Understanding Dogs Better to Help us and Them
We love dogs and think we know them.
We could know them better based on my reading of Inside of a Dog: What Dogs, See, Smell and Know by Alexandra Horowitz. Her book is full of information about the history, anatomy and mind of dogs.
My dog Haley reads me like a book. Karen’s been trying for fifty years, but Haley’s more accurate, probably from lower expectations.
Nevertheless, we should learn more about dogs so we can reciprocate. In fact we’d do well to learn their tricks so we can do the same for other people in our world.
One trick is to accept dogs as dogs, not as people. Horowitz says dogs adapted to humans by shedding ancestral wolf traits. Dogs look people in the eye, wolves avoid eye contact. Wolves live alone or in constantly shifting packs, dogs adapt to a subservient role in a family. Horowitz says we make our dogs unique. “Dogs interpret the world through acting on it, by seeing others act, by being shown, and by acting with us into being a good member of the family.“
The anatomy of dogs gives them different views of the world and us than we have. Dogs lead with their noses to within millimeters of any object. They push and pull scents into labyrinths of their nostrils, onto to special organs and out unseen slits. They sniff our legs to identify us. We leave trails of scents. They smell our fear, our diseases and our meals. Horowitz says, “To dogs, we are our scent.”
We should enrich their lives with scents, but we frequently squelch their interest. After I ate at a restaurant, I spontaneously gave my ten-inch-shoulder-height mongrel a treat. No, not a doggie bag, I ate all my beef pasta. I did better. I stuck my face in front of her nose. She jumped and wagged and smelled and licked my mouth and nose in a joyous welcome. I needed another napkin to wipe off her slobber. I couldn’t survive that every time, but if not, I’ll feel guilty.
They spread their smells to socialize. Haley greets dogs in tail-wagging formalities that stretch from noses to genitals. They’re hesitantly, mutually sharing but most of us seem embarrassed by what appear to be lewd intrusions, so we tug them apart before they’re done. Haley’s nose-to-path trot discovers which animals trotted by and how long ago, but we yank her away to finish our joint walk. Some owners hold a dog’s head so high they can’t investigate smells. Horowitz allows her dog periodic walks directed solely by her dog’s nasal fascinations. I’m afraid golfers would hit us with golf balls.
Dogs constantly watch us, even when we watch TV. Their mind receives more images per minute than ours do, meaning they see TV projections as we see freezes in reception. Haley’s eye sockets are filled by large, black pupils. She sees moving images twice as brightly as I can. They snatch Frisbees out of the air. They notice twitches, face movements and breathing patterns we don’t see. They anticipate our moods before we cover them up. They learn to recognize oncoming migraines or heart attacks.
The book is full of traits we underestimate and underappreciate in our dedicated, dependent canine lovers. Consequently they know us better than we know them, and that is decidedly to our benefit. They’re relentlessly watching us, adapting, testing, expecting a certain leash on life’s essentials, reveling in thoughtful gifts we make available and serving us with profound assistance if they're trained.
Observing more about their traits gives us a boundless invitation to get more joy more out of our relationships with them.
And learning to enrich relationships with dogs we love leads us to appreciate how much more difficult it is to improve relationships with other people.
We could better serve each other and enrich our own lives by better observing and gifting our own dogs.
Posted by JSR at 1/20/2012 3:14 AM 
Categories: Serving Others, Common Sense:Sensible Science
Tags: Inside of a Dog Alexandra Horowitz dog eyes dog seeing dog smelling Mind
Categories: Serving Others, Common Sense:Sensible Science
Tags: Inside of a Dog Alexandra Horowitz dog eyes dog seeing dog smelling Mind
We've had our 9 month old puppy for almost 4 months, and I can't even remember life before him. He is pure joy and happiness, even at 5:30 am when we go for a walk in a 34 degree down pour!
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