The Dogs Don’t Care…Seeing People For Who They Really Are
July 29th, 2010 by LittlestMusher | Posted in Youth Empowerment
Tags: Appearances, dogs as teachers, Presentations
Some of my sled dogs and I were very honored to be able to attend Camp S.O.C.K. yesterday, and we spent a terrific morning with the campers and their peer counselors and staff. What a delight to be part of that community and see the campers partake in all the various activities offered. Camp S.O.C.K. is an annual affair supported by many different Southern Oregon Kiwanis clubs and members, and open by application to all. It is held at the United Church of the Brethren Camp Myrtlewood, in the coastal mountains between Roseburg and Coos Bay Oregon. The mission statement of Camp S.O.C.K. is: Southern Oregon Camp Kiwanis is dedicated to providing a fun, accessible, affordable, and safe camping experience for youth and young adults with mobility impairments or physical disabilities. Thus we were invited to be one of those activities!
I’ll have another post later about the “chariot races” with some of the wheelchaired campers, which were tremendous fun for all involved and watching. I hope to even have some video to share with you. For now I wanted to share an observation. As with most any group of people we’ve engaged, presented to or worked with, as soon as the dogs appeared the campers and peer counselors immediately started gravitating to the dogs, wanting to pet and get to know them. And, just like with any other group of people, the dogs responded in kind, gravitating to the campers, in a very gentle and open way.
We always say the dogs are perfect mirrors, reflecting what is going on inside of whomever they are interacting with. Thus the dogs meet openness with openness, gentleness with gentleness, joy with joy. They truly didn’t care about the wheelchairs, walkers, or a given camper’s lack of fine motor skills…those things didn’t matter. They weren’t the essence of the person, merely superficial aspects of how they interface with the world, and the dogs understand that at a very deep level. They ignore all that “junk” that we humans are often distracted by, and instead focus on the spirit, emotion and energy of the people around them.
Once again, the dogs reaffirmed and demonstrated why they are superb teachers of humans who are open to their teachings, regardless of the person’s age or abilities. They shared exactly what these campers needed. Over lunch we were already making plans for next year! If you know of a group that the dogs can help and connect with, please let us know how we can be of assistance.
What do you think? Have you had a similar experience with your own dogs?