Canine Capers: Common Ground

By Lesley Liddle

Lesley Liddle is a certified service and pet dog trainer. First Mate Lulu is a Corgi/Red Heeler with spots like a baby harbor seal; Crewman Leonard is a Chihuahua/Doxie with tall ears like a rabbit. Both dogs have very short legs and were originally found in California shelters.  Lesley has average legs and can be found on Orcas Island.

Goodness, I like the same things as Lulu, well, I mean peace and stroking, good breakfasts and dinners, camaraderie, a soft bed at night, a long walk….

Yet there are certain places of understanding we can never go to with our beloved dogs. If you consider the amazing nose of the dog, which tells the dog that dung is delicious, and dead animals make great neck perfume, and smelling someone’s bottom is vitally informative, well, we just don’t really want or need to go there. If I were a dog, I know that I too would enjoy all this, but I am, at least at this time and on this day, not a dog. Fire hydrants and lamp posts neither excite nor inform me. On the other hand, the dog’s ability to detect cancer, seizures, dangerous diabetic levels, and to help returning vets through panic attacks leaves me in awe and does excite me.

There are many noble attributes we do share with our dogs, such as the ability to nurture babies that are not our own, even the ability to love, nurture and protect an individual in a species that we might in other circumstances kill and eat. As babies we both need to belong to a family constellation in which there is protection, sharing, laughter, and play. We have the mutual need for a weather proof den and an extended time in which we learn to be responsible members of our pack or tribe because we are both social animals. We love to be treated well, and that is when we thrive and stretch into our full potential.

Our connection to dogs is something which I cannot even fully describe, it is so deep and so important, but it has everything to do with the heart. It is the shared experience of warmth, protection, comfort, devotion, good will, humour, and abiding love. It is there in the middle of the night when, I confess, Lulu is snuggled up to me and Leonard is in the bottom of the bed with his head resting on my leg. My dogs will be there for me if I am sad, miserable, grumpy, hurting, or even dying. Dogs do not intentionally and will not abandon their person once they bond with love. They do not criticize. They do not purposefully leave, betray, or stop loving us when we are their family. And this marvelous heart strength can be found in great marriages between people, in families, and in abiding friendships, yet sadly, often fails in those same human connections.

Regardless of circumstance, we each have this marvelous potential to experience unconditional love through sharing and giving love to a companion dog. It is a truly healing force and we are only beginning to appreciate and understand the value of this.

Lulu and Leonard are both nudging me now to go for our treasured afternoon  excursion. Here is a perfect example of the mutually beneficial activity we have probably shared since the old cave days  – except we won’t be seriously hunting and we will not, hopefully, either encounter or become dinner on the trail.