Listening to Dogs

They say so much when we pay attention.

Charlotte and Wilbur. Snoopy and Woodstock. Aslan. Mr. Ed. Batfink. Mickey and Minnie. Pluto and Goofy. The Ents. Shelob. Smaug. The cowardly lion and the apple trees. Wiley Coyote and the Roadrunner. Bugs Bunny. Daffy Duck. Donald Duck. Mighty Mouse. Scooby Doo. Aragog. Remus Lupin. Joey Castle. Chewbacca and the Ewoks. Boxer, Snowball, and Napoleon. The Serpent and Balaam’s donkey. Eeyore, Tigger, Piglet, and Winnie. Mole, Rat, Toad, and Badger. Peter Rabbit. Rocket Raccoon. Hobbes. Babe. The White Rabbit, the Caterpillar, and the Cheshire Cat. Planet of the Apes. Flipper. Bambi and Thumper. The Cat in the Hat. Gromit. Kermit and Miss Piggy. Yogi and Booboo. Foghorn Leghorn. Rocky and Bullwinkle. Woody Woodpecker. Bagheera. King Kong. Godzilla.

It is my job to listen to animals, and to pay attention to their behavior. It just occurred to me that animals in literature, TV, and movies have been talking to me all my life. I wasn’t consciously thinking of all of these talking animals when I decided to make Kelsy a talking dog in my novel, The Retrievers of Useless Bay, but it just felt natural. Dogs are people. They are so expressive with their actions, with their eyes. Valentino will sigh, and it conveys everything about the moment without the need for words.

Some people call me a dog whisperer, which I really don’t like. I know they mean it in a good way, but The Dog Whisperer is Cesar Milan, whose whole philosophy is to let the dog know who is in charge. I am not in charge of my dogs, and I don’t want to be. They are my friends. They are my family. They are not my servants. I am not a dog whisperer; I am a dog listener. I observe their behavior, and help them find their purpose in life. Every dog should have a job, even if they can’t all be cat-detection dogs or scent trailing dogs. Viktor is a thief. I help him find work as a thief by setting up scenarios where he can find a box on the floor with one cookie in it. I set the box down, and say to the room, “I sure hope no one steals this box.” As I walk away, he runs up and grabs the box and carries it away to a safe place where he can rip it open. If you just gave him a cookie, he might it eat or he might not. A stolen cookie tastes so much better.

When I’m working with Mu, our success depends on our training, of course, but more than that, I have to pay attention to his behavior, his breathing, his pace. I need to notice what he notices. He has a whole range of whines, like a meter that goes from a cat was here fifteen minutes ago to there’s a cat under that shed right now. We are only able to do our work if I listen to him. As we work, I listen to the birds. They will tell me if there is a predator around. Sometimes they think Mu is a predator, but sometimes they will point out a hidden cat to us. When I interview the cat’s owner before the search, I listen to so many details about the cat’s history and behavior. I have a standard set of questions, but there’s always one peculiar thing I wouldn’t have found out from the standard questions, like a cat who likes chlorine. Sometimes you just have to listen and pay attention.

I realize that all of the fictional talking animals I grew up with were anthropomorphized, for the most part. Rabbits don’t really act like Bugs Bunny or Peter Rabbit or the Monty Python rabbit. In The Once and Future King, Merlin turns young Arthur into a fish, a hawk, a goose, and a badger, so Wart is not so much talking to the animals as seeing things from their perspective. I see the world from the perspective of Mu, and also from the perspective of the lost cat. While I can’t know exactly what a lost cat is thinking, I can know how they typically act, based on what I’ve learned from previous cases. I know that a frightened cat like Blaze is likely to run, so I take measures to try to minimize that. I know that a displaced cat like Mr. Kitty is likely to find a hiding place and stay silent for many days, so I led Mu to the rocks because the crevices offered a good hideout for a cat. I know from experience, from observations, that an indoor cat usually hides close to the point of escape, so I made sure to work Mu around the cars near their apartment, increasing our chances of finding Snickers in the engine compartment. I see the world through the eyes of dogs and cats.

When you can see the world through the eyes of animals, it opens up a world of experience to you. I wish a wizard could actually transform me into a dog for a short time. I would really love to be a dog for an hour so I could play with Mu and Tino. If I were a dog, if I could be a dog for an hour or a day, I wouldn’t be less than a human. Dogs have their own intelligence, their own way of talking. Dogs are absolutely brilliant at what they do, and they have capabilities way beyond mine in many respects. That they can’t type on a keyboard doesn’t make them second class. Humans are animals, and we lived for millions of years without language, without books and movies. We existed just fine in a wordless environment. I enjoy the quiet time I spend with dogs, and working, and playing, mostly without words. In a silent world, I can communicate with my dogs just fine.