Animal Influence I - Antennae The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture

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(E) Dog image used routinely in Coldwell Bank advertisements
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animals, including brain structures, psychology,
and cognition: “We’re trained to think our personal
impressions are too subjective, and therefore
must not be right, but when it comes to animal
emotions, this assumption is wrong” (56).
Anthropomorphism, then, seems at once
necessary but also dangerous, requiring a
carefully maintained tension between recognizing
interspecies similarities while not conforming
animals’ diverse personalities to selfish human
desires.
The reduction of animal otherness into the
economy of the human-friendly “pet” is especially
dangerous for dogs who do not conform to
modern society’s demand that dogs be naturally
docile at all costs, such as Akitas. As Tuffy and
Buster’s leaders, it has become common, during
our walks, for us to encounter humans who
exclaim, “Wow! Your Akitas are so well-behaved! I
used to have an Akita.” Hoping that the passerby’s
Akita died of old age, we used to ask, “What
happened?” We would invariably receive the
response: “Oh, I had to put him down. He bit a
kid.” Or: “We had to give him up; he attacked my
other dog.” In 2010, an article published in the
peer-reviewed science journal Nature confirmed,
through genome analysis, what Akita advocates
have been saying for many years: that Akitas were
re-bred with wolves during their history of
domestication, creating many pre-modern traits
(vonHoldt et al.). This does not mean that our dogs
cannot fit into society. They can, but they need
firm leaders who understand the psychology of
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dominant dogs. Akitas are extremely loyal and
loving animals, but they also possess proud,
dominant personalities with traits that many
humans find difficult to handle, including the
tendency to challenge their leaders for the alpha
position, the refusal to engage “boring” activities
(like fetching a ball over and over), and the refusal
to submit to anyone’s command except for one
human leader who has earned their respect.
As the humans in charge, we have had to
how to adapt our behaviors to deal with the
needs of a “primitive” breed. First, Tuffy and Buster
require a highly organized social order and act
out without one: they frequently check to see if we
are up to the responsibility of leading the pack,
sometimes daily. Part of our pack order also
means that Tuffy (our female) must keep Buster
(our male) in check and that we must confirm
their social positions with our own behaviors. If we
give Buster more attention than Tuffy or if he gets
fed first, Tuffy has to step in to reassert her
dominance over him even more, and this often
means the loving kisses she usually showers him
with will turn into angry bites and growls until we let
her know that, yes, she is on top. Second, Tuffy
and Buster do not regard other dogs as
playmates—instead, they are either threats or
prey—and we have had to learn how to lead our
pack in such a way that they do not pose
dangers, nor scare our neighbors. For example,
as confident leaders, we walk quickly by dogs that
cause Tuffy and Buster alarm, acting as if they do
not matter, and slowly our dogs have learned to
trust our judgment and continue on their way.
Third, Tuffy and Buster work continually to protect
their pack-members, and we have to carefully
manage both casual encounters on the street
and guests into our home. Unfortunately, too often
Akitas are purchased because they look like cute
little teddy bears in “pet” stores and when they
grow up and become unmanageable—or worse,
bite or injure somebody—they are dropped off at
a shelter for being “bad dogs” when the problem
all along was bad human leadership. Akitas
simply don’t fit easily into a modern society which
demands docility at all costs. However, with
imagination and self-training on the part of their
human leaders, they can adapt and become the
loyalest of companions.
Tuffy has posed the biggest challenge for
us—and is a big inspiration for #TrainingYRHuman.
With an extremely dominant and headstrong
personality, she makes it clear regularly that she
finds our commands useless and our behaviors
boring and stupid. At the same time, she works
hard to integrate herself into modern life and has