Perspective

Welcome back, as always thank you for taking the time to be here. This week we will talk about perspective. 

One of the definitions of perspective is “a particular attitude toward or way of regarding something”. Basically meaning that we each have our own unique way of seeing, experiencing and living through something. It is not right or wrong, it is just what is. 

In 2016, with the backing of Marley’s Mutts and in partnership with K9 Behavior College we started a prison program called Pawsitive Change. In it we aimed to teach the principles of dog psychology to incarcerated men, by bringing dogs into prison and having they live with the men for 12 weeks.

• 

Everything was new to us, we had to create everything from scratch, the curriculum, the operational procedures, the length of the program, what dogs would come in. By sheer force of will, a little hubris and a lot of hard work we started the program at California City Correctional Center. It was absolutely incredible. The way the men understood what were teaching in an instinctual level opened my mind in such a deep way, it is difficult to find the words to explain. It completely opened my mind to a world I had never imagined. To see how the entire vibe of the prison would change when we brought dogs in. To see grown men just go back to being kids in the presence of dogs. To see what real heartache is.

Prison is a different world, we do imagine that we are fully aware of that. However, what I experienced changed my perspective about things I thought I knew. For starters the “energy” in prison is unique. The dogs feel it, you can see it by the way they act the first time you bring them in. There is an excitement combined with tension in the air. You feel somewhat oppressed by it. But not the dogs; 99% of the dogs we bring reflect that excitement by becoming very excited themselves.

It may come as no surprise that the way you perceive things, stimuli or reality is different than mine. Our realities are shaped by our experiences and by the way we respond to them. Dogs are similar in so far that their experiences do color their reality, but the way they perceive things, stimuli or life is different than ours. They perceive the world thought their nose. For the first 14 days of their lives they are blind and deaf. They find things (mostly their mom at this stage) with their sense of smell. After that their eyes open and a week or so later, their ears start to function. NOSE – EYES- EARS. In that order. Hence why when your dog meets the world they go nose first.

Humans do not perceive the world primarily through our sense of smell. We use sight first and then sound. EYES-EAR-NOSE. If one can be receptive to just that: that the manner in which humans and dogs perceive the world is distinct, we can begin to be more open to how we, in turn regard everything around us.

What Pawsitive Change has allowed me to do is to combine my passion for dogs with my desire to teach what I have learned from them. What it has taught me, again and again, is that in order to live a fuller life we can all benefit from a change of perspective from time to time. The students that I have met during this program have broadened my view of what it means to be alive. They are eager to connect, to learn and to change. Many of the alumni that have been released, are now successful dog trainers in the outside world. Others were able to find the best versions of themselves with the program and now have careers that have nothing to do with dogs. But none, not one, has gone back to prison.

Humans helping dogs helping humans help dogs.

The more I learn about the men enrolled in Pawsitive Change, the more I understand that we all share in the human experience. We all have a dark and a light side in us. The dogs in this program help by connecting the humans and teaching them a new way of experiencing the world. The dogs’ perspective in this case is that prison is a place where they get to work, they get to feel loved and they get to have fun. From their point of view, prison is a very rewarding place.

To learn more about the program and how you can help, please visit:

https://www.marleysmutts.org/pawsitivechange