Transdogsciplinary Design
Posted on December 11, 2013 | posted by:I have always grown up with pets in the house. Birds, cats, fish, rabbits, you name it. But none of them have ever owned my heart in the same way that my dogs have. Cuddly, fluffy companions…how could anyone ever not fall in love with them?
Though having dogs in the house definitely changed my life as a kid, I did not realize the extent of their potential until later in life. A few years ago, my mom started the process of training for pet therapy. We went through a number of dogs before finding the perfect candidate: Bongo.
Bongo was a rescued beagle from Kentucky with eyes that could make your heart melt and a big warm belly always ready for a good belly rub. The second he entered our house we immediately fell in love with him. Though the whole family wanted to feed him and pet him all the time, we were not allowed to for it would interrupt in the training that my mom was vigorously working on.
After months and months of hard work, my mom and Bongo finally became a certified pet therapy team. Bongo was then an official service dog and was allowed to enter all kinds of places where other pets were not allowed. My mom took him to visit sick patients in hospitals, people in palliative care and to a school for kids with autism. She worked with all these people and more, changing the lives of each and every one of them.
A few months later we welcomed our newest family member, Vince, to the family. Vince was a collie from a family of show-dogs, who didn’t quite make it to the big screen. My mom started working with him as well and eventually they became a certified pet therapy team too. She now takes Bongo and Vince on all kinds of missions, impacting the lives of all those they encounter. Vince and Bongo even have their own trading cards, which my mom gives to the people they meet, so that they have a souvenir from the team.
Being in this program has really made me think about the role of animals, specifically dogs, in our lives. We use dogs to help rescue people, we use them as an extra set of eyes for those who need them, we use them to help us sniff out all kinds of things that our noses do not allow us to do, we can even use dogs to help teach kids with learning disabilities to read. We use dogs to help us with all kinds of tasks, across all kinds of disciplines.
How might we explore the impact of animals on our own level of vulnerability? How might dogs help us teach empathy? What other disciplines can we bring these kinds of therapies to in order to help better the results that we are looking for? My mom one time told me that she was happy that she was able to work with our dogs in this capacity because she always wanted to visit sick people but didn’t necessarily know what to say or have the right words when she did. Having the dogs with her allowed her to use the dogs as a conversation topic, and to help make other peoples days’ often without even saying anything. How else can we use animals to help other people reach their potentials and do the things that they have always wanted to do, but weren’t sure just how to do it?
All of these questions and more are things that this program has opened up my mind to. There are so many things that are happening in the world and so many ways to improve those kinds of things, with tools that we already have! Being able to see from above those disciples, and using certain disciplines to better others, is what this program is all about to me.
