“Umm.”
We walked the rest of the way to the park in a comfortable silence before Bonnie suddenly
became animated. Like a child making discoveries, she pointed to an ancient tree, a tide rip, then a
cloud formation, and said things like, “It’s elegant,” and, “Watch the swirl,” then, “Look at it
change shape and still be a cloud.”
I was envious. She didn’t have to work at creating her commune characters.
Chapter 9
Look, look!” she then shouted as if my eyes required separate commands.
With exaggerated concern, I scanned the horizon for a tornado, then the sea for a tsunami
before following her finger pointing toward a rotund man, dressed in a multicoloured pullover
shirt, playing with his retriever mixed breed wearing a matching bandana.
“The dog could have rabies?” I ventured a guess.
“This is important. Tell me what you see.”
“I see a fashion-challenged guy playing with his dog.”
“That’s what our culture taught you to see. Try it my culture’s way, and assess the nature of
their interactions.” Bonnie pulled me off the walkway to watch the duo work a cycle of heel, sit,
down, and stay commands. At the completion of the routine, I had nothing ‘advanced’ to add to my
initial observation.
“Would you agree she has been trained using appropriate methods?” Bonnie prompted me.
“No,” I said definitively.
“Why do you say that?”
“She has a penis; otherwise I agree.”
Bonnie managed her laughter into a distorted, “What tells you that his training has been
appropriate?”
“Bozo’s commands are calm, the dog obeys hand signals right away—maybe too fast because
he anticipates them, which means it’s all a familiar game.” At that moment, the dog issued a
plaintive cross between a reluctant howl and a whimper, which sounded like a blues horn refrain.
“Otis is tired of basic training; he’s asking for something to chase,” I said.
“There’s hope for you.” Bonnie inhaled audibly through her nose, then slowly released the air
through her mouth to settle her breathing. In a normal tone, she said, “Otis responds happily even
when he doesn’t get an immediate reward because his behaviour is governed by how his trainer
conditioned him to respond beyond the command.” She mimicked the dog’s antics at the foot of his
owner, taking skipping half steps around me before stopping at close quarters to say, “He has faith
that his actions will benefit him,” with a satisfied huff.
Taking her arm in mine, I said, “I don’t think dogs are plagued by abstractions,” as we started
to walk.
“I didn’t say he thought about it,” Bonnie replied, squeezing my arm. “Which is the point; he
doesn’t know how he has been conditioned any more than we understand the roots of our
behaviour.”
“That may be true, but people can choose to act in different ways to identical circumstances.
Dogs repeat behaviour until they get a better offer.” I thought about this for a moment, chuckled,
and said, “Maybe that’s not the best example.”
