One of the most interesting themes of todays reading was either the success or demise of a bond between human and animal. In many cases the bond between animal and human ends up very successful, just like with Nancy and her cat Charlie. Nancy and Charlie were best friends, they did most of their daily activities together, ate meals together and most importantly kept each other company. On the other side of the spectrum is a situation like Sarah's, with her dogs Hiro and Nami, where the bond was not successful at all, it even was the cause of her marriage ending. The stress and chaos of having those dogs proved to be too much for that couple.
But what makes a bond successful or not? What factors go into deciding whether that person just picked the wrong breed of dog that didn't mesh with their personality or lifestyle, and what makes it so breezy for a widow to pick out the most well behaved cat and live happily ever after? When I think of a successful bond between and animal and it's human caretaker, the term mutualism comes to mind. Mutualism is a term used in biology to describe a relationship where all the participants are getting something from that relationship. With the successful relationships it is easy to see that mutualistic behaviors and components are present. The human is gaining pleasure, love, enjoyment and satisfaction from owning and being around that animal. Whereas the animal is gaining the love, food, shelter, enjoyment and pleasure from the human (assuming it is being well taken care of). When you look at Sarah's situation you can only assume that because she decided to end her marriage and separate herself from the dogs, that a mutualism was not occurring between them. Sarah was obviously not gaining anything from Hiro and Nami, or at least not a substantial amount to make her want to stay and tough it out.
It may be a far stretch to think that this may have something to do with why the bond works or it doesn't, but there does seem to have some possible connection.
-Jill Willig
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ReplyDeleteI really like how you bring up the concept of mutualism in discussing the human & animal relationships between people and their pets. It seems to make sense that it is a matter of whether or not the person and animal are both giving to and receiving from each other in the ways necessary to carry on a satisfying relationship, especially with companion animals. I guess, in a sense, this is present in human relationships as well.
DeleteThis leads me to think about how individual animals have different personalities from one another just like people do, and many people tend to anthropomorphize their pets. Just as two people may end up not getting along, I feel this often happens with people and their pets as well, because it's not just an animal and a human living together, it's two individuals of different species with their own personalities living together. Sarah's story was interesting to me in the fact that she and her husband allowed their dogs to come between their marriage. It's almost as if there was too much personality to be handled in their household.
-Sarah Nappier
I agree with Jill's idea that mutualism plays a large role in determining if a relationship between humans and animal will work out. Assuming the pet is living in a loving, caring household, I think that the animal is always being benefitted. The person will feed it, play with it, and love it. However, it is the person that sometimes gets the short end of the stick. The animal may not reciprocate the playful and loving behavior that the human gives it. This relates to Hiro and Nami. Both dogs were terrors, neither ever listening to Sarah. This may sound bad, but to me those dogs seemed like parasites. The dogs didn't provide anything good for the couple who spent so much time and money on them. Just like how parasites keep their host alive, Hiro and Nami somehow managed to keep Sarah and her parter attached enough, not to get rid of them until it finally broke the couple apart. That being said, of course, if Hiro and Nami were my dogs, I am sure I would be just as attached as Sarah was and I would put up with the bad behavior, simply because I love my dogs.
ReplyDelete-Erik Rohrkaste
I totally agree that a healthy and beneficial relationship, whether within or across species, is a mutualistic one. I’m glad Jill mentioned mutualism within this topic. A lot of times people tend to over anthropomorphize, saying their dog without a doubt loves them. Although this may be true in their eyes, how do we know dogs (or any species) has the mental understandings of abstract love? I hate sounding so negative but I personally feel that to truly understand animals and their relationship with people, we must be skeptical. Who know, maybe certain species do feel love or some undiscovered form of connection. We may never know.
ReplyDeleteI have to also pick on Sarah (in our class) for beating me to the punch! In the context of animal-human relationships, personalities are a huge aspect (specifically in companion animals). Although the disposition of an animal can be created by environmental factors, genetics also play a huge roll. In Sarah’s situation, her dog issues could have been due to her incompatibility with the dog breed. Certain dog breeds are specifically created to follow a common temperament (which is different than personality). That temperament however will eventually develop into a said personality. Matching your lifestyle to the breed’s potential personality is important and can be tricky. If you are looking for a breed for an 80-year-old women, chances are you aren’t going for an active and hypersensitive weimaraner.
For me personally, and I may get yelled at for this, prefer pure breeds. With pure breeds you “generally” know the temperament they will have and any potential health issues associated with them. Perhaps Sarah’s issues arose because of the personality differences. Or perhaps Sarah just picked two dogs that tend to defy any commands and wreak havoc. It’s hard to say.
Her situation is a great example as to why certain companions should be carefully considered before adopting. People go as far as to compare personality traits (human to dog or human to cat) to assure the best match. A lot of research is out there about how personality traits can be compared across species and it is super interesting! These comparisons lead to healthier and happier human-animal relationships.
-Nic Swaner