Your dog doesn’t love you
It's not about stigmatizing or legislating dog owners. It's about our awareness of what we are choosing to do.
As I drove along a busy, four-lane street in Boulder, Colorado, one summer afternoon over a decade ago, I saw a young man and his dog standing on the median at a traffic light. By the man's age and appearance, I guessed him to be one of the countless people who camp on the National Forest land around Boulder, especially during the summer. They come into the city to panhandle for enough money to buy what supplies they need. They often have dogs with them. This particular man stood facing traffic, and he held a piece of corrugated cardboard with the words "Homeless, Hungry, Anything helps" scrawled on it in crude, black letters written with magic marker. He had two well-worn and overstuffed packs with him. Lying against them was a medium-sized, mixed-breed dog. Each time the stoplight turned red, another round of drivers reached out their windows to hand him money. The young man trotted over to each car in turn, leaving the dog to wait for him. The narrow median did not provide much room to maneuver. If either the dog or the man lost footing, they would fall into traffic. All the while, the summer sun beat down relentlessly on them both.
— Leslie Irvine
Because I have been posting a lot recently about dogs, or more precisely, against dogs, people assume I have some kind of axe to grind. Maybe I was bitten as a child or chased on my bicycle once too often.
Actually, I have nothing against dogs apart from the climate impact of one billion of them. I had a very warm and loving relationship with a family beagle named Nero from about the age of 5. I dare say I miss him still. And that—the missing part—is entirely normal. People bond with dogs more than any other animal. At least in Western countries, they are considered part of the family. When they get sick, they are often cared for at great expense. When they are punished for some infraction, it is often the owner who goes away feeling guilty.
Ms. Vanderpump, who is also co-founder of the Vanderpump Dog Foundation, says it is important to her that amenities for her dogs fit in aesthetically with the décor of her home. Hence her dog beds in a dusky-pink hue, from the brand Hooman, which retail for $375 each. The beds come with velvet headboards, mattresses, tiny pillows and 400-thread-count fitted sheets. “It looks really cute,” she says. Plus, “I don’t want them sitting in a dirty bed, so to change the sheets is just great.” Her pups eat human food, she says, usually poached salmon or organic chicken, out of turquoise-blue bowls from Tiffany & Co.
—Wall Street Journal
Today the vast majority of the world’s dogs live in cities, and it seems that they are very rarely as well-behaved, living in posh apartments on the 21st floor, as your typical homeless person's dog, on that medium in the Boulder traffic corridor or living in a service entrance doorway in the alley behind the dumpsters. Why do you suppose that is? Dogs that live in apartments are often left alone for long periods with no socialization, no stimulation, and no attention. Even when the owner is home, its attention may be glued to a device, except for the obligatory walk to allow exterior defecation, and even then, the dog walker may be spending more time on the device than talking to her dog.
A homeless person's dog spends 100% of its time with its owner, in a survival situation, and in constant communication. The more a dog is outdoors, interacting with the environment and having new experiences, the more confident and intelligent it becomes. It has purpose and companionship to keep it sane and focused.
If you know the separation of dogs from wolves by random mutation 30,000 years ago—occurring in the exact gene locations that for human children place them on the autistic spectrum—the explanation of our fondness for Man’s Best Friend should be immediately apparent. They are autistic wolves. Specifically, they are genetically predisposed to gregariousness, love, obedience, loyalty, protectiveness, and selfless devotion. They will do this in many cases even after horrible abuse and neglect. They are born and bred to please and serve their human masters.
But speaking of horrible abuse and neglect, there are few things that could be worse than turning dogs—especially the larger breeds—into stay-at-home pets like housecats. Pointers point, setters set, retrievers retrieve, herding dogs herd, guarding dogs guard and fighting dogs fight. Epigenetic adaptation can only take them so far. Your Malamute or Alsatian hates living in your 500-square-foot apartment. Keeping it there all day drives it to the edge of insanity. Your golden retriever flinches at car horns and sirens. Even if you walk it three times a day, the rest of its time is spent in a cold prison cell, often in solitary confinement, devoid of human or animal companionship.
Owners who enjoy sedentary lifestyles may be shocked by the demands that a high-activity dog, such as a border collie, makes on them. Failing to provide such a dog with adequate exercise and mental stimulation often results in a range of destructive behaviors in the home. These types of problems are most common when the selection of a dog is based on appearance, with limited attention paid to its behavioral profile.
— Stephen Zawistowski and Pamela Reid
One of the authors of that quote described a situation in which an apartment-dwelling family in New York City purchased a Jack Russell terrier puppy at a riding stable. Jack Russells were bred for hunting burrowing animals and are happy when placed in a barn for rodent control. Just imagine what happened when a mouse wandered into the apartment while the owners were away.
What you may call obedience training is, to a dog, repression of natural instincts. You are training them to be neurotic. If you were not the only reliable source of everything keeping a dog alive, maybe it would seriously consider leaving and disposing of you on the way out. As dog author Jessica Pierce says, “It thinks of you as its benevolent captor, not a pack member.”
Dogs are roving herd animals. They hunt in hierarchical packs. About one-half of all dogs observed on the streets are in the company of other dogs, 26 percent in groups of two, 16 percent in threes, and 5 percent in fours, with sporadic groups of 20 or more.
Pierce goes on to observe that it is popular to find companionship with a pet, but it’s harmful to both the animal and the city. Instead of building a human family, joining a club, or volunteering to save nature in some way, we make an animal suffer to fill our own emotional needs.
Admit it. If dogs did not exist, you would find some other way to meet your need for companionship, wouldn’t you? So why be so cruel?
Separation anxiety is one of the most common problems that prompt people to seek help for their dogs. Separation anxiety typically manifests as attempts to escape, house-soiling, barking, whining and destructive behaviors when the dog is left alone. Dogs may also drool, tremble and show other signs of distress. These behaviors often commence when the owner prepares to leave and peak within 20 to 30 minutes after departure. The causes of separation anxiety are uncertain; however, it is thought that disruptions during early development may predispose dogs to this condition. There is some evidence that dogs that have been rehomed one or more times are more likely to exhibit separation anxiety.
Phobias, especially those related to noises, are a common concern reported by owners. Loud, percussive noises such as thunder, fireworks, and gunshots are frequent triggers of intense fear reactions in dogs. The reactions may include intense attempts to escape, hiding, trembling, excessive salivation, urination, and defecation. Anecdotal reports suggest that more dogs get lost or go missing during the American Fourth of July holiday than at any other time, presumably because fireworks are a common part of celebrations.
Dogs can show a range of compulsive behaviors, including spinning, tail chasing, licking paws, legs or objects, flank-sucking, barking and fly-snapping.
—Zawistowski and Reid
“There is an illusion now that pets have more voice than in the past … but it is maybe more that we are putting words into their mouth,” Pierce says, pointing to the abundance of pets on social media plastered with witty projections written by their “parents”. “Maybe we are humanizing them in a way that actually makes them invisible.” Do they want to be pets? Perhaps. Do they want to live in an apartment on the 21st floor? Probably not.
Russia, Africa, and South America all contribute less global greenhouse emissions than the 5.8 GtCO2e/y produced by dogs and cats.
Dogs are extremely popular; one-third of all US households have at least one. The estimated number of pet dogs totals approximately 90 million, up from 78 million in 2012, and similar rates of dog ownership and population growth have been reported elsewhere in the developed world. That comes at a psychic cost, especially in urban areas, because many millions of dogs suffer poor mental health and end up homeless or relinquished to animal shelters for euthanization. We treat them similarly to how we treat our own mentally ill. That homeless people and homeless dogs should find kinship is only logical.
Humans living with dogs with behavior problems also suffer reduced quality of life. Owners face the financial burden of replacing furniture, clothing or articles damaged by dogs. Damage and aesthetic costs associated with house-soiling also exist, and unruly or poorly behaved dogs can injure people by jumping on them or pulling on the leash. Dogs that vocalize or become destructive when left alone can jeopardize their owners’ living arrangements. Aggressive dogs pose a significant risk to people or other animals. Owners of aggressive dogs may also risk losing their homeowners’ insurance coverage. Finally, owners also suffer mental anguish when confronted with the need to rehome, relinquish or euthanize a dog.
—Zawistowski and Reid
I suspect that I viewed a dog as part of an idealized lifestyle like snow on Christmas Day or sitting around a roaring open fire on a cold night, and perhaps even a sentimental and almost trivialized notion of reality. One thing that you learn from keeping dogs is that you get out of them what you put in. If you do not have the time, the patience, or the money, dogs will be a problem.
Dogs are sentient beings with a capacity to suffer. Turning them into house slaves, there to entertain and comfort us when we feel lonely or to impress our friends through tribal ritual displays of wealth or prowess, does not suit their nature or breeding. It makes a great deal of sense to have a working dog like a border collie on a ranch or a Doberman guard dog in a warehouse. It makes zero sense—or sense only in the most convoluted, culturally insane way—to have a border collie or Doberman pincer as something to cuddle in a studio apartment.
That is just cruelty—disguised as cuddling—that we have so inured ourselves to as a culture and that we now take for granted.
Reciprocal Altruism
Returning to the image of the homeless beggar and his dog from Leslie Irvine that I quoted at the top of this essay, there are a few important lessons to be drawn. One must acknowledge that not all such vignettes are as benign as they appear—the homeless man may be using the dog as a sympathy magnet and treating him cruelly when not actively engaged in soliciting money. However, research tells us that the relationship may signal a deeper truth—our need for reciprocal altruism.
One of the best studies in the field comes, ironically, from marketing research. Writes the researcher, Professor Tony Ellson of Cardiff Business School in Wales:
Dog ownership reveals a reciprocal altruism that prohibitive restrictions support. These restrictions are protective and punitive. The values and beliefs of the dog owner underpin these restrictions. The dependency on primitive cognitive functions within the domestic environment enables the dog owner to internalize an ideal through the relationship with the pet. This internalization explicates the need for businesses to support pet and pet-related products by core values rather than slogans and glossy programs….
The idea of reciprocal altruism recalls what Robin Kimmerer describes in Braiding Sweetgrass. By reciprocity, she means mutual repeated interactions and memory of favors that confer benefit without cost or expectation for return. Ellson says “The dog can be characterized as a heteronomous mimesis because the dog is a product of the dog owner's internalization of values and expectations of an idealized relationship.
Ellson goes on:
When caring for pets there is an inclination towards anthropomorphism, “an incorporation of the animal into ourselves” that can be understood through the assimilation of animals into the family life and activities; adjustment of pet behavior to the patterns of owners; the encouragement and forgiveness of silly behavior and loyalty; and “the way we view ourselves in the contemporary world.” These are recognizable sentiments for dog owners.
***
Reciprocal altruism in dog ownership is more usually repaid by gratitude and loyalty than may occur between human participants. The expectation of suppliers of pet and pet-related products is no less exacting than dog owners' expectation and experience of their dog. The relationship between dog and dog owner is an aspect of consumer behavior that explicates the need for businesses to match pet and pet-related products through values rather than slogans and glossy programs. Suppliers should take account of the potential strength of the dog owners' internalized view of the relationship….
That is, sell on the basis of product quality, not price. Market pet food as if you were selling baby food, not kibble.
It is a curious contradiction between slave quarters—the urban confinements suffered by the overwhelming majority of North America’s dogs—and the lavish attention paid to the high-quality food being dished out to those same house slaves.
In the US, dogs and cats consume up to 21% of the amount of dietary energy that humans do.
And actually, inconsistencies like that make dogs even crazier. The concept of reciprocity suggests it may be doing it to their owners as well.
Perhaps that helps explain Donald Trump. Or Joe Biden’s policy towards premeditated genocide in Gaza. Or the choice USAnian voters are being given in 2024.
If feeding and housing 8 billion humans were not challenging enough, we have an extra billion mouths now that will howl and whine if they are not being fed. It may seem a small problem compared to some others, but they are integral.
The image at the top of this essay is of Greta Thunberg and her two dogs. I used it for the obvious reason that while I have admired Greta since she began her school strikes, and respect her choices not to fly and to live a climate smart lifestyle, she has a blind spot where dogs are concerned. Most do. No one is talking about it.
In fostering a revolution to reverse climate change, rather than sit in front of government offices, I’ll go with John Lennon’s 1969 advice,“You better free your mind instead.” This essay is not about stigmatizing or legislating dog owners. It's about creating more awareness of what we are choosing to do.
References
Bradshaw, J. S. (2011). In Defense of Dogs. London: Penguin Books.
Beck, A. M. (1975). The public health implications of urban dogs. American Journal of Public Health, 65(12), 1315-1318.
Belk, Russell W. "Metaphoric relationships with pets." Society & Animals 4, no. 2 (1996): 121-145.
Ellson, Tony. "Can we live without a dog? Consumption life cycles in dog–owner relationships." Journal of Business Research 61, no. 5 (2008): 565-573.
Flores-Ibarra, M. & Estrella-Valenzuela, G. (2004). Canine ecology and socioeconomic factors associated with dogs unvaccinated against rabies in a Mexican city across the US-Mexico border. Preventive Veterinary Medicine, 62: 79–87.
Irvine, Leslie. My dog always eats first: Homeless people and their animals. Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2012. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781626370883-002
Kimmerer, Robin. Braiding sweetgrass: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the teachings of plants. Milkweed editions, 2013.
Knobel, D. L., Cleaveland, S., Coleman, P. G. et al. (2005). Re-evaluating the burden of rabies in Africa and Asia. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 83: 360–368.
Macpherson, C. N. L., Meslin, F. X. & Wandeler, A. I. (2012). Dogs, Zoonoses and Public Health, 2nd edition. Oxford and New York: CABI Publishing.
Okin, Gregory S. Environmental impacts of food consumption by dogs and cats. PloS one 12, no. 8 (2017): e0181301.
Pinker, Steven. The blank slate: The modern denial of human nature. Penguin, 2003.
RSPCA (2010). Improving dog ownership: the economic case for dog licensing. www.rspca .org.uk
Suzuki, K., Pereira, J. A., Frias, L. A. et al. (2008). Rabies vaccination coverage and profiles of the owned-dog population in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. Zoonoses and Public Health 55: 77–83.
Taylor, Candace, Doggie Mansions and Tiffany Bowls: Lifestyles of Rich and Famous Pets, Wall Street Journal
Wandeler, A. I., Budde, A., Capt, S., Kappeler, A. & Matter, H. C. (1988). Dog ecology and dog rabies control. Reviews of Infectious Diseases, 10: S684–8.
Wandeler, A. I., Matter, H. C., Kappeler, A. & Budde, A. (1993). The ecology of dogs and canine rabies: a selective review. Revue Scientifique et Technique (International Office of Epizootics), 12: 51–71.
Zawistowski S. and P.A. Reid, Dogs in today’s society: the role of applied animal behavior in The Domestic Dog (2016).
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