The thing I most love about working with working animals – dogs, donkeys, horses – is that they love to work. Many people fail to grasp this or have lost an understanding of this, they think work for all animals is coercive, explotive, cruel or abusive, perhaps because that’s the way they feel about work themselves.
I have a good friend who is an animal trainer, and she and her elephant adore one another, play with each other, she naps in his trunk sometimes. She washes and brushes him, sings to him, cares for him. He has been taken away from her and is pining for her, and she is devastated by the loss of him. She is certain he will pay for this mercy with his life, no one can afford to care for him.
he prevailing cultural winds are blowing all around the elephants, and the horses and the ponies, the people who do not live or work with animals have suddenly decided that all work for all elephants is abuse.
Instead of grasping what connected these two to one another, we sometimes think only of what makes us feel better about ourselves. We claim to be selfless while being selfish. We pretend to love animals while really just using them to love ourselves. We can no longer make individual judgements on animals and people, only sweeping and righteous stereotypes.
These different ways of looking at the animal world increasingly separates people who know animals as pets from people who know animals.It causes enormous and painful conflict and difficulties for animals and the people who love them and wish to live their way of life – living and working with animals.
What connects us to animals like dogs? In my case, it my own passion for work, I am as enthusiastic and determined about what I do as Red is about what he does. I connect with him on this level, he respects my work an I respect and honor his. We share this view of the world. We approach our work in the same way. You don’t want to be standing in my way when I go to write in the morning.
There are many people now in the world who believe I am being cruel to Red because he works every day, in the cold, in the heat, sometimes sore and limping. I disagree, of course, but more than that, I am sorry they will never experience the kind of connection an animal can have with a human being, and have had for thousands of years. The kind of connection I have with Red. The kind of connection so many carriage drivers have with their horses.
The kind of connection my friend had with her elephant, before he was taken from her.
If you think about a dog or other animal you love in a special way, you might also think about the reason for the connection. Some dogs have a sense of humor, some are simply joyous, some love us in unrestrained and demonstrative ways. Some like to work, some like to hunt, some like to cuddle, some like to compete.
My wife Maria has a pony named Chloe, she gave her saddle away, she has no interest in riding her, and the pony has little interest in being ridden. That is not the kind of work she is looking for. Their connection is the way in which these two strong-willed and independent minded women see the world – they make their own decisions, they love in their own way, they love one another without ever submitting to each other.
Our border collie Fate is much the same way. A pattern, I think.
Animals like these know how to touch the deepest parts of us, often more than our siblings, children or partners, and we need them and love them for it.
The special dogs in our lives tap into what it that we are about, what we need from them.I know what Red needs and make sure he has it, he knows what I need and gives me the space and companionship that has me do it. We are both passionate and resolute about our work. He just runs faster than I do.
When I am sitting at my keyboard, I believe I have the same focused look, and if it isn’t on my face, it is on my mind.
This is why dogs have thrived while so many other animals – raccoons come to mind – have not. They mirror and reflect us, the good ones become what we need them to become, and they fool us into thinking it is because we are special. That’s why we spend billions of dollars on them and not on squirrels.
We need a wiser and more mystical understanding of animals, before it is too late, while they are still among us. I feel it stirring, there is a new awakening.