Doogs: How They Teach Families About Love
Many a saint would tell you: A dog can help you find your way to heaven.
St. Hubert of Liege, the patron saint of dog bites, sheltered homeless hounds and placed a sign of the cross on their foreheads to protect them from rabies.
St. Francis of Assisi tamed the Wolf of Gubbio, talking privately with the wild canine and promising him a regular supply of food if he would stop terrorizing the town.
St. Dominic is frequently portrayed with a dog at his feet, clinching between its sharp teeth a flaming torch of truth.
It's worth considering, then, what role a canine companion can play in our lives.
Lauri Baker, a Catholic from Alton, N.H., who has been training dogs for more than 22 years, helps families forge constructive bonds with their dogs.
Last summer she taught dog agility to youths who were part of a program called Appalachian Mountain Teen Project. Each of the children had lost one or both of their parents.
“I wanted to keep it fun and positive for them,” says Baker. “They all shined with the positive reinforcement they were getting.”
With Baker's help, the kids urged their dogs to crawl through tunnels, walk on planks and jump through multicolored hoops. By doing so, she says, the children assimilated confidence to overcome their own personal obstacles.
Donna San Antonio, director and founder of the Appalachian Mountain Teen Project, teaches adolescent development and adjustment at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
“The children in [this group] often have had such a severe breach of trust in their relationships with people they are supposed to depend on that they have a hard time in their relationships with their peers and teachers,” she says. “They begin to realize how much their dogs love them, trust them and want to please them. They and their dogs feel great about doing new ‘tricks’ well. The dog smiles, the teen-ager smiles. It is wonderful.”
Brother Christopher from the Monks of New Skete Monastery in Cambridge, N.Y., where men have raised and bred German Shepherd dogs since 1968, shares an observation that might explain what helps children grow while training their pets.
“Interestingly enough, a relationship with a dog also helps us know ourselves better,” he explains. “A dog is guileless and utterly honest. It becomes a unique mirror reflecting us back to ourselves, if we pay attention.”
That point of view is not inconsistent with the Catechism (No. 2416): “Animals are God's creatures. He surrounds them with his providential care. By their mere existence they bless him and give him glory [cf. Matthew 6:26; Daniel 3:79-81]. Thus men owe them kindness. We should recall the gentleness with which saints like St. Francis of Assisi or St. Philip Neri treated animals.”
At the Monastery of Poor Clares in Santa Barbara, Calif., three German Shepherds — Belen, Tasha and Siena — keep the nuns mindful of the simple wonders of God's creation. Sister Chiara Marie has contemplated their dogs' behavior and written a small booklet called O Jesus, I am Your Doggie, in which she parallels the relationship between us and God with that of a dog and its owner. She says the book is for spiritual beginners.
Dogs Can Teach Families How to Love Without Limits
Unconditional Love
‘When a dog is corrected it doesn't sulk, brood or turn in on itself, rather, it is always ready to get up, wag its tail and carry on with life.’
In the presence of their owners, dogs are happy, whether the owner talks or is silent, she adds. She compares this to our own natural state of contentedness in the presence of God. “Fidelity and devotion are doglike qualities, and they stand out whether or not the master is speaking or silent,” says Sister Chiara. “It's enough just to be in the Master's presence. In our case what presence is better than the Lord's?”
David Plaskow, manager of special projects at St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center in Madison, N.J., says pets can teach us how to love unconditionally. “Our pets love us whether we're black or white, rich or poor, healthy or sick.”
‘When a dog is corrected it doesn't sulk, brood or turn in on itself, rather, it is always ready to get up, wag its tail and carry on with life.’
— Sister Chiara Marie
Plaskow believes that humans learn not so much from the dog itself as through the bond that develops between a person and a companion animal. “We find that children at the earliest of ages can learn empathy and compassion for living things,” he says. “They can see that just as there are differences in animals, there are differences in people and that's okay.”
Good dog behavior evolves from the bond developed between owner and pooch, says Baker. “Once a dog has trust in you as a trainer or owner, you can ask for behaviors that you never thought were possible,” she says.
She ought to know. The American Kennel Club named her dog Kava the No. 1 Australian Cattle Dog in agility for the year 2000 and a top-10 finalist in the AKC agility nationals in 2001. Her husband's dog, Reef, is an agility trainee.
Prayer and Pets
She and her husband, George, an altar boy throughout his childhood, pray before every competition.
The spirit can be contagious. Lauri's mother, Millicent (Mitzi) Varrichione, says that she sometimes reaches for her rosary after watching Lauri, George, Kava and Reef practicing agility in the field.
Even Lauri's father, Frank Varrichione, who played pro football for 11 years for the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Los Angeles Rams, has been known to bow his head after seeing the canine capers of Kava and Reef.
But perhaps the Varrichione's most satisfying prayers are those said silently as they observe families developing, thanks to their dogs, a special bond with one another — and with God, who made them all.
Mary Ann Sullivan writes from New Durham, New Hampshire.
Information
(Voluntary offerings accepted)
Monastery of Poor Clares 215 East Los Olivos St. Santa Barbara, CA 93105
Lauri and George Baker [email protected]
“Raising our Dog with the Monks of New Skete” video (518) 677-3928
St. Hubert's Animal Welfare Center
www.sthuberts.org
