, this can result in some angry neighbors or an apartment eviction. Some people are even faced with giving up their dogs because they feel like they can’t leave the dog alone barking all day. They feel like they have no choice but to find the dog a new home.


There are ways to overcome this problem. Some people will call the problem separation anxiety. You can call it what you want, but in most cases what the dog really needs is more exercise and rules. “Separation anxiety” is an overused term by vets and trainers. Most dogs do not have anything wrong with them, but they are crying or barking because of pent-up energy and boredom.
Stop a dog from barking all day

Here are some tips to help your dog feel more relaxed when left alone.

Run with the dog every single morning.

A lot of dogs are said to have “separation anxiety” when really they are not getting enough exercise. So, run with your dog for an hour in the morning before you go to work. Some people will laugh when I say this, but it’s not a joke. Run her (or at least walk fast) for a minimum of 45 minutes every single day, even if she is a small dog. How can you expect a dog or puppy to sleep all night and then go in her kennel all day while you are at work? Leaving her loose in the house is no different. To a dog, a house is just a big kennel. To stop your dog from crying all night or day, more exercise is a must.

If you are not a runner, then take your dog biking or rollerblading or to the dog park.

Buy a dog backpack.

The dog backpack will help drain even more energy during the dog’s morning run. A dog can carry a small amount of weight in the pack and it will make her physically more tired. It will challenge her mentally by giving her a job to do. This will make it easier for the dog to sleep when you are gone, and you will stop telling people, “My dog cries all the time.”

Buy a kennel.

If you don’t already have a kennel, get one. Don’t use it as a punishment for the dog. Give the dog a treat when she goes in the kennel, and tell her she’s a good dog. Leave her in the kennel for a few minutes at a time, maybe one minute at first, and only let her out if she is not crying. If she throws a tantrum for 20 minutes and is quiet for 30 seconds, let her out during those 30 seconds when she is actually quiet. Work with her until you can leave her in the kennel while you are away. The goal is for your dog to feel safe and secure in her “den” and know it is a place for her to rest quietly. Once you have a dog that can stay quietly in a kennel all day, you can begin to leave her loose in the house.

Ignore a dog that is crying or barking.

The worst thing you can do is return to a dog or let the dog out of her kennel when she cries or barks. Make sure she learns she can only come out if she is calm. If the barking or crying really escalates, then firmly tell her “No!” Yelling at her will not help. It will only increase her anxiousness. Just let her know that the behavior is unwanted. Putting a blanket over my dog Ace’s kennel helped when he was learning to stay quietly in his kennel.

Gradually leave the dog for longer periods.

Once the dog can stay in the kennel for 10 minutes quietly, increase that time to a half-hour. Try this while you are home with the dog. Once she is OK with that, you can act as though you are leaving by just stepping outside for a few seconds. Then leave for five minutes. Slowly increase the time until you can leave for a half-hour or an hour to go shopping. Eventually the dog will be able to be left while you are at work all day. Ideally, you could practice leaving her in the kennel on the weekend or days you are home with her so she is prepared to be left during the work week.

Don’t make a big deal about coming and going.

When you leave, just quietly exit like it is no big deal. Don’t tell your dog she is a good girl over and over. Don’t say “Goodbye, Honey! It’s OK! Mommy will be back soon!” This just gives her a reason to feel anxious because she will pick up on your excited, worried energy. Put your dog in her kennel a few minutes before you go to work, and then leave without saying anything. When you come home, wait a few minutes before you let her out. When you do, just calmly let her out and take her outside. Don’t throw a small party for her every time you come home for work or you will be encouraging your puppy to cry all day. You do not want to “reward” your dog when you return because then she will anticipate your return. You want to “reward” her when you leave so that she actually looks forward to getting a treat when you leave.

Exercise your dog again when you come home from work.

Another hour-walk or run would be ideal for a dog that has been left home all day. If this isn’t possible for you, then at least take your dog on a brisk 20-minute walk and then play with her in the backyard. If you are someone who asks, “Why does my dog cry all the time?” what you should really be asking yourself is “Why don’t I make more time to exercise my dog?”

Use Kong toys to entertain your dog.

Buy three of four Kong toys and stuff them with different goodies like treats, peanut butter or squirt cheese. Then put them in the freezer overnight and give them to your dog before you leave for work. These should keep your dog entertained for at least a little while. The chewing will help her relax and getting the treats out will give her mind something to focus on. Also look for any kind of interactive toys that make the dog work to figure out how to get a treat.

Buy a dog Thundershirt.

There is a product called the Thundershirt that basically fits snuggly around the dog so she feels “swaddled.” I have not tried this with a dog yet, but many people swear the product helps dogs feel much calmer. It’s not going to cure the problem, but it might help.

Did your dog ever have crying/barking issues when left alone? How did you solve the problem?

Examining and Medicating the Ears of a Dog


This information is not meant to be a substitute for veterinary care. Always follow the instructions provided by your veterinarian. 


In the photographs below, unless otherwise noted, the dog is facing with her nose pointing to your right.


Variations on these instructions exist.
Ear cleaning and medicating can be messy so cover good clothes and work on a surface that is easy to clean.

Most dogs do not like having their ears cleaned. Some dogs will happily sit in your lap or on a table while you clean or medicate their ears but many require some form of restraint.

One method to restrain the dog is to place her/him on a table. Stand on the side of the table opposite to the ear you are medicating; in the photograph the right ear is being medicated.

Drape your right arm over the dog's shoulders. Wrap your left arm around the head and neck and use the finger tips of the left hand to push the ear flap back and up to expose the inner surface of the ear.

If the dog tries to stand, lean your upper body over his/her shoulders to prevent him/her from rising.

If your dog is too wiggly, try laying him/her on his/her side. Reach over his/her neck with your left arm and firmly grasp the elbow of the leg closest to the table. Always hold the leg close to the elbow, NOT close to the toes.

Keep your left elbow on his/her neck to prevent him/her from picking up his/her head. Use the fingers of your right hand to pull back the ear flap to expose the inner side of the ear. If the ear flaps are long, you can tuck the ear flap under your left elbow.

Holding the medication bottle in your right hand, place the prescribed number of drops of medication into the ear canal.

It is easier to perform this procedure if you have a helper. See the section on restraining a dog for some additional suggestions.

Anatomy of the normal dog ear

The ear has 3 major parts:
  1. outer ear
  2. middle ear
  3. inner ear
The outer ear consists of the ear flap (also called the pinna) which can be upright (a prick ear) or floppy. The ear flap funnels sound into the ear canal. Unlike humans that have a very short ear canal, dogs have a long narrow ear canal that makes almost a 90 degree bend as it travels to the deeper parts of the ear.

The outer ear cannel is separated from the middle ear by a thin membrane called the eardrum or tympanic membrane. The ear drum is very fragile and can be damaged by ear disease or during ear cleaning. The middle ear consists of 3 small bones, an air filled cavity called the bulla and a thin tube (the eustachian tube) leading from the bulla to the back of the mouth.

The inner ear connects to the brain and contains nerves and centers for balance and hearing. The following picture shows a diagram of the right ear as it appears if you are looking at the dog's head from the front. A CT scan of the head is pictured on the right.

Dogs have many more ear problems than cats. Dogs with heavy floppy ears have the most problems with ear infections. Some breeds have lots of hair in and around the ear canal which causes them to develop ear infections. Dogs that spend lots of time in the water also are prone to developing ear infections.

Dogs with skin allergies may have ear problems as part of the allergy.
Additional Anatomy


The outer ear flap is usually covered with fur.

If the ear is itchy, scratching may result in hair loss on the ear flap or at the base of the ear. Severe scratching may also lead to tears at the edges of the ear. Ear damage may lead to bleeding between the skin and cartilage of the ear flap; a hematoma. The ear flap is swollen, warm and painful.

The inner side of the ear should be a healthy pink color. A small amount of black discharge may be observed.

Ear infections may result in:
redness
discharge
odor
head shaking
ear scratching
rubbing ears on the floor or other surfaces


 
Ear cleaning can be accomplished with the following supplies:
ear wash solution
cotton balls
a tweezers or hemostat to pluck hair
q tips may be used if used properly


Ear cleaning solutions contain various chemicals and may contain drying agents. Check with your veterinarian regarding which product to use and how often to use it. Excessive ear cleaning can be damaging to the ear.

If the "non-furred", inner side of the ear flap contains lots of fur at the opening to the ear canal, a few hairs at a time can be plucked. Lots of hair at the opening to the ear canal reduces air flow into the ear. Good air flow is important to maintaining a healthy ear.
The ear wash solution is squeezed into the ear canal. A few drops of ear wash should be applied to the inside of the ear flap and then the tip of the ear wash bottle should be inserted a few millimeters into the ear canal, to place some of the wash solution down the ear canal. Be careful not to tightly force the tip of the bottle into the ear canal as forceful squeezing of the bottle with the bottle wedged into the ear canal could rupture the ear drum.

The dog will usually shake its head as soon as the wash is inserted into the ear, shaking out much of the solution.

Massage the base of the ear to distribute the wash solution throughout the ear canal. Dogs usually like this part.


Use cotton balls to remove discharge from the inner side of the ear flap.

You can also use q tips to clean the inner side of the ear flap

BUT...
... DON'T stick q tips into the ear any further than you can see.

Deep placement of a q tip can rupture the ear drum or can pack wax and other debris further into the ear canal, preventing medications from getting to the deeper parts of the ear canal.

Ear medications may contain several different drugs and may be ointments (pictured on the left and in insert) or drops (pictured on the right).

Ear medications are most effective when placed in a clear ear. If they are placed on top of ear wax or other debris they will not be as effective. Your veterinarian will give you instructions, if cleaning is needed before ear medications are given.

Sometimes your veterinarian will recommend a thorough ear exam under sedation or anesthesia if:
the dog will not allow cleaning awake
it is suspected that a foreign body such as plant material is inside the ear canal
the veterinarian needs to collect samples from the ear for cytology or culture


If you would like to see an overview of ear cleaning under anesthesia please visit the following web site:


Whether using ointments or drops, place a small amount of medication on the inside of the ear flap and the prescribed number of drops into the ear canal. The tip of the ointment tube or dropper should be placed a few millimeters into the ear canal to assure that the medication goes into the ear canal. If the ear is stretched away from the head, the bend in the ear canal will straighten so that the medication can be deposited over the entire ear canal.

DO NOT place the long neck of the ointment tube as far as it will go down the ear canal as you could puncture the ear drum with it.




Massage the base of the ear to help distribute the medication into the ear canal.



Dogs with chronic ear infections will benefit from anything that increases air flow into the ear canal. Ear flow can be improved by:
plucking hairs from around the opening of the ear canal
tying or taping ears together on top of the head
pictured is a stretchy tubular fabric with holes cut for exposure of the ear canals. A regular sock can be used for smaller dogs. The ears may need to be taped together under the sock.


If the infection is severe or involves the middle and inner ear, oral medications may also be prescribed. Surgery is sometimes necessary if the infection is in the middle ear.

Dog Poems: A Dogs Best Friend


OLord, don't let me once forget
How I love my trusty pet-
Help me learn to disregard
canine craters in my yard
Show me how to be a buddy
even when my sofa's muddy,
Don't allow my pooch to munch
postal carriers for lunch,
Shield my neighbor's cat from view,
guide my steps around the doo,
Train me not to curse and scowl,
when it's puppy's night to howl,
Grant I shan't awake in fear
with a cold nose in my ear,
Give me patience without end-
Help me be "A DOG'S BEST FRIEND."

Dog Poems : Alone Again



I wish someone could tell me
What it is that I've done wrong.
Why I have to stay chained up
And left alone so long.


They seemed so glad to have me
When I came here as a pup.
There were so many things we'd do
While I was growing up.


They couldn't wait to train me
As companion and as friend.
They told me I would never fear
Being left alone again.


The children said they'd feed me,
Said they'd brush me every day.
They'd play with me and walk me,
If only I could stay.


But now the family hasn't time.
They often say I shed.
They wont allow me in the house,
Not even to be fed.


The children never walk me.
They always say, "Not Now!"
I wish that I could please them,
Won't someone tell me how?


All I have is love, you see,
I wish they would explain,
Why they said they wanted me,
Then left me on a chain.

Dog Poems : A Dogs Prayer


Treat me kindly, my beloved master, for no heart in the world
is more grateful for kindness than my loving heart.


Do not break my spirit with a stick, for though I would lick your hand between blows, your patience and understanding will more quickly teach me the things you would have me do.


Speak to me often, for your voice is the world¹s sweetest music,
as you must know by the fierce wagging of my tail
when your footstep falls upon my waiting ear.


When it is cold and wet, please take me inside, for I am now
a domestic animal and no longer used to bitter elements.
I ask no greater glory than the privilege of
sitting at your feet beside the hearth.



Though you had no home, I would rather follow you through ice and snow than rest upon the softest pillow, for you are my god and I am your devoted worshiper.


Keep my pan filled with fresh water for, although I would not reproach you were it dry, I cannot tell you when I suffer thirst.


Feed me clean food that I may stay well to romp and play and do your biding, walk by your side and stand ready, willing and able to protect you with my life should yours be in danger.


And, beloved master, should the Great Master see fit to take my health or sight, do not turn me away from you.

Rather, hold me gently in your arms as skilled hands grant me the merciful boon of eternal rest and I will leave you knowing with the last breath I draw that my fate was ever safe in your hands.

Dog Poems and Verse for You To Enjoy

These 36 dog poems, about our relationship with our dogs, will help you grieve a loss, or celebrate a friendship.
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My Shelter Days are numbered ten.
Ten more days until my end.

My Shelter Days are numbered eight.
Please adopt me. Change my fate.

My Shelter Days are numbered six.
Adopt a pet week, still no one's pick.

My Shelter Days are numbered four.
Four more days and then no more.

My Shelter Days are numbered two.
Someone will take me, I just don't know who.

My Shelter Days are numbered none.
I know I'm finished, then you come.

My Shelter Days are over, done,
Because you, my master, took me home.

Courtney Bailey, The Final Countdown

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9/9/12

Recognizing the Emotions of Dogs

Few who have lived with dogs would deny that dogs have feelings. Taking a cue from his great friend Darwin, who spoke of conscience in the dog, George Romanes wrote that "the emotional life of the dog is highly developed--more highly, indeed, than that of any other animal." (He did not include the human animal, though perhaps he should have done so.) Of course dogs have feelings, and we have no trouble acknowledging most of them. Joy, for example. Can anything be as joyous as a dog? Bounding ahead, crashing into the bushes while out on a walk, happy, happy, happy. Conversely, can anything be as disappointed as a dog when you say, "No, we are not going for a walk"? Down he flops onto the floor, his ears fall, he looks up, showing the whites of his eyes, with a look of utter dejection. Pure joy, pure disappointment.

But are this joy and disappointment identical to what humans mean when we use these words? What dogs do, the way they behave, even the sounds they make, seem instantaneously translatable into human emotional terms. When a dog is rolling in fresh-cut grass, the pleasure on her face is unmistakable. No one could be wrong in saying that what she is feeling is akin to what any of us (though less often, perhaps) may feel. The words used to describe the emotion may be wrong, our vocabulary imprecise, the analogy imperfect, but there is also some deep similarity that escapes nobody. My dog may appear to feel joy and sorrow much the way I do, and the appearance here is critical: We often have no more to go on when it comes to our fellow humans.



All dog caretakers (just another word for companion and friend) have marveled at the exuberant greeting their dogs give them after a brief absence. Sasha twirls around in delight, squealing and making extraordinary sounds. What accounts for this display of unbounded pleasure in our return? We tend to explain it by assuming a kind of stupidity: The dog thought I was gone forever. Dogs, we say, have no sense of time. As Robert Kirk of the Cornell Veterinary School once put it to me, dogs don't watch the clock. Every minute is forever. Everything is for good. Out means gone. In other words, when dogs do not behave as we do, we assume it to be irrational behavior. Yet a lover is entranced to see the beloved again after even a brief absence--and dogs are all about love. (For a fuller discussion on dogs and love, see Chapter 3.)
Another explanation for dogs' delight in our return may be found in the way in which puppies greet their mother. As soon as the mother appears, the puppies crowd around her, eager to nurse or expecting her to vomit food for them. Wolves have a greeting ceremony during which they wag their tales, lick one another, and bite the muzzles of other wolves. The pleasure of the puppies may be a vestige of this ceremony, as John Paul Scott and J. L. Fuller suggest.

Soon after she joined the family, Sasha was sitting next to me one evening as I worked on an early draft of this chapter. I had been alone all day, working. There were just the two of us sitting in the living room, and it was very quiet. I looked over at Sasha and noticed that she was looking at me. Suddenly I was overwhelmed with the thought: There is another being in this room, another consciousness. There is somebody here besides me. What, though, was Sasha thinking? Why did she suddenly glance up at me? Was she just checking to make sure I was still there, that I had nothing else in mind? Or was it a more complicated thought, one that was imbued (as many thoughts are) with feelings--affection, for example, or perhaps anxiety? She looked so peaceful, lying there. Was she feeling something like tranquillity? For certain Hindu philosophers, tranquillity is the master emotion, the one that underlies all others--it has been so fascinating to me that it was the subject of my Ph.D. thesis at Harvard. Perhaps I was merely projecting my own feelings on to Sasha. It is hard to know.

As Sasha sat quietly next to me, looking contented, every so often sighing with what appeared to be contentment, I wondered what she was actually feeling. How I would love to be her for just one moment, to feel what she was feeling. I have had this desire, more than once, with people, too. Does one ever know what another human being is actually feeling? It may be no harder to find out the truth about feelings in dogs than it is in people.

The question of how we know what we feel, let alone what somebody else feels, is beset with difficulties. Speaking to other people, we often use shorthand: "I feel sad" or "I feel happy." But more often than not what we feel is an emotional state for which there are no precise verbal equivalents. Think of how we restrict ourselves with language. "I'm depressed," we say. Yet that is only the vaguest hint of a more complex set of feelings. It is probably the same for dogs; their joy is at least as complicated (in the sense that we are not always certain of its components; perhaps memory of earlier pleasure plays a role and perhaps it is entirely bound to the moment) and hard to define.
While it is clear that we can learn a great deal about dogs from observing their behavior in terms of purely external actions, I think it is time to recognize that we could understand much more from observing how dogs feel. Moreover, we could learn something about our own feelings as well. For in the realm of feelings we can have no sense of superiority. After a lifetime of affectionate regard for dogs and many years of close observation and reflection, I have reached the conclusion that dogs feel more than I do (I am not prepared to speak for other people). They feel more, and they feel more purely and more intensely. By comparison the human emotional landscape seems murky with subterfuge and ambivalence and emotional deception, intentional or not. In searching for why we are so inhibited compared with dogs, perhaps we can learn to be as direct, as honest, as straightforward, and especially as intense in our feelings as dogs are.

Freud remarked on the fact that"dogs love their friends and bite their enemies, quite unlike people, who are incapable of pure love and always have to mix love and hate in their object relations." In other words, dogs are without the ambivalence with which humans seem cursed. We love, we hate, often the same person, on the same day, maybe even at the same time. This is unthinkable in dogs, whether because, as some people believe, they lack the complexity or, as I believe, they are less confused about what they feel. It is as if once a dog loves you, he loves you always, no matter what you do, no matter what happens, no matter how much time goes by. Dogs have a prodigious memory for people they have known. Perhaps this is because they associate people with the love they felt for them, and they derive pleasure from remembering this love.
Sasha is possessed by my two small kittens, Raj and Saj. The minute she sees these two tiny fur dots, she goes into hyper-alert mode. She begins to whine and to moan and to groan. She looks at me with a pleading look, as if I hold the key to helping her get what she so badly wants. She sniffs them. She follows them from room to room, whining piteously. The first night they were here, Sasha never slept at all. She lay on the floor next to their cage, crossed her feet daintily, and observed them all through the night. When I let them out, she gently put her paw on them. The cats were a little dumbfounded by the whole thing, and especially at what Sasha took to doing by the second week: She would pick one up in her mighty jaws, taking great care not to harm him, carry him into another room, deposit him somewhere, and then head off to find the other one to do the same. Seeing her carrying these little orange dots from room to room was as puzzling for me as it was evidently for the cats. Soon, however, they wanted to play. One of the cats rolled over and reached out with his little paw. Yet their interest in Sasha is mild compared to hers in them. There can be no mistaking the intensity of her interest in these kittens. The nature of this interest is another matter.

What does she want? Could it be that a maternal instinct has been awakened and Sasha wants to act as a mother to the kittens? Does she really think they are her puppies, and want to bring them into a den? Or is her interest predatory, in that she wants to eat them and is torn between her desire to listen to me ("Do not eat the kittens!") and her instincts as a predator telling her that a kitten makes a good meal? Is she merely curious, wondering if these small beings are some odd kind of puppy? Maybe she is just herding them; she is after all a shepherd.

None of these explanations is entirely satisfactory. If it were a mothering instinct at work, she would behave similarly to rabbits, say, or geese, moaning when she sees them (instead of chasing them). Moreover, Sasha has had no pups. I doubt that she wants to eat them; I can barely persuade her to eat a piece of steak. Nor is she stupid; she knows the difference between a dog and a cat. If she were herding the kittens, she would not pick them up in her mouth, nor moan and groan with some inexpressible need or feeling. The truth is that I don't know why she's so drawn to them, and nobody else knows either. It would be so much simpler if only we could ask, "Sasha, why are you so interested in these small fur balls?" "Simple, just look at how adorable they are!" Or "They look so small and helpless, I want to protect them." Or even "Beats me." Whatever the behavior means, it is clear that Sasha is filled with feeling for these little kittens. It is clear because she moans and groans and follows them from room to room, and cocks her head and looks puzzled and intrigued. That is why I say she is possessed. She wants something from them, she feels something for them, and she seems to want to express those feelings.

It is hard to empathize with her because humans generally do not walk behind kittens sighing and groaning. There does not seem to be an equivalent for us. Perhaps, then, Sasha is demonstrating to me one of my "pet theories": As well as the emotions animals and humans have in common, animals can also access emotions that humans do not share, ones different from those we know, because animals are other; they are not the same as human beings. Their senses, their experiences, open them to a totally different (or new) set of feelings of which we know little or nothing. That a whole world of canine feelings remains closed to us is an intriguing notion. Some of these feelings could be based on the dog's sensory capacities. According to one early authority, a dog can smell 100 million times better than we do (I will return to the topic in Chapter 5). But even if the true figure is significantly less, the fact remains that when Sasha puts her nose to the ground, she becomes aware of a world about which I can only make guesses. Similarly, when Sasha cocks her ears, she hears sounds of which I am altogether unaware.

In the case of Sasha's interest in the kittens, we are dealing not with a question of superior (or inferior) sensory capacities but something else, something social. We like to assume that dogs and humans are social in very similar ways, and that therefore humans are uniquely qualified to understand whatever emotions a dog may have based on belonging (like us) to a pack. We, too, have deep interests in one another's social lives and the web of interrelations interdependence creates. We assume this is why dogs are able to understand us so well, and appear to empathize with humans from their own direct experience.

Perhaps they are so often right about human emotions because their social world is similar to ours. We are not similar to cats in the same way, and cats are not all that good at understanding us. We do not expect the same kind of sympathy from our cat as we do from our dog. A cat the size of a lion would be an animal we would approach with some hesitation. No matter what size, however, most of us would accept a reliable dog as being reliable. The German ethologist P. Leyhausen, an expert on the cat family, makes the point that nobody chose to domesticate the cat; it chose domestication itself, while nevertheless maintaining its independent nature. He believes that the cat is domestic, but not domesticated.

The German scholar Eberhard Trumler suggests that it was not wolves who joined the human fold but the opposite. He pointed out that wolves, phylogenetically older than us and superbly equipped for hunting, had no need of human help. Men, on the other hand, derive from plant-eating ancestors and are not nearly as well equipped for hunting as are wolves. In order to eat, wolves scarcely need us at all, but we could benefit from the help of wolves. It may well be that human groups followed wolf packs, waited until they had brought down a kill, then chased the wolves away. Indian wolves are often chased away from their kills by wild pigs, and the same could have been true of early humans and wolves.

The naturalist and writer Jared Diamond points out that the large mammals were all domesticated between 8000 and 2500 B.C. Domestication began with the dog, then moved to sheep, goats, and pigs, and ended with Arabian and Bactrian camels and water buffalos. He believes that since 2500 B.C. there have been no significant additions. Why this is so is a question that has never been answered.

Although other animals have been domesticated--primarily the cat, the horse, certain birds, rabbits, cattle--no other animal (wild, tame, or domesticated) carries such meaning for humans as the dog. We feel strongly about such nondomesticated animals as wolves, elephants, and dolphins (all of which can be tamed but over whose reproductive life we exercise little control), but our direct interactions with them are much more restricted. By raising all these domesticated animals over centuries, we have altered their genetic makeup to make them conform to our desires. We control their reproductive functions and breed them to suit our needs, just as we control their territory and food supply. Juliet Clutton-Brock, an expert on domestication, believes, as Darwin did, that only humans benefit from the association. She quotes Darwin to the effect that "as the will of man thus comes into play we can understand how it is that domestic races of animals and cultivated races of plants often exhibit an abnormal character, as compared with natural species; they have been modified not for their own benefit, but for that of man."

Michael Fox, a dog expert and Humane Society vice president (in charge of bioethics and farm animal protection), points out that rapid maturation, disease resistance, high fertility, and longevity, all of which we foster in domesticated animals, would in nature produce overabundance of certain species, which would cause a shift in the ecological balance (and possibly the extinction of other species). Many of these domesticated animals, even when they appear to be semi-wild, are dependent on humans and require considerable attention. Even hardy hill sheep still need to be dipped, wormed, and given supplementary winter feed.

Even among domesticated animals, the dog stands out as perhaps the only fully domesticated species. Goats are domesticated, and can be tame, but they rarely make intimate companions. Pigs probably could, if given half a chance. H. Hediger, the director of the Zoological Gardens of Zurich, writes that the dog, basically a domesticated wolf, was the first creature with which humans formed intimate bonds that were intense on both sides. According to Hediger, no other animal stands in such intimate psychological union with us; only the dog seems capable of reading our thoughts and "reacting to our faintest changes of expression or mood." German dog trainers use the term Gefuhlsinn (a feeling for feelings) to talk about the fact that a dog can sense our moods.

Voltaire, who knew about the emotions of dogs, used the example of a lost dog to refute the thesis of Descartes that dogs are merely machines, incapable of any kind of suffering. He responded to Descartes in his Dictionnaire philosophique with:

  • Judge this dog who has lost his master, who has searched for him with mournful cries in every path, who comes home agitated, restless, who runs up and down the stairs, who goes from room to room, who at last finds his beloved master in his study, and shows him his joy by the tenderness of cries, by his leaps, by his caresses. Barbarians seize this dog who so prodigiously surpasses man in friendship. They nail him to a table and dissect him alive to show you the mesenteric veins. You discover in him all the same organs of feeling that you possess. Answer me, mechanist, has nature arranged all the springs of feeling in this animal in order that he should not feel? Does he have nerves to be impassive?

It is one of the main themes of this book that the reason why humans and dogs have such an intense relationship is that there is a mutual ability to understand one another's emotional responses. The joie de vivre of a dog may be greater than our own, but it is immediately recognizable as a feeling that we humans enjoy as well. The closeness between dogs and people is taken for granted and, at the same time, seen as something immensely mysterious. Naturally I feel close to my dogs, but who are these dogs? They are Sima, Sasha, and Rani, of course, that much is simple and obvious. Yet I will often look at them lying in my study as I work on this book and be overwhelmed with a sense of otherness. Just who are these beings lying here, so close to me, and yet also so remote? They are easily grasped, and they are unfathomable. I know them as well as I know my closest friend, and yet I have no idea who they are.

This ambiguity, which includes a certain ambivalence as well, has been memorialized in our speech, in our sayings, and in our tributes to and about dogs. Sir John Davies, in his epigram In Cineam (written in 1594), observed:

Thou sayest thou art as weary as a dog,
As angry, sick, and hungry as a dog,
As dull and melancholy as a dog,
As lazy, sleepy, idle as a dog.
But why dost thou compare thee to a dog?
In that for which all men despise a dog,
I will compare thee better to a dog.
Thou art as fair and comely as a dog,
Thou art as true and honest as a dog,
Thou art as kind and liberal as a dog,
Thou art as wise and valiant as a dog.

Ever since Madame Roland said in the eighteenth century "Plus je vois les hommes, plus j'admire les chiens" (The more I see of men, the more I admire dogs), generally what has been written about dogs tends to be positive. Sometimes it is even wonderful, as in William James's statement "Marvelous as may be the power of my dog to understand my moods, deathless as is his affection and fidelity, his mental state is as unsolved a mystery to me as it was to my remotest ancestor." Or it may be delicious, like Ambrose Bierce's definition in his Devil's Dictionary, "Dog, n. A kind of additional or subsidiary Deity designed to catch the overflow and surplus of the world's worship." Samuel Coleridge, in Table-Talk (May 2, 1830), was one of the first to note that "the best friend a man has in the world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter ... may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to him ... may become traitors to their faith.... The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog."

When it comes to our sayings and our language, the use to which the word dog has been put shows a darker side. We speak of "going to the dogs" when we mean utter ruination. When men say of a woman that she is a dog, they mean nothing kind. Even used of a man, it suggests that he is contemptible. "To put on the dog" is to be a phony. "A dog's death" is the most miserable and shameful of ends. As long ago as the eighteenth century, "the black dog" on a man's back referred to depression. We criticize our own society when we speak of a "dog-eat-dog world," though this phrase may derive from its Latin opposite: Canis caninam non est, a dog does not eat another dog. One of the most evocative phrases of the English language was quoted by John Lyly in 1519 as being already an old saying: "The dogs may bark; the caravan goes on."

I take my dogs on five walks each day. People who know about us say that these dogs are living the perfect dog's life. Maybe we need to revamp our vocabulary so that leading a dog's life is what we want and going to the dogs is where we wish to go.

Joel Savishinsky, in an article on "Pet Ideas," notes the ambiguity in our language about dogs:

  • A winning individual is top dog; a handicapped or underrated person an underdog. Pathetic individuals lead a dog's life in a dog-eat-dog world. They suffer through the dog days of August, and when they confuse their priorities or do things in an inverted way, we think of it as the tail wagging the dog. A person who hogs resources which he himself cannot use is a dog in the manger. A damaged book is dog-eared, lousy poetry is doggerel, and a pathetic look is a hang-dog expression. The best we can say about a dutiful but uninspired worker is that he is dogged.

Nobody has written about this better than James Thurber in a piece that deserves full quotation:

  • Dogs may be Man's best friend, but Man is often Dog's severest critic, in spite of his historic protestations of affection and admiration.... He observes, cloudily, that this misfortune or that shouldn't happen to a dog, as if most slings and arrows should, and he describes anybody he can't stand as a dirty dog. He notoriously takes the names of the female dog and her male offspring in vain, to denounce blackly members of his own race. In all this disdain and contempt there is a curious streak of envy, akin to what the psychiatrists know as sibling rivalry. Man is troubled by what might be called the Dog Wish, a strange and involved compulsion to be as happy and carefree as a dog.

It is possible that we begrudge the dog his freedom to be exactly what he was meant to be: a dog. So often I will see Sasha or Rani or Sima roll over and over in thick green grass, with a look of sheer delight on their faces, and I will think they are doing exactly what a dog was meant to do. How much harder to say of ourselves that we are doing what a human was meant to do, especially as nobody knows what that is.

Setting aside what we think dogs are, what--or who--do dogs think we are? If we knew how we were represented in the dreams of dogs (for they do dream about us--see Chapter 10), we would have an answer. But we do not, and so we must use our knowledge of dog society to extrapolate. The general observation has always been: Dogs form packs; the leader of the pack is the strongest, wisest, and largest individual; a human being among dogs fits that description; ergo we are the leader of any dog pack. But there are a number of problems with this view. First, we really don't know all that much about hierarchy in dogs, although we think we do. We assume that dominance is a simple matter, but it is not, and we can never be certain what factors are involved, or even exactly what dominance is among dogs. Secondly, dogs are not stupid, and they certainly know that we are not dogs, or even superdogs. I do not believe (contrary to what some vets say) that a dog thinks a cat is a small dog. How they categorize them, I do not know, but I am confident they know they are not dogs.

Frances and Richard Lockridge find it easy to believe that a dog would like to be a man, in the same way as a man would like to cast himself in the image of God. In their book, Cats and People, they write that the ambition of a well-brought-up dog is to please his friend before himself: "He is demonstrative in displays of affection as many people are, and as almost all people would like others to be toward them; the dog leaves you no doubt where you stand and when he gives his devotion, as he does readily, he is apt to give it fulsomely, so that for a little while the meanest human can see himself godlike in the dog's beaming eyes."

Do dogs think of us as gods, powerful beings who cannot entirely be read? I think not, because the idea of a "god" comes from the way humans create gods: in our own image, only more powerful. Gods grant us wishes and decide our fate. It is true that dogs are entirely dependent on us when they are with us. We decide where to go, how long to stay, when to leave, what they can and cannot do.

Some people compare dogs with slaves. But does the fact that we have created an almost complete dependency in dogs make them similar to slaves? We should remember that dogs have no choice in the matter. The Stockholm syndrome, where the kidnapped fall in love with their jailers (sometimes well beyond the limits of their confinement), may well apply here. To a certain extent, we are the jailers of dogs, since any freedom they achieve must be acquired by wheedling it out of us. This is one good reason they learn to read us so well. Survival dictates that dogs learn about us and learn to play us to some extent. Dogs must learn to negotiate whatever freedom they achieve within the confines we assign them. They seem to accept this control we exercise over them as the way things are. Dogs who rebel we call problem dogs. Perhaps they are merely independent thinkers, wondering why they should accept the status quo.

Given the fascination almost all dogs feel for small children (it is mutual), what do dogs think small children are? Do they think, "Aha, this is more like it, they are like us"? Do they see the dependency? Is that what they see as the similarity? Is it the size? Or is it just part of neoteny; since they are like children to us, do they have a desire to be with "other" children?

One reason dogs play havoc with so many of our theories is that dogs do not have feelings toward all humans, only some. So a dog can be extremely aggressive toward some human beings and very gentle toward others. The famous protectiveness of the dog speaks for the distinctions dogs make: stranger/friend, master/enemy, etc. We must not forget that a dog is really a wolf, and thus is in much of its makeup and behavior a wild animal, albeit one that has allowed us to become a part of its world. This is something no other wild animal would ever do, even when they seem in some ways to respect humans.

For animals in the wild, humans are usually something dangerous and to be avoided. But not always. Killer whales, for example, seem to have an almost superstitious interest in us: There are no documented cases of killer whales killing a human without provocation, although they could easily do so. After all, they eat just about anything that moves in the ocean, even polar bears, so why not us? They seem to recognize some affinity.

That affinity may have to do with living as social beings in well-defined groups. In this way dogs, whales, and humans share much in common--although whales never show a desire to spend time with us over spending time with other whales. We could never become part of a killer-whale pod (which is one reason so little is known about killer whales). In fact, no other species has ever indicated that it regularly prefers the company of a human to that of members of its own species, with the single exception of the dog. While we have domesticated many animals, only the dog has domesticated us. The dog chooses us, not because it is confused about our identity, not because dogs think we are the marvel of creation, but merely because dogs love us. It is such an amazing fact, and so counterintuitive (so profoundly unlovable do we think we are) that almost nobody can accept it as fact. Dogs love us not only because we feed them, or walk them, or groom them, or protect them, but because we are fun. How astonishing!
dog
Power by xinh xinh