Umwelt (Wolf Park Part 2)

 

 

         

When Beth asked me to speak on working with disabled dogs at her Wolf Park training seminar, she told me that the theme for this year’s gathering was “empathy.”  She wanted participants to consider the world as interpreted by their dogs, and work to improve their empathy, and therefore their understanding, of their dogs.  On the first day, presenter Pat Goodwin of Wolf Park talked about “umwelt,” and this became a theme for all of us during each presentation throughout the weekend.

Umwelt is a German term that usually translates literally to “self-centered world.”  The concept of umwelt to behaviour was discussed and theorized by Jakob von Uexküll, who theorizedthat organisms can have different umwelten, even though they share the same environment. An organism creates and reshapes its own umwelt when it interacts with the world. The umwelttheory states that the mind and the world are inseparable, because it is the mind that interprets the world for the organism. Consequently, the umwelten of different organisms differ, which follows from the individuality and uniqueness of the history of every single organism. Uexküll's writings show a specific interest in the various worlds that he believed to exist ('conceptually') from the point of view of the umwelt of different creatures.
 

As I thought about this term in relation to blind and deaf dogs such as Lottie, I realized how appropriate it was to always keep in mind.  As a dog trainer, I always try to put myself in the mind of my dog, or my client’s dog.  And I think that I’m pretty good at it, and I’m guessing most trainers feel the same way.  Yet sometimes we have a dog who we just can’t figure out – why isn’t he behaving as we think he should?  I thought about the day, over 2 years ago, that my friend Victoria told me she was adopting a blind and deaf Australian shepherd, and asked me to help train her.  I remember distinctly trying to imagine what it would be like to 1) be a dog and 2) be blind and deaf.  I decided it would be awful, and lonely, and sad.  And I thought secretively that this poor dog Victoria was adopting should be euthanized.  There are so many healthy young dogs who can see and hear in shelters, why save one who must live such a sad and compromised life?  I couldn’t imagine how I could get any joy from a life in darkness and silence.  But then I met Victoria’s new dog, Dahlia.  I met a happy, confident, sweet, loving and joyful dog who was 100% blind and 100% deaf.  And I suddenly realized that I must not be as good as I thought I was at putting myself in the mind of a dog.  Because despite what MY brain told me, this dog behaved completely different than what I thought she should.  Obviously, her umwelt was quite different from mine.


Keebler, who is deaf

 

Once I became entranced with Dahlia and adopted my own blind and deaf dog, Lottie Moon, I realized that when I told someone I had a deaf and blind dog, everyone would respond in the same way.  People would wince and say something akin to “that’s so sad.”  To which I always respond brightly, “No it’s not.  She’s the happiest dog I know.  She has no idea she is blind and deaf.”



So this concept of umwelt really hit a chord in me.  We must always remember that we are coming from our own umwelt, and we must try to step away from that if we are to truly understand another.  Lottie’s umwelt without sight or sound is so completely different from mine that I really cannot conceive it.  Yet knowing her, and seeing her joy everyday despite her limited senses has made me a broader thinker, a better person, a more compassionate being.  A humbler being.