Whenever I’m in an art gallery, as my husband and I were today, I am always drawn to the way that dogs pop up, like Waldo, in so many old paintings, especially crowd scenes.
My relationship with dogs is a fairly unique one, nowadays. Thanks to the nature of my job, spending a day in the mall with a dog at my side is just another day. Everyone has to take their work home with them now and then, but when I have to bring work home with me, I end up dragging it along on grocery shopping excursions and to the movie theatres, too. Just as someone will check their wrist for the time even if their watch broke a week ago, I sometimes reach for a dog who isn’t there. Even now, though, when having a Labrador with me at the movies or in a restaurant is just like having a bigger, more active purse… I still get a kick out of it. There’s just something which feels inherently right, even natural, about having one dog or another constantly by my side.
Service dogs are one of the fortunate few in today’s society, because they get to go everywhere and spend every day with their favourite person. Most dogs, beloved pets though they may be (as my own pet dog is), are relegated to spending eight or more hours alone every day, while their human companion lives life without them. While women have been fighting to get out of the home, and into the workplace, dogs have been taken out of the workplace, and trapped in the home.
But when I’m in an art gallery or museum, I am reminded that it wasn’t always so.
There are very few depictions of dogs in art alone. While the aesthetic appeal of a bowl of fruit, a loaf of bread, or a statuesque stallion seems to be ageless, man’s best friend does not get many portraits to himself. But he is everywhere. In almost any room of any art gallery, I can almost guarantee you that a dog will be hanging out at someone’s feet, in a rich lady’s arms, prancing around the heels of a horse or even…
POOING in a mural IN THE LOUVRE
Dogs are everywhere. Next time you’re in a museum, look for the dogs, and you’ll wonder how you missed them before. Today, in a Dutch Artists exhibition in the art gallery, I saw a small boy being dragged along by his spaniel, who had clearly found a fascinating rabbit trail. I saw another young boy with his arm draped around a greyhounds neck. I saw a small terrier on a kitchen floor while a mother searched for nits in her child’s hair. I saw a puppy being cradled in a lady’s arms. In a picture of a horse fair, I counted no less than nine dogs dodging around hooves and feet. Almost anywhere where there were people, there were dogs. They weren’t the subject of the piece, and almost never even worth mentioning in the blub that the museum posted next to each picture describing the artist and the relevance of the particular work. Dogs weren’t beautiful or exciting enough to be the subjects of much art, but they were so intrinsically linked to people that artists couldn’t paint a crowd scene without adding dogs.
And now we leave them at home alone, and they are forbidden to go in public places, unless they are classified as police or guide animals. Even in outdoor parks and streets they are allowed ON leash IF you clean up after them and have them properly licensed. They used to be our constant companions, something not even noteworthy – just there- but now there are many stores and churches who allow even qualified service dogs with very bad grace.
Have we forgotten so quickly?
The dog may be man’s best friend, but he has been the friend that we take for granted, and never even notice until he isn’t there any more.
^lease excuse the rambliness. Words have not been coming easily, which is why the lack of commenting lately.
I went to a planning meeting for an outdoor block party held in my neighbourhood recently. One of the points that came up was that although it was outdoors, dogs would obviously not be welcome, with the reason being that there would be children there and some people are afraid of dogs. I used to be terrified to the point of tears of unfamiliar dogs as a child despite having a husky mix at home, so I`m not unempathetic. But that doesn`t make it a valid reason to me. People are afraid of all kinds of things. Dogs are a common part of our world and it doesn`t make any more sense to me to try to hide them away than it does to douse the lawn in Raid to protect guests who might be afraid of ants. Some things you just have to get over eventually or resign yourself to never going outside. Pretending otherwise just seems to me to being doing everyone involved a disservice, especially the dogs. How do you expect to get well-socialied, well-behaved dogs if they are never allowed to go outside and play and interact with people? How do you expect to get children who aren`t fearful, who are kind to animals, and who know how to behave around them without problems if they are only ever presented as a menace? And most of all, why should a dog who has done nothing be punished for someone else`s feelings?
I do get that children shouldn`t be left unattended with even well-behaved dogs, because dogs have the physical capacity to be dangerous to them and dogs and humans do not communicate in the same ways. I would probably go the other way feel MORE at ease having a beloved and well-known dog around with my own children, but I seethe logic for disagreeing. But…small children should not be left unattended regardless of whether there is a dog present. There are lots of other dangers – not the least of which is the other people present. The same goes for all the sharp rocks and sticks, things to fall off of, hot barbecues and strangers – children need to be exposed and taught how to navigate them in a safe environment.
I wish there was a practical way that dogs and owners could be tested and then allowed much more freedom in where the dogs were allowed to go and where they could be off leash.
I totally came up with a system to do just that, once. It would be totally doable. Too bad I don’t have anyone in the government who would be willing to listen.
And it drives me crazy when parents try and keep something away from their child because it scares their child. No kid ever got over his/her fear of dogs by never seeing dogs. Its only by being exposed to other people’s dogs again and again and again that a child can learn that dogs are not likely to hurt him/her.
My coworker’s child has a scar on his face from when he was attacked by the aging family dog last year. He was in hospital and almost lost his eye, but he isn’t afraid of dogs. Exposure breeds comfort, even when traumatic events have been a part of that exposure.
Yeah, now that I have a dog, I notice too how marginalized they are.
HOWEVER, and this is coming from someone who used to be terrified of dogs and really, really disliked them… you know that a big reason why dogs are not part of everyday life anymore is because so very many people have dogs, don’t train them, and end up with barking, snarling, ill-tempered beasts that make people freeze in terror while thinking “oh god, you used to be a wolf”.
Mind you, if the same standards were used for children they wouldn’t be allowed anywhere, either…
But ironically, the thing that makes dogs end up barking, snarling, and otherwise unpleasant in our society is being held away from it. A dog tied to a doghouse or kept on fluffy pillows indoors all its life will be unscocialized, and therefore terrified of other people. When dogs are scared they react with aggression.
If a dog were allowed to wander around the neighbourhood, visiting block parties and generally watching people’s doings, as in olden days, aggression would no longer be an issue.
It’s a self-perpetuating cycle that the less dogs are exposed to daily human life, the less suitable they are to it.
People often comment on the fact that the service dogs I train seem “so calm!” in restaurants. We have to explain that the dog has been going to restaurants and catching zzzs there ever since he was a puppy. It isn’t exciting to him.
But take MY dog, who has never been to one, and expect him to conk out comfortably his first time in a fancy restaurant? Not going to happen.