Free Bones Would Rain from the Sky: Deepening Our Relationships with Dogs by Suzanne Clothier Page A

without stumbling. A dancer who concentrates
on technicalities may forget to hear the
music.
    on the way to the dance
As already noted, finding your way to the dance is not
simply a matter of making the right turn somewhere in
childhood or when you first acquire a dog. In one
way or another, and most often without meaning to, we
will stumble against the realization that there are levels of
relationship. This is something we already know from our
human experience. From the intense bond of parent-child
to the very casual one of, say, that with your local dry
cleaner, we understand that there is a wide range of
possibilities encompassed by the word
relationship.
    As we mature and learn more about ourselves and develop
greater awareness, we come to understand that even within a single
relationship, there are levels, beautifully
explained by Stephen Sloane in his brilliant
essay "Spirit of Harmony," which appeared in
Equus
magazine in July 1995.
The first level is what Sloane calls the
"mechanical" or technical level of
relationship. At this level, the relationship
between man and dog is a matter of mechanics: You
apply the stimulus, the dog responds. The
relative simplicity of this level is best
exemplified by Gary Larson's cartoon showing two
amoebas, one complaining to the other, "It's always the
same old thing-stimulus, response, stimulus,
response." Though simplistic when placed in the
context of a relationship, this mechanical approach can
be used to train an animal to perform quite complex
tasks. Problems are solved mechanically, often
through the use offeree. If the dog won't do x, y
or z, you make him. The dog won't sit? Push
down on his rear and pull up on his collar until
he does sit. The puppy bucks and pulls when the
collar and leash are put on? Tie him to a
doorknob and let him fight it out there.
Recipes are not only possible but quite popular at
this level. To be sure, if the recipe is a good
one, a large percentage of dogs will respond
nicely, especially when such a recipe is
applied by an expert hand. With a high degree of
skill and a thorough understanding of learning principles,
a trainer may never move past this purely
technical level yet still be very successful
(assuming that success is measured solely
by the animal responding in the desired way). It
is also possible to be technically proficient and
yet fail at a deep, soulful level. Notable
in its absence at this level is a sense of
partnership-the animal is little more than a living,
breathing machine, though he may be taken care of
diligently. Technical proficiency is a
dispassionate thing, though it may be admired for what it
is-competent workmanship. My view of
relationships is that they are living works of art. And so
when I consider the purely mechanical as the basis
for a relationship, what rings true are the same four
words considered the most damning commentary on any work of
art: "It has no heart."
The leap from the mechanical level to the next
level, what Sloane calls the "motivational"
or psychological level, is a fairly easy
one, requiring only that you become curious about why an animal
will or will not do something. Motivation is defined as "the
psychological feature that arouses an organism
to action." In trying to understand what motivates the
dog, you begin to learn more about him. At the
mechanical level, the question is how to make
the dog do what you want him to do. At the
motivational level of relationship, you are trying
to figure out how you can make the dog
want to do
what you want him to do. The trick is to discover in
what way (or ways) your dog is motivated
to act as you'd like him to. There are many ways
to motivate a dog: food rewards, toys,
play, freedom, praise, attention.
That sounds good and pleasant, doesn't it? When we
think of motivational,
we often make this word synonymous in our minds with a
pleasant, happy approach. But there are