The Zen
For your pet's good health. Dogs don't engage in sports, jog, work out, do yoga, or (except for a very few) have jobs that involve physical excercise, or even (again except for a very few) do any of the many chores around the house that would keep them active and physically fit. Faithful homebodies for the most part, their food and shelter needs well provided for, pet dogs today are entirely reliant on their masters or other human family members for the predominantly popular, low cost, always available (even in crowded urban centers), health-giving excercise outlet--dog walking. A sanitary necessity. Unlike cats and humans themselves, dogs will not relieve themselves of accumulated liquid and solid body wastes in a convenient receptacle withing the human living space. Also, except for marking (the term for the way in which animals establish territorial control by prominently depositing their body wastes) or neurotic behavor (the last ditch effort for extreme emotional states--anger, upset over abandonment, pleas for love and attention) dogs will not choose to relieve themselves at home, withing the human living space. They need to be taken outside and walked. A world of couch potatoes. Gainful employment today emphasizes repetitive clerical and technical tasks performed at a desk or other stationary work position. Not only teachers, business tycoons and medicine men spend little energy moving their bodies around but also farmers, road builders and softgoods salesmen do more work at consoles and keypads. An uncle of mine years ago traveled specialty shops and department stores all the way from New York to LA with a 200-pound rack of the latest ladie's fashions. He'd lug it in and out of hotel showrooms sometimes twice a day. I helped him one summer with this work--as much brawn as brains required. Today out-of-the-way shops without a big-city buyer find what they're looking for at up-to-date fashion websites where entire design collections can be viewed at one sitting, with attractive professional models on hand via interactive video clips. The salesman is a computer programmer. We humans also benefit from the exercise that dog walking provides!Dog obedience. Heel, come, sit, lie down, jump, beg, bring in the newspaper, bring in the sheep! There must be considerable pride in successfully training your dog to respond to a variety of verbal or hand commands. So many owners yearn for such control. They bring their dogs to obedience school, read through mountains of selfhelp books and worry a lot about what they are doing wrong. The fact is the vast majority can't get their dogs to do what they want when they want any more than they can get their human children to do so. Luckily dogs (even more so than kids) are extremely anxious to please. They learn by themselves to do their owner's bidding without formal obediece training. Further, the kind of conditioning that's required to reliably get response to a complex series of commands probably spoils the dog-human relationship. What's the fun of walking a robot? Control freaks miss all the fun of dog walking. Walking with a lead. There are serious risks of injury or loss walking your dog off lead. Vehicular traffic in the city and near roads. Animal predators especially coyote in the country. Even other dogs if your dog is small or frail. It's against the law in many places. Your dog could bite someone. This could be very costly expecially if the victim is a child. And while many owners say their dog will stay with them, not roam and respond always to call, their confidence is not well placed when their dog gets lost following a particularly alluring scent.Who leads? At the outset this is the most important decision, and you, the master, must make it. If it's time for your dog to relieve himself--hasn't been out for a while or just after a solid meal--you must definitely let your dog lead. Urination comes first. That is in most cases almost immediate. Defecation, on the other hand, will take longer, maybe a lot longer. Be patient! Oberve. Maybe your dog has a favorite spot for this. How long it takes may depend on the digestive process or it may just be a matter of the dog's mood at the moment. And it's good to remember that in a dog's mind defecation is always related to territorial marking. Sniffing out just the right spot will take some exploring and may involve a more or less lengthy decision-making process. In any case, if you have a puppy or a new dog, giving some small treat as a reward is a good idea. This gets accross the message, "Wee-wee (or poo-poo) is for outside!" Note: Some dog owners pay attention to the quality and quantity of the feces as an indicator of doggy health. Speak to your vet if interested in this issue. Taming the Wild Ox. In Buddhist scripture from ancient times sages have compared the human mind with a wild ox. The ox, the most useful beast of burden in those days, had to be captured, tethered and broken to a harness of sorts, a long slow process which eventually made available to man the great power of the beast. Following the example in the story, the Zen initiate is encouraged to directly experience his own mind through zazen (sitting meditation), subdue anxieties and desires, experience oneness with all, and find ultimately great peacefulness (satori). CLICK HERE for Taming the Wild Ox or Bull, Ten Zen Oxherding Pictures, by Zen Master Kakuan, China, 12th C.
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