I would give this piece five standing ovations if I could! I believe dogs are highly intelligent, intuitive beings. I believe they come to know who the safe person or people in their lives are. They do not automatically understand that you are their person now. None of my dogs who came to me as puppies straight from their breeders had that understanding right away, either (although my least trusting puppy of the three ended up giving that to me most fully and most immediately).
On the sentiment that dogs owe us their submission to physical contact on our terms - I’ve seen this before. It’s frankly bizarre to me, even more so when applied (as it was by the person I saw saying it) to someone else’s dog, applying to the poster, who was a total stranger to said dog. The entitlement is wild. It would be a bit wild coming from people who live with the dog, with exceptions in place for husbandry, and it’s utterly strange to me that someone would say that out loud about someone else’s dog.
I think about this so much but don’t hear many people talking about it! I “rescued” a feral coonhound, and I joke that she developed Stockholm syndrome and manages to be a house dog now. But I still don’t think she’d choose to live with me - now 8 years in. I think she likes me and given her preferences, she would roam the city and come back to my place for dinner and a soft bed at night — unless she got busy. Night hunting is definitely one of her favorite activities and she’d pass up dinner and sleep for it. She definitely didn’t feel rescued, actively tried to escape, and still doesn’t view house dog life as free.
Have you ever read Merle’ Door? I think about that book a lot too. I read it years before I brought the coonhound home, and it always stuck with me. The author, Ted Kerasote, finds a dog in the wilderness on a rafting trip. The book outlines how he tried to give Merle as much freedom and choice as possible out of respect for the dog’s sentient nature. He starts by putting in a dog door - thus the name. But he wrote so many things that stay on my mind about how dogs have a rich life and social structure that doesn’t necessarily center humans
Dogs DO NOT UNDERSTAND HUMAN NUANCE! Anthropomorphizing animals is damaging to relationships. Thank you for writing this!
AMEN TO EVERYTHING IN HERE. A thousand times amen!!!
I would give this piece five standing ovations if I could! I believe dogs are highly intelligent, intuitive beings. I believe they come to know who the safe person or people in their lives are. They do not automatically understand that you are their person now. None of my dogs who came to me as puppies straight from their breeders had that understanding right away, either (although my least trusting puppy of the three ended up giving that to me most fully and most immediately).
On the sentiment that dogs owe us their submission to physical contact on our terms - I’ve seen this before. It’s frankly bizarre to me, even more so when applied (as it was by the person I saw saying it) to someone else’s dog, applying to the poster, who was a total stranger to said dog. The entitlement is wild. It would be a bit wild coming from people who live with the dog, with exceptions in place for husbandry, and it’s utterly strange to me that someone would say that out loud about someone else’s dog.
I think about this so much but don’t hear many people talking about it! I “rescued” a feral coonhound, and I joke that she developed Stockholm syndrome and manages to be a house dog now. But I still don’t think she’d choose to live with me - now 8 years in. I think she likes me and given her preferences, she would roam the city and come back to my place for dinner and a soft bed at night — unless she got busy. Night hunting is definitely one of her favorite activities and she’d pass up dinner and sleep for it. She definitely didn’t feel rescued, actively tried to escape, and still doesn’t view house dog life as free.
Have you ever read Merle’ Door? I think about that book a lot too. I read it years before I brought the coonhound home, and it always stuck with me. The author, Ted Kerasote, finds a dog in the wilderness on a rafting trip. The book outlines how he tried to give Merle as much freedom and choice as possible out of respect for the dog’s sentient nature. He starts by putting in a dog door - thus the name. But he wrote so many things that stay on my mind about how dogs have a rich life and social structure that doesn’t necessarily center humans