Dogging

Last year my oldest brother and I had this argument about sled dogs. We were discussing our dad's cancer, and then started fighting about sled dogs. 

"Sled dogs want to be sled dogs" my brother argues. He was making a comparison of something, I wish I could now remember what. "It's in their breeding" my brother says, "It's a Malamute's instinct to be a sled dog."

But what if they don't want to be sled dogs? What if being forced to run on a leash with other dogs to pull a sled while being whipped to run faster, isn't what that dog wants to do?

My brother contends an Alaskan Malamute, is a matter of genetics impervious to psychological recalibration. "Pure animal instinct" he says. "It's in the dog's DNA to demonstrate it's strength, beauty, agility and dominance."

By being a sled dog?

You're saying the only way for that dog to demonstrate  beauty, strength, agility and dominance, is to get whipped pulling some asshole in a sled? 

What if that dog just wants to be loved, to love back, and takes pride in being a protector, a member of a human family, and finds his strength in being loyal to that family who loves him? Or what if that dog just wants to live in a pack with other dogs? Like those penguins in Antarctica.

My brother told me not to humanize sled dogs. 

I told him the way he describes sled dogs, seems more commonly "human" in this day and age; showing off delusive beauty and strength as a form of self perceived dominance no one else recognizes.

I know dominance. Real dominance. It's an unspoken courage verified only through the admiration of others after a deserving act performed, not beforehand. For example, American military men and women.

Humans want love and admiration for doing absolutely nothing. Group A do things on camera most humans do every day as customary, but Group A insist on being rich and/or famous for it. 

Sure, follow me around my house with your cameras. I get home between 10pm-midnight, take off my pants, pour a cold beverage and watch the news in my underwear. Then fall asleep on the sofa. Now give me your money!!

Dogs don't have that kind of arrogance. 

I too believe animals possess a glorious heightened instinct some humans are very jealous of. 

Dominance...

It's not fucking, or ropes, or whipping, or ball gags. Those people need to find a more accurate word for what they're doing. It's also not being forced to run on a leash, controlled by a whip or a whistle by some asshole in a sled. 

They do make vehicles now specifically designed to voyage across the arctic ice and snow. No need to "Sweep with threshing oar" young Viking overlord. 

My brother said, "It would be abusing the Alaskan Malamute to deny it from running in a sled pack."

Sigh.

But a dog doesn't know it's a sled dog, I say, until a leash is put in it, and it's only knowledge of life is running in a pack pulling this sled, being whipped to run faster.

I've heard the argument Mushers now use whistles... I doubt they all do... And that's besides the point.

Ever read Pavlov's Dog? Humans aren't that different. If you were a monster who (didn't feed) a human in your care, then rung a bell, then fed that hungry/starving human, then starved that human again, every time that starved human heard that distinctive bell, that human would think s/he was going to be fed.

It's conditioning. That's it.

Not all Malamutes are sled dogs. Maybe it's a German Shepherd trapped in the body of a Malamute? Ever think of THAT?!

"It's not a Malamute in the body of a German Shepherd." 

But what if it was?

"It's not."

But what if that dog had different intuitive properties of say a Bloodhound, and wanted to be a Search and Rescue dog? 

"Malamutes don't have the intuitive properties of a Bloodhound."

But what if they do?

"They don't." 

But what if they DO?!

(I fucking love THE GRINDER!!) It's like Rob Lowe, channeled my inner Plaidskirttorpedo!

Those who know me and my brothers, especially those who've known us all our lives, have head these arguments and wonder why have them. 

If you only focus on your own cause, not paying mind to the purpose of opposition, how do you know how to strengthen your own?

Point being... 

Humans and dogs alike, through freedom, understand their value in the world. If you force them into a specific modified surrounding, you are conditioning them into being a product of environment.

Raise more humans. Less products.

Or...

For those who don't understand what I just wrote... MUSH!