My Teacher is a Puppy

Ashlynn is the author of our first entry on chapter 3, and here
she is -- with her teacher!

In the third chapter of Mary Gordon’s Roots of Empathy, Gordon gives a detailed description of six-month old Leah’s visit to a Kindergarten classroom. Leah had visited this group of students before and they were all very excited to see her again and to observe how much she had grown since her last visit. Gordon then went on to describe all of the reasons that a baby is such a wonderful teacher of empathy. While I read through all of these reasons, I began to think that babies are not the only great teachers of empathy; animals can teach us a thing or two about empathy as well. Much like Gordon said about baby Leah, animals are “endearing and nonthreatening” (p. 52), they recognize who needs special attention (p. 54), and they achieve “milestones” (p.49). Although an animal may not be able to teach us all of the same things that a baby can, I know firsthand that an animal can have a profound impact on a person’s life.

In February, my home gained a charming little addition in the form of Ellie – a hyper Chihuahua- mix puppy that we adopted from the CCSPCA.  From day one she has been a challenge. Like most puppies, she is very curious and tends to explore her world by chewing on anything within her sight, digging up all manner of objects outside (plants, sprinklers, etc.), and by claiming all household objects as her own. If I do not close my closet door before leaving the house I will come home to find that Ellie has acquired a collection of my dirty laundry, including my unmentionables, and has placed them all in her bed.  She also feels that it is her duty to terrorize our other dog, Stevie, all throughout the day. Despite Ellie’s shortcomings – I’m not even going to mention potty training – I can say with confidence that she has been the best part of my life this past year.  Much like the children in the Kindergarten class, I am excited every time I get to see her, and each time I see her I learn something new.

Like I had mentioned earlier, similarly to babies, animals are “endearing and nonthreatening” (p.52). Although Ellie can have a pretty vicious bark at times, she is nonthreatening overall, and no one can argue against the endearing quality of puppies. Much like with Leah, these two qualities make Ellie very appealing and easy to attach to. This attachment that I feel with Ellie helps me to be more in tune with her feelings and vice versa. It is clear that Ellie is aware of my feelings and the feelings of others because, like Leah, she can recognize who needs special attention (p.54). In this past year I have gone through many stressful situations that have left me feeling both emotionally drained and vulnerable, and when I am at my lowest point Ellie has been there. Although you can typically find her running laps around the house or barking mercilessly at the pantry door that holds her snacks, she somehow knows when I need her to calm down and just lay by me. She definitely knows when I need special attention.

Lastly, Ellie has achieved many milestones since we brought her home and I have been fortunate enough to witness them firsthand, just like the Kindergarteners got to do with Leah. Some of her milestones include being able to sleep through the night on her own, learning how to go for a walk with a leash, and learning how to swim to the step in the pool. Much like Leah, these milestones were not achieved overnight – they took a lot of work on Ellie’s part and patience on my part. Although Ellie has come a long way, she still has a lot of “not yets” on her milestone chart (p.50). But although these “not yets” can be frustrating to me at times, like in the instance of Ellie going through my laundry basket, I find comfort in knowing that in life it is normal for us to not have achieved all of our milestones yet. Someday soon, Ellie will have achieved all of the milestones that she is currently working on, but in the meantime I have to be patient with her. I can also find the strength to be patient with myself as well as I try to achieve my milestones in life.

Ellie has been a wonderful teacher in my life, but I must recognize that she cannot possibly teach me as much as a baby could. The two primary reasons that a baby surpasses Ellie’s teaching ability are that “a baby is the place we universally start from” (p.52) and with a baby we can “watch the symbiotic action-reaction of parent and child” (p.52). Although Ellie is endearing, sensitive to my needs, and can achieve many milestones throughout her life, she simply cannot compare to a baby. This realization really goes to show that the Roots of Empathy program has really chosen the very best possible teacher of empathy: a baby.