Maggie

Maggie is our much-loved three-year old labradoodle (cross between a Labrador and Poodle) dog. She is gentle with people, especially children, and highly enthusiastic.  Maggie’s default setting is that everyone is a friend; she craves human company and reciprocal affection from familiar family members, friends and total strangers.  If people make the mistake of petting her on the head, under the chin or anywhere else, they condemn themselves to being pestered for more of the same until they are either rescued by us or they simply leave in exhaustion.

Maggie’s other habits include the deeply held conviction that whatever is being consumed, food or drink, then she must participate.  It is quite disconcerting to eat a sandwich while being closely and fixedly stared at by Maggie for as long as it takes for her to get even a tiny piece of the sandwich.

With a very keen sense of smell and hearing, Maggie is the first to realise someone is approaching the front door so, she suddenly jumps and parks loudly in a blind panic until a human takes over and she seeks her basket for safety until the door is opened.  When she realises the person on the other side is not a threat, she leaps out of her basket to greet them with enthusiasm bordering on physical assault.

By far, Maggie’s favourite part of the day is the walk around town, run in the park or an open field.  Of course, she must stop and say hello to anyone who passes by, which makes the walk that much slower and full of apologies to the strangers with an explanation that she really is harmless except for the mud marks she leaves on their clothing as she paws at them demanding affection.  Of course, we try to avoid such awkward situations by putting her on a lead as we see strangers approaching but, occasionally we fail to anticipate such situations and we start to rehearse our apologies to the poor unsuspecting walkers.

On such walks, if there is more than one of us with her, she absolutely hates the idea of the pack splitting up even for a few seconds and she tries her best to regather the members to walk together again.

Our immediate family of ten members, Claire and I, our children, their partners and their young children, have different ways of dealing with Maggie ranging from total indifference, to constant apologists, firm disciplinarians, and unconditional lovers who often explain her behaviour with anthropomorphism; another fusion of two Greek words of ‘anthropos’ meaning human and ‘morphe’ meaning form.

I for one, do not subscribe to ‘anthropomorphism’ at all.  I don’t believe animals behaviour, domestic or otherwise, can be explained as though they are human beings; they are not!  I don’t think Maggie loves any of us, even Claire who is the closest to her.  Maggie does not demand affection; she seeks re-assurance and agents with hands who can constantly stimulate her physically in a comforting way.  Maggie, who everyone admits is not the brightest of pooches, does not seek food because she looks forward to enjoying the experience of consuming something delicious. She treats all foods in the same way; whether it is a piece of expensive steak or a piece of bread, she swallows the whole thing in one gulp without it touching any of her taste buds on the way down to her stomach.  As far as Maggie is concerned, hungry or not, she eats when food is available in case the next opportunity to eat might be too far in the future.

Further, Maggie belongs to the canine subspecies that is part of the wolf species.  They are pack animals who survive in groups with strict hierarchy where each member understands his/her level of seniority that ultimately dictate priority for procreation and order of feeding from a new kill after a successful hunt.  Understanding this hierarchy is essential to the survival of each individual member of the pack.  This instinctive trait remains as strong with domesticated dogs as ever and as a dog owner, ignoring or misunderstanding this instinctive trait comes at a cost.

One last feature of Maggie is like all other dogs, she has no shame.  She would pee, poop, lick her private parts and, given half a chance, copulate with another dog in front of any audience without a care in the world.

So, why am I boring you with this tribute to Maggie?  Well, having already said that I do not believe anthropomorphism is the right way to deal with your beloved pooch, I have come to realise that dogs share certain instinctive needs as us human beings.  Beyond that, when it comes to humans, intellectual endeavours such as creativity, inventiveness, empathy, philanthropy and so on, dogs have no time or inclination for this nonsense.

Perhaps the best way to illustrate my point is to refer to Abraham Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of Needs’; I am sure many of you are familiar with.  Abraham Maslow was an American psychology professor (1908 to 1970) who wrote extensively about the human mind and behaviour and remains to this day one of the most referenced / quoted academics.

Maslow put forward the theory of ‘hierarchy of Needs’ as a basis to understanding a mental patient’s condition by understanding where their needs lie in five levels arranged in a pyramid shape whereby, the order of those levels of needs must be followed in a strict order of hierarchy.  In other words, we must satisfy the first need at the base of the pyramid before we can progress to address our second level, then the third and so on.  Here are the five levels:

Level 1 – Physiological: is about securing basic body needs / functions such as breathing, drinking water, eating, resting and sexual release.

Level 2 – Safety / Security: is about avoiding or being protected from imminent danger, securing shelter and having stability in our lives, even at the most basic level.

Level 3 – Social: is about belonging to a group we closely identify with; being accepted by the group; and loving and being loved.

Level 4 – Ego / Self-Esteem: is about gaining prestige amongst the group; to be recognised for our talent, skills, achievements and value to the group.

Level 5 – Self Actualisation: is about satisfying the need to be the best we can be, being creative / inventive; exercising altruism and following moralistic values; having the capacity for philanthropy and desire to help others.

In reality, we are supposed to travel from Level 1 to Level 5 in stages of development such as when we are first born, we exist at Level 1 and as we grow older and more experienced, we hope to move up to Levels 2 then 3, 4 and finally 5.  Not everyone can reach the summit, but we expend a lot of energy and effort in our lives trying to do so.  You can also imagine that under certain unfortunate circumstances, we may slip down the pyramid temporarily or permanently.  Imagine a billionaire who is travelling in his private jet to attend a fund raising event for a worthy cause when the plane crashes in the wilderness of a cold and snow-covered mountain.  The billionaire and two others survive but the pilot perishes in the crash. While waiting to be rescued, the survivors’ immediate concern is to remain alive by securing shelter, food and water.  They will eat snow for water and if they are unable to find any food in the plane wreckage they will eventually resort to cannibalism on the body of the dead pilot.  Becoming aware of mountain bears, they will then turn their attention to avoiding or fighting the bears by finding means of making weapons or fortifying their shelter against hungry bears. You can take over the story and develop it whichever way you like however, the point is that these people crashed from Level 5 to Level 1 in a matter of minutes when the plane crashed on that mountain top.  In time, they would attempt to climb up the pyramid of hierarchy of needs until they are rescued or not, as the case maybe.

So, Maslow’s Pyramid describes our behaviours as human beings.  Dogs follow Level 1 and Level 2.  To some extent, they aspire to satisfy part of Level 3 but, this is where we and dogs part company, so to speak.  Dogs are interested in belonging to a group where they can secure survival, but they don’t care about loving and being loved.  Nor do they have ego / self-esteem and need to be recognised or respected for their achievements and special skills.  Most certainly, they don’t care much for self-actualisation in any shape or form.

This is why anthropomorphism is wrong-headed and sometimes destabilising to the pet as we attribute to them human behaviours they do not have.  We say things like:

• My dog loves me. It doesn’t, it recognises you as above it in the hierarchy and shows subservience.
• My dog shows me affection by lying on top of me and licking my face. Your dog is attempting to assume a higher position than you by lying on top of you because you are not showing it the necessary leadership it expects.  It licks you because it needs the salt deposits on your face.
• My dog is the most loyal friend I have. This might be true in the sense that you have no loyal friends at all or more likely, it is seeking direction and reinforcement of the pack hierarchy from you.  In any case, what kind of a loyal friend your dog is when it poops on the pavement and doesn’t even look behind to see you gingerly trying to scoop the poop into a plastic bag. I believe you are the one who is showing loyalty here.  I know many of you will disagree with the loyalty thing; perhaps you’re right, I just don’t see it.
• My dog is fantastic with the children, it sits and guards their bedrooms at night. Your dog is sleeping as close to other pack members as possible because that is part of the reinforcement of its belonging to the group.  I am willing to bet that your dog can be enticed away from the bedroom door if a complete stranger waves a nice juicy steak within 50 meters of its nose.
• My dog is very clever, it does tricks and senses when I am about to come home as it shows excitement before my arrival. I agree with all of that except for the ‘clever’ part; dogs will do whatever it takes to secure a treat like a piece of cheese, meat or whatever you spoiled it with by repeating simple commands and following them with a treat.  As for anticipating your return home, I can neither argue with this point, nor explain it.

What is also true is that WE love our pets and we derive a lot of pleasure in having them as they provide us with company, uncomplicated demands well within our capabilities to provide; unlike other human beings around us who are constantly challenging us, cheating on us, making unrealistic demands of us or even threatening our livelihood.

Time to take Maggie for a walk.

Mufid Sukkar (January 2020)