Sentiments of Blue

My psychology professor once said, "The key to understanding psychology is studying animals". Is it possible we can learn communication aspects of psychology by studying animals? I'd say yes. Allow me to quote John Graves, "Nice Dogs are ego boosters, and have been so since the dim red dawn of things". (133) After reading this quote, I noticed he capitalized "Nice Dogs" as a title of significant importance. In other words, there might be such thing as a "Bad Dog" who is not such an ego booster, such as one who would kill your goats while you were dreaming in a deep state of sleep, or would pee on your rug while you're in class or at work. This act represents betrayal and would encourage a psychological distrust about "Bad Dogs".

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On the other hand, a "Good Dog", one loyal to man's desires and bound to his master by a shared goal of co-existence will ideally share similar, or common, sentiments communicated between man and dog. A pat on the head, an inflection of voice, a wag of the tail are indeed a form of linguistic communication between man and beast. Dogs may not be able to speak, but I contend they are able to communicate--and quite effectively. My suggestion is this is obviously why there has been such a connection with man and dog over time. From a bark for attention, to a wag of the tail to express happiness, dogs seem to know how and what to express to us so that we understand them.

When I read "Blue and Some Other Dogs", I couldn't help but think about how much we can learn from dogs. In my linguistic/anthropology class, taught by Dr. Keating, we looked at the behavior of dogs within' interpersonal relationships, or inter-canine relationships. As odd as it may first seem, we drew conclusions by analyzing how positive language had a noticeably different affect on dog's behavior and how they reacted to humans--the reverse for "negative" interaction. We, as humans, have distinct facial expressions which can indicate certain things. Disgust, for example, can be universally recognized by all people in all cultures. It doesn't matter which origin of the world you're from, chances are, one human will instinctively be able to recognize the facial expression of a certain disgusted someone. The people below may have various spectrums of disgust, but one thing most will agree on, they wear an element of disgust on their face. We draw this conclusion by observing certain features of someone's face. The guy below has a frown, squinted eyes, a bent bottom lip, a crunched chin and is pressing his eyebrows together--obviously disgusted by something. We see similar facial-elements of disgust in female example of disgust, shown below, and easy to decipher by most.

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Below are the universal facial expressions experts in various academic fields recognize as "universal".

Anger Contempt Disgust Fear Happy Sad Surprise [3]

Dogs are such wonderful animals and so compatible with humans that it seems most people have unique and sentimental experiences to share about their animals. For the most part, they make us happy and our faces shine with a smile when we interact with them or reflect on our happy memories with our beloved pets. When Graves recalls the times he and Blue would patrol the fields for coons who might destroy their crops, we can read into his writing and discover that he had somewhat of an interpersonal connection with his dog. His sentiments, apparent in his reflecting on his memories with Blue, show in vast detail not only a psychological connection between he and his dog, but also a keen understanding of his dog's own sentiments and desires, apparent by his understanding of Blue. Through the bond he built with Blue over the years, he was able to sympathize and understand his companion's sentiments and desires of protecting the crops from raccoons.

"During the time when cantaloupes and roasting ears were coming ripe and most attractive to coons, I would leave the garden gate open at dark and Blue would go down during the night on patrol. There was sometimes a question as to whether a goodly squad of coons given full license cold have done have as much damage to garden crops as the ensuing battles did, but there was no question at all about whether the procedure worked. After only two or three brawls each year, word would spread around canny coondom that large hairy danger lurked in the Graves of corn patch and they would com no more, much to Blue's disappointment. "(133)

By understanding Blue's disappointment, and other aspects of blue's canine character, Grave's has built a communicative connection with his dog that can also relate to human relationships. It seems we want the same things in human companions as we do in our pets. As Grave's writes, "LIke most dogs that converse with humans he was a thorough yes type, honoring my every point with agreement". (133) Through Blue's agreement, he has established with his master a deep psychological mutual commitment to loyalty and understanding as much as is "humanly" possible. From this, we not only learn a lot about ourselves. But ourselves learn to act as humanely as possible towards other beings. So we come closer to understanding ourselves and the expressions and sentiments of the animals with which we co-exist.