A long story about a Bouv named Rico, but worth the time to read.
IF YOU WANT TO CAUSE A COMMOTION in any psychology
department or any other place where animal and human behaviour is studied, all
that you have to do is to claim that your dog loves you. Skeptics, critics, and
even some ardent supporters will pour out into the halls to argue the pros and
cons of that statement. Among the skeptics you will find the veterinarian Fred
Metzger, of Pennsylvania State University, who claims that dogs probably don't
feel love in the typical way humans do. Dogs make investments in human beings
because it works for them. They have something to gain from putting so-called
emotions out there. Metzger believes that dogs "love" us only as long
as we continue to reward their behaviours with treats and attention. For most
dog owners, however, there is little doubt that dogs can truly love people.
Take the story of Rico and Renae. Rico was a Bouvier des
Flandres. At the time of this story, Rico was three years old and Renae was his
eleven-year-old companion. Rico had been given to Renae when he was ten weeks
old, and she immediately bonded with him, petting him, hand-feeding him,
teaching him basic commands, and letting him sleep on her bed. Whenever she was
not in school, the two were always together and within touching distance. The
family would often fondly refer to the pair as "R and R." Renae was a
relatively timid and shy girl, and as the dog grew in stature he brought her a
sense of security. When Rico was next to her she felt confident enough to meet
new people and to go to unfamiliar places. Rico took on the roles, not only of
friend and confidant, but also of defender. When encountering strangers, he
would often deliberately stand in front of Renae, as a sort of protective
barrier. He seemed to be without fear, such as once when Renae was about to
enter a store and two large men dressed in biker outfits burst out of the door,
yelling at the shopkeeper and nearly knocking Renae over. Rico rushed forward,
putting himself between the frightened girl and the two threatening men. He
braced himself and gave a low rumbling growl that carried such menace that the
men backed off and gave the child and her guardian a wide berth.
There was, however, one flaw in Rico's armour. It was a fear
of water that was so extreme that it was almost pathological. Rico's fears
stemmed from his puppyhood, when, at the age of seven weeks, he was sold to a
family with an adolescent child. The boy had emotional problems and acted as if
the attention bestowed on the new puppy somehow meant that he was less
important. In a jealous rage, he put the puppy in a pillow case, knotted the
top and threw it into a lake. Fortunately, the boy's father saw the incident
and managed to retrieve the terrified puppy before it drowned. He scolded the
boy and returned to the house. The next day the horrified parent saw his son
standing waist-deep in the lake trying to drown the struggling puppy by holding
him under water. This time Rico was rescued and returned to the breeder for his
own safety. These early traumas made water the only thing that Rico truly
feared. When he came close to a body of water, he would try to pull back and
seemed emotionally distressed. When Renae would go swimming in the lake, he
would pace along the shore trembling and whimpering. He would watch her
intently and would not relax until she returned to dry land.
One late afternoon, Renae's mother took R and R to an
upscale shopping area. It was located along the edge of a lake and featured a
short wooden boardwalk which was built along the shore over a sharp embankment
that was 20 or 30 feet above the surface of the water. Rene was clomping along
the boardwalk, enjoying the way the sounds of her footsteps were amplified by
the wooden structure. It was then that a boy on a bicycle skidded on the damp
wooden surface, hitting Renae at an angle which propelled her through an open
section of the guard rail. She let out a shriek of pain and fear as she hurled
outward and down, hitting the water face down, and then floating there
unmoving. Renae's mother was at the entrance of a store a hundred feet or so
away. She rushed to the railing shouting for help.
Rico was already there, looking at the water, trembling in
fear, and making sounds that seemed to be a combination of barks, whimpers, and
yelps all rolled into one. We can never know what went through that dog's mind
as he stood looking at the water-the one thing that truly terrified him and
that had nearly taken his life twice. Now here was a frightening body of water
that seemed about to harm his little mistress. Whatever he was thinking, his
love for Renae seemed to overpower his fear and he leapt out through the same
open space in the rail and plunged into the water. One can thank the genetic
programming that allowed the dog to swim without any prior practice, and he immediately
went to Renae and grabbed her by a shoulder strap on her dress. This caused her
to roll over so that her face was out of the water and she gagged and coughed.
Despite her dazed state she reached out and managed to cinch her hand in Rico's
collar, while the dog struggled to swim toward the shore. Fortunately the water
was calm, they were not far from shore, and Rico quickly reached a depth where
his feet were on solid ground. He dragged Renae until her head was completely
out of the water, and then stood beside her, licking her face, while he
continued to tremble and whine.
It would be several minutes before human rescuers would make
it down the steep rocky embankment, and had it not been for the courageous
Bouvier, they surely would have arrived too late. Renae and her family believe
that it was only the big dog's love of the little girl that caused him to take
what he must have considered a life-threatening action.
This certainly casts doubt on Dr. Metzger's theory that dogs
don't love us but act only out of self-interest. Why should Rico behave in a
way that he certainly felt would risk his life? Surely, if he was evaluating
the costs and benefits of his actions then he would have known that, even in
Renae's absence, the rest of the family would be around to feed him and take
care of needs.
Marc Bekoff, a behavioural biologist at the University of
Colorado, has a different interpretation. He notes that dogs are social
animals. All social animals need emotions, in part as a means of
communication-for instance you need to know to back off if another animal is
growling. More importantly, however, emotions keep the social group together
and motivate individuals to protect and support each other. Bekoff concludes
that strong emotion is one of the foundations of social behaviour and is the
basis of the connection between individuals in any social group, whether it is
a pack, a family or just a couple in love. Recent research has even identified
some of the chemicals associated with feelings of love in humans. These include
hormones such as oxytocin, which seems to help people form emotional bonds with
each other. One of the triggers that causes oxytocin to be released is gentle
physical touching, such as stroking. Dogs also produce oxytocin, and one of our
common ways of interacting with dogs is to gently pet them, an action that
probably releases this hormone associated with bonding. If dogs as social
animals have an evolutionary need for close emotional ties, and they have the
chemical mechanisms associated with loving, it makes sense to assume that they
are capable of love, as we are. Rico's fear of the water was absolute, and
never did abate. He continued to avoid it for the rest of his life and no one
ever saw him so much as place a foot in the lake again.
No one, at least not Renae or her family, ever doubted his
love for her. He lived long enough to see an event occur which would not have
happened had he not cared for her as much as he did. When Renae graduated from
high school, she posed for a photo in her cap and gown. Beside her sat a now
much older Bouvier. The smiling girl had an arm around the dog, and her hand
was cinched in his collar, as it was the day that Rico unambiguously showed her
just how much he loved her.
From FB's Bouvier Des Flandres Appreciation group.
