It has always been a pleasure to provide pet owners and animal-loving families in Guyana with guidance and advice on animal care for almost five decades. I thank you for your continued interest, and for keeping me alert on the issues you face with caring for your pets, while attempting to give them the most wonderful life in a happy home. As the new year commences, please accept my warmest wishes for a rewarding and happy year, enhanced with the joy of having your four-legged family members in your midst.
Customarily, my first Sunday column of the year is aimed at urging you to consider adopting a dog or cat; or, indeed, any animal that your family can adequately and happily nurture and love. Permit me to share with you some thoughts on the human-animal relationships, which in turn might move you in the direction of adopting a pet from the many shelters (e.g. ARAPS, GSPCA, PAWS FOR A CAUSE, Rosewood, TAILS OF HOPE, among others) as part of your New Year’s resolutions.
Experts today call the special friendship between pets and people the human-animal bond, and recognize that, in addition to being fun and fulfilling, owning a dog may actually benefit a person’s health. When an affectionate greeting from your dog, at the end of a stressful and especially difficult day, seems to lift your spirits and ease tensions, it’s not just your imagination. Your pet is in fact good for you, both mentally and physically.
Scientists have shown in several studies that people, in the presence of pets, simply behave in a more relaxed and open manner. Pets reduce stress and anxiety; give you a sense of purpose; provide comfort, support and security. We are happier, smile more readily, communicate better, and are more likely to get regular exercise — all of which lead to improved general health.
In one very interesting study of heart attack patients at the University of Maryland, USA, it was revealed that those who owned pets were more likely to be living one year after the heart attack than those who did not. The researchers also found that the simple act of petting a cat or dog consistently lowered a heart patient’s blood pressure.
This affinity that humans have for dogs did not just arrive. It has evolved from that very time – tens of thousands of years ago – when humans decided to cultivate, befriend, breed, and love the wild forebears of the present -day dog.
I know someone who believes that the whole human-dog association started with canines (felines also?) conning us. They observed our behaviour and decided that mankind looked like it was going somewhere upwards in the evolutionary tree. They latched on to us, and mimicked our behavioural patterns so that we would believe that they were easy to get along with. For that, we would feed them and keep them warm. In turn, they gave us, then and today, immeasurable loyalty and protection.
Indeed, it seems that compelling evidence is emerging to indicate that dogs and cats have figured out how to functionally join the community of an entirely alien species. This is, in itself, evidence of their sophisticated social competence.
The scientist’s code is beginning to change relative to attributing human characteristics to animals. Researchers are now seeing what every dog (and cat) owner knew all along. Dogs especially do exhibit human characteristics: grief, envy, jealousy, anger, rage, bellicosity, love, hate, guilt, remorse, happiness, resentfulness, anxiety, fear, contentment, deceit, pride, arrogance, shyness, bravery, kindness and willingness to help, desire to make the human happy, recklessness, sadness, depression, vexation, (e.g. at being blamed wrongfully), gluttony, malice (afterthought?), low self-esteem, laziness, greed, stubbornness, playfulness, (including engaging in pranks), selective forgetfulness, vengefulness, boredom, communicativeness using only the eyes, flirtatiousness, coyness, loyalty, protectiveness. And I’m sure I have left out some important characteristics which one of you readers would identify.
A Professor in Animal Psychology, Dr. Alexandra Horowitz, wrote a seminal tome called “Inside of a Dog”. It became a bestseller when published in 2010. The following is what she wrote:
“In learning how to study the behaviour of animals, I was taught and adhered to the scientist’s mantra for describing actions: be objective; do not explain a behaviour by appeal to a mental process when explanation by simpler processes will do; a phenomenon that is not publically observable and confirmable is not the stuff of science. These days, as a professor of animal behaviour, comparative cognition, and psychology, I teach from masterful texts that deal with quantifiable facts. They describe everything from hormonal and genetic explanations for the social behaviour of animals, to conditioned responses, fixed action patterns, and optimal foraging rates in the same steady, objective tone”.
Then she added: “And yet”; what came after those two words was the confession that, traditionally, science — as practised and deified in tests and published articles — rarely addresses pet-owner experiences of living with and attempting to understand the minds of our companion animals. Since then, a lot more objective studies have been, and are being, carried out and shared with the public in easy-to-read articles.
The Scientific American (May/June 2015 issue) carried an in-depth cover story on “Why we love pets and why they love us — the science behind the bond”. It is worthy of a read.
What does all of this mean? Quite a revealing treatise. What I am saying is that there should be less trepidation and worry when we go into a shelter to choose a companion animal as a complement to our family. You may even carry your veterinarian when going to make your choice.
Again, please accept our kindest wishes for 2025.
