Have you had an opportunity to see the work "Scattered Crowd" by artist William Forsythe? It is breathtaking. Here is a link to his art for your viewing pleasure. Not only is his work aesthetically pleasing, but also as all good art (and I personally hold conceptual art among my favorites) his work reframes how I think of the mundane. Sometimes I am challenged to think of something I hadn't thought of before. This particular series deals with how [human] movement affects space. He uses balloons (at least on the piece that I saw featured) in big massive spaces. As the viewer walks around the balloons, the balloons sway… thus contributing to the piece of art.
When I first came across his work, the concept of random movement made me think of how we also move randomly (and unaware) in relation to our dogs. You see, dogs have learned to read our body language – and we can argue even our “moods” to a “T”. They are so keen on doing so that the investigators of the TV series Lie to Me would surely benefit in having a dog as part of their team of experts to resolve their cases… I have noticed how when I am in a hurry or thinking less like a trainer I move with disregard as to how my dogs will interpret my movements: I may walk directly towards them (a no-no in dog-dog interactions) this type of approach is threatening to dogs. At times, my arm extends forward in an attempt to reach for one of my dogs, again another snafu. I have become aware of my lack of doggy politeness as I see Deuce move away from my extending arm, or Laika taking a big yawn… (sign of stress) as she laid on her pad as I approached her- even when I was just going to pat her head or give her a treat. In fact, I have been thinking a LOT about this. I guess I am sick and tired of all the lack of civility towards my dogs - our dogs in general.
As I am putting a harness on Rioja- our new addition to the family – of whom you will hear more about in subsequent posts… and I catch myself moving her front legs as if they were made out of rubber… ah! Poor pup! 'Give her a break!,' I think to myself. So I slow down, take a big breath and I take things down a notch. I begin by just holding on to her paw, giving her a treat, and gently placing it through the harness as I coo her on how good she is being. Next I do the same with the other paw. As the harness now lays on top of her shoulders, she’s just standing there, waiting to see what’s next. I hold it up on her for a couple of seconds and then remove it. Now this is more as it should be. Not only did I show respect for her but also my interaction with Rioja became a dialogue – even the beginning of a close friendship…
In her book, When Species Meet, Donna J. Haraway, Distinguished Professor Emerita at the Department of History of Consciousness and the Department of Feminist Studies at UC Santa Cruz, CA, commented on the work of anthropologist, Barbara Smuts. Smuts began studying chimpanzees in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream preserve and later on in 1976 studied baboons in Kenya, as part of her PhD dissertation. At first, explains Haraway, Smuts kept her physical as well as psychological distance from the “object” of her study… in pure scientific fashion. Smuts later realized that her strategy of nonengagement to one of meeting the baboon “eye-to-eye” had its advantages. Smuts explains (as quoted by Haraway)… “I in the process of gaining their trust, changed almost everything about me, including the way I walked and sat the way I held my body, and the way I used my eyes and voice… this may sound like a small shift, but in fact it signaled a profound change from being treated like an object that elicited an unilateral response (avoidable), to be recognized as a subject with whom they could communicate.” Page 500. Kindle edition.
When I read this I thought: 'what a brave and intuitive woman Smuts is!' She defied the (traditional) scientific method of inquiry in order to engage with another species in true communication. I guess her approach could have "bombed” but it didn’t. The result of her getting up-close and personal with the baboons resulted in the baboons relating to her more as a social being… More baboon like?
It begs the question: should we - those of us that live in close proximity to dogs - make the effort to move away from our comfort zone (read: lazy) to meet dogs and other domesticated species more in a middle ground so that they feel less threatened by our inattentive movements and body language and definitively more “welcome” in the world that we have created for them? In my view: a humbling and worth taking challenge.
When I first came across his work, the concept of random movement made me think of how we also move randomly (and unaware) in relation to our dogs. You see, dogs have learned to read our body language – and we can argue even our “moods” to a “T”. They are so keen on doing so that the investigators of the TV series Lie to Me would surely benefit in having a dog as part of their team of experts to resolve their cases… I have noticed how when I am in a hurry or thinking less like a trainer I move with disregard as to how my dogs will interpret my movements: I may walk directly towards them (a no-no in dog-dog interactions) this type of approach is threatening to dogs. At times, my arm extends forward in an attempt to reach for one of my dogs, again another snafu. I have become aware of my lack of doggy politeness as I see Deuce move away from my extending arm, or Laika taking a big yawn… (sign of stress) as she laid on her pad as I approached her- even when I was just going to pat her head or give her a treat. In fact, I have been thinking a LOT about this. I guess I am sick and tired of all the lack of civility towards my dogs - our dogs in general.
As I am putting a harness on Rioja- our new addition to the family – of whom you will hear more about in subsequent posts… and I catch myself moving her front legs as if they were made out of rubber… ah! Poor pup! 'Give her a break!,' I think to myself. So I slow down, take a big breath and I take things down a notch. I begin by just holding on to her paw, giving her a treat, and gently placing it through the harness as I coo her on how good she is being. Next I do the same with the other paw. As the harness now lays on top of her shoulders, she’s just standing there, waiting to see what’s next. I hold it up on her for a couple of seconds and then remove it. Now this is more as it should be. Not only did I show respect for her but also my interaction with Rioja became a dialogue – even the beginning of a close friendship…
In her book, When Species Meet, Donna J. Haraway, Distinguished Professor Emerita at the Department of History of Consciousness and the Department of Feminist Studies at UC Santa Cruz, CA, commented on the work of anthropologist, Barbara Smuts. Smuts began studying chimpanzees in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream preserve and later on in 1976 studied baboons in Kenya, as part of her PhD dissertation. At first, explains Haraway, Smuts kept her physical as well as psychological distance from the “object” of her study… in pure scientific fashion. Smuts later realized that her strategy of nonengagement to one of meeting the baboon “eye-to-eye” had its advantages. Smuts explains (as quoted by Haraway)… “I in the process of gaining their trust, changed almost everything about me, including the way I walked and sat the way I held my body, and the way I used my eyes and voice… this may sound like a small shift, but in fact it signaled a profound change from being treated like an object that elicited an unilateral response (avoidable), to be recognized as a subject with whom they could communicate.” Page 500. Kindle edition.
When I read this I thought: 'what a brave and intuitive woman Smuts is!' She defied the (traditional) scientific method of inquiry in order to engage with another species in true communication. I guess her approach could have "bombed” but it didn’t. The result of her getting up-close and personal with the baboons resulted in the baboons relating to her more as a social being… More baboon like?
It begs the question: should we - those of us that live in close proximity to dogs - make the effort to move away from our comfort zone (read: lazy) to meet dogs and other domesticated species more in a middle ground so that they feel less threatened by our inattentive movements and body language and definitively more “welcome” in the world that we have created for them? In my view: a humbling and worth taking challenge.
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