A long story in short bites

Who let the dogs out features a collection of entrancing works by over 60 artists from around Australia. Paintings, sculptures, ceramics, glass, video and works on paper, represent the dog in a diverse number of manifestations: at rest, at play, or at work. The exhibition’s themes reflect the many different roles the dog takes on in the world of humans, and how important they are in our lives. Through the eyes of the artist we can ponder the origins of the dog, and its spiritual presence for Indigenous Australians. Some artists celebrate their faithful and constant companion as a dog-muse, or co-opt the dog as a metaphor for human ambitions and weaknesses. Yet others attempt to enter the inner world of the dog and convey pure doggy pleasures. The dog’s willingness to please and to be trained inspires the portraits, trophies and performances that have delighted humans over the years.

Recently the inter-species relationship – some may say love affair – between man and dog has been scrutinised with academic rigour. The emerging disciplines of evolutionary biology, animal-human interaction, animal psychology, and animal-assisted therapy (1) are supported by a growing body of scientific literature. (2) DNA evidence has established that proto-dogs (descendents of the wolf) began living in close proximity to humans at least 40,000 years ago. Archaeological finds date a domestic (or pet) relationship to 12,000 BP. (3) The big question remaining is how that bond evolved? The idea of ‘survival of the friendliest’ suggests that it was the dogs most able to make friends (to be patted, wag their tails in welcome and adopt the human group as their pack) that survived to become what we know today as the domestic dog. The Australian dingo is one of the closest remaining descendents of this original village dog. (4)

Great artists and writers have, over the centuries, found inspiration in the dog. Who let the dogs out illustrates the long tradition of dogs in art that continues unabated. (5) The dog – as companion during the long solitary hours in the studio, as muse or metaphor, or simply as itself – remains a vital and prevalent figure in contemporary Australian art.

Australia has one of the highest rates of dog ownership in the world: for example 42% compared to 23% in the United Kingdom. (6) Whether working dogs or domestic pets, they entrust us with their care. In return they give us a companionship that many say is good for our spirits, our health, and can help us to empathise with all living creatures. In other words, increase our humanity.

Robert Colvin
Merryn and Lop Lop
1990
Silver gelatin print

Living under the Dog Star

In classical times the celestial realm was mapped and named in many cultures. Consistently, the closest and brightest star to earth was associated with the dog. The Greeks named it Sirius, or the Dog Star, in the constellation Canis major in the 5th century BC. Not surprisingly, if one joins the ‘star dots’ in this constellation, a figure of a dog cocking its leg appears. Perhaps in reference to Captain James Cook’s astronomical mission, the flagship of the First Fleet to Australia in 1788 was called the HMS Sirius. On terra australis they would encounter an ancestor of their modern dogs, one more closely related to their ship’s namesake than they could imagine. In 1861 Charles Darwin wrote:

In Australia the Dingo is both domesticated and wild; though this animal may have been introduced aboriginally by man, yet it must be considered almost an endemic form, for its remains have been found in a similar state of preservation and associated with extinct mammals, so that its introduction must have been ancient. (7)

Genetic research shows that they were indeed introduced to Australia from South East Asia about 5,000 years ago, possibly from one breeding pair. (8) Researcher Dr Alan Wilton suggests the dogs could have been brought as food. Darwin also thought ancient tribes would have bartered these prized, useful animals. ‘In effect the dingo is a living fossil,’ observes science journalist Jonica Newby, ‘the preserved ancestor of all modern dogs. And when it reached Australia it made quite an impact’. (9)

Wildlife ecologist Dr Laurie Corbett (10) suggests that the socially organised dingo competed directly with thylacines, for example, and were responsible for their extinction on the mainland (the dingo never reached Tasmania). The dingo also entered into the mythology of the Aboriginal people. Here, as in many ancient cultures, these camp dogs existed ‘precariously in the no-man’s-land between the human and the nonhuman…’ and were often considered to be ‘messengers between the living and the dead’. (11) Burial sites in the Koorong Waters, South Australia, have been found which have a row of buried dingoes on the boundary. (12) The dingo is also, as bio-anthropologist Dr Colin Pardoe explains, closely associated with fertility rites:

He [the dingo] also brings the circumcision ritual, and … if you look at your dog’s ear, at the back of the ear you’ll see this little flap, like a fold in the skin. It doesn’t have a name … however, Aboriginal people with this story about circumcision have a name for it, because that little flap is where the dog who brought the circumcision ritual to Australia stored the stone, a little stone flake, that he cut with…(13)

The Dingo Dreaming is still told in the works of many Indigenous artists. The dingo in figurative form is also a popular subject across Australia – from fibre sculptures in Maningrida, to the Tjanpi Desert Weavings of the Centre, and carvings from Utopia.

Greyhounds and puppies were onboard the First Fleet. The First Fleeters also brought with them a deep cultural attachment to the dog – in literature, sport, folk tales and art. The dog therefore already played a role in the psyche of both cultures as they met on the shores of Botany Bay. With the colonists came the dogs, foxes and wolves that inhabited the oral traditions later compiled in the fairy tales of Perrault (14) and the Brothers Grimm. (15) The phrase ‘once bitten, twice shy’, comes from a tale of Roman origin in Aesop’s fables, The Dog and the Wolf:

A Dog was lying in the sun before a farmyard gate when a Wolf pounced on him and was just about to eat him up; but he begged for his life and said, ‘You see how thin I am and what a wretched meal I should make you now: but if you will only wait a few days my master is going to give me a feast. All the rich scraps and pickings will fall to me and I shall get nice and fat: then will be the time for you to eat me’. The Wolf thought this was a very good plan and went away. Some time afterwards he came to the farmyard again, and found the Dog lying out of reach on the stable roof. ‘Come down’, he called, ‘and be eaten: you remember our agreement?’ But the Dog said coolly, ‘My friend, if ever you catch me lying down by the gate there again, don’t wait for any feast’. (16)

Ancient dog deities, tomb guardians and spirit dogs are found in many cultures. By the time the colony had celebrated its third Year of the Dog (1814), while trading with China for such staples as tea, it supported a small population of Chinese settlers. The 12-year cycle of the Chinese animal zodiac credits those born in that Year of the Dog as being:

…honest, faithful and sincere. They respect tradition and value honor, and enjoy helping people. The Dog is very righteous, and always is the first to speak out against injustice. Loyal … and a good listener, the Dog is also very reliable in keeping secrets for others. (17)

Chinese-Australians, and those who have made cultural connections with China in recent years, continue to find inspiration in this 8,000-year- old tradition.

Love me, love my dog

While Charles Darwin saw fit to single out the relationship between man and dog, it was the discovery of a 12,000-year-old Middle Eastern burial site in the 1970s, that illuminated the nature of that pact. The skeleton remains show an adult with a hand, affectionately, around a puppy. (18) Why had that bond become an affectionate one? Of all the domesticated species, what sets the dog apart? They not only found a niche in our settlements, but also in our affections.

Dmitri Belyaev’s long-term project in Russia [with foxes] … first demonstrated, we believe, how the genetic transformation from wild to domestic canine could occur, without human intervention. It’s based on ‘flight distance’, a component of wild animal behaviour that dictates how close the individual can approach some object before turning and running away. (19)
The wild canines best able to scavenge around early human encampments benefited from this new source of sustenance. The Russian project shows how other characteristics of the domestic dog (arrested puppy behaviour such as submissiveness and barking; high-brain seratonin – the cuddle chemical; multicoloured fur; floppy ears and curly tails) followed from this one selector. In 1999 the project could report:

Now, 40 years and 45,000 foxes after Belyaev began, our experiment has achieved an array of concrete results. The most obvious of them is a unique population of 100 foxes (at latest count), each of them the product of between 30 and 35 generations of selection. They are unusual animals, docile, eager to please and unmistakably domesticated. When tested in groups in an enclosure, pups compete for attention, snarling fiercely at one another as they seek the favor of their human handler. (20)

The dog’s particular ability to respond to human body language cemented its place in our world. Unlike other animals, when faced with a problem (as any dog owner will know) they look to us for help. (21) Together with their most powerful weapons – their heightened sense of hearing and smell – this ability to look at us has suited them to being trained for the tasks of the hunt, to become trusted workers on farms and security operatives in modern cities.

Have you ever pondered how your dog knows you are thinking about taking a walk? You are probably sending tiny messages in your face or body that they are picking up; you may even be giving off a different scent. Author John Steinbeck, observing his poodle Charley, once wrote:

And Charley … is a mind reader. I don’t know that he can read the thoughts of other dogs, but he can read mine. Before a plan is half formed in my mind, Charley knows about it, and he also knows whether he is to be included. There’s no question about this. I know too well the look of despair and disapproval when I have just thought that he must be left at home. (22)

This empathy between species is unique. It is a relationship that involves responsibility and care. Many now prefer to replace the term ‘dog ownership’ with ‘animal companion’, so that we are more aware that our four-footed friends are sentient beings, with emotions and personalities. If this can be encouraged then violence against animals can be better prevented. Such violence, if exhibited by children, has in fact been cited as a marker for violence in the family or a predisposition for violent behaviour, and can assist teachers and counsellors in early detection and treatment. (23) So, a healthy relationship with our canine companions is part of a healthy overall social environment. Programs such as PetPREP, developed by the Australian Veterinary Association promote safe and responsible pet care. (24)

Dogs are playing their part too in keeping us healthy in body and mind. Quite apart from the health benefits of walking the dog once a day, therapy dogs are now on the frontline of paramedical services – assisting as helpers with the disabled (as they have as seeing-eye dogs since 1916) (25), taking part in rehabilitation schemes in hospitals and homes for the aged, (26) and are found to have a beneficial effect on children with behavioural problems such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). (27)

What’s not to love!

Top dog

Kennel clubs became formalised in the United Kingdom in 1873 shortly after the first dog show took place in 1859. Its original mission statement was to ‘endeavour in every way to promote the general improvement of dogs’. Under the influence of Queen Victoria, who kept 70 purebred dogs in her Windsor kennel, 19th-century England became a nation of dog fanciers. The Kennel Club’s Stud Book defined breed standards, and adopted a naming system which assisted the recordkeeping of breeding programs. The Queen’s patronage elevated the once minor artistic genre of the dog portrait to new heights. Edwin Landseer, who was commissioned many times to paint the royal pets (which have been widely reproduced and emulated ever since), was eventually knighted for his work.

Artists of the period, in the Romantic spirit, endowed their dog subjects with human attributes. They became the embodiment of the faithful, loyal and true. Poets of the day, if at times overly sentimental, sang their praises and, in more evocative language than the Stud Book, celebrated their lineage, as in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s To Flush, My Dog:

Leap ! thy broad tail waves a light;
Leap ! thy slender feet are bright,
Canopied in fringes.
Leap – those tasselled ears of thine
Flicker strangely, fair and fine,
Down their golden inches. (28)

Prior to the formalisaton of kennel club procedure, breeding had been less strictly overseen. A handful of identifiable breeds had been in evidence over the centuries, but by the end of the 1800s the number of pure bloodlines had increased and now there are over 400 registered breeds.

It is interesting to note that the establishment of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1824 (and given royal charter in 1840) predates the Kennel Club by several decades. The increase of pet ownership in the middle classes had made more delicate the sensibilities of a society still dependent on animal labour for so much of its economy.
The phenomenon of the modern dog show was the subject of an affectionate ‘mockumentary’ film Best in Show (2000, writer/director Christopher Guest, Warner Brothers). Failing to get permission to film at the famous Westminster Show in New York, the producer Karen Murphy had to create her own dog show, an experience that gave her an appreciation of this ‘rich, unique, eccentric and complex world’. (29)

There have been show dogs in more arenas than Crufts, however. For centuries they have delighted audiences at the circus, music hall and cabaret, have been reliable partners to itinerant street performers, and can be seen with buskers on city streets to this day. Poodles, despite their origins as working water dogs, have been found ideal for the stage since at least the 18th century – as acrobats, in costume dramas riding chariots and singing and performing any number of tricks. As one historian, General W. N. Hutchinson, noted:

…that a dog could be tutored into playing as a good a game of dominoes as a man, may sound preposterously unreasonable, but the respectability of the writer compels us to give credence to the recital…(30)

This showbusiness personality is a trait of the poodle whose ‘striking appearance and whimsical nature’ make it such a ‘charismatic entertainer’. (31)

Paintings of dogs, like portraits of other species such as cattle or horses in the 19th century, were in large part commissions to celebrate the perfection of scientific breeding practices. The artist’s preferred, very specific pose – standing in profile with the head slightly turned to the viewer – like the rituals of the show ring, showed the dog’s features to their best advantage. Sporting dogs pointed, hounds bailed up, and lap dogs settled comfortably into plush cushions. The dog also played, and continues to play, its part in allegorical compositions.

Going to the dogs

Over the past decade there have been major exhibitions and books about the dog in art history, as one title has it, ‘from rococo to post-modernism’. Author Robert Rosenblum identified the appeal of the dog as a subject in art as follows:

… dogs could rapidly become surrogate human beings, mirroring the belief … that the dog represented the most total conquest the human species had ever made over the animal world, exemplifying every kind of courage and loyalty elicited for no other motives than those of love and gratitude. (32)

This ‘quasi-personhood’ allows dogs to embody not only the noble aspects of human nature but to ‘represent those who are challenged or compromised’ those who were, through poverty, race or illness, outcast or disadvantaged. (33) Long before Winston Churchill spoke of the ‘black dog’, as he referred to his bouts of depression, the term had been in common usage. (34) It dates back to Roman times when a black dog was considered bad luck, much as being crossed by a black cat does today.

In another metaphorical incarnation the ‘dogs of war’ have been called into active service in recent years. The phrase, threatening and ready for violence, may well hail from William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, with the call to arms ‘Cry “Havoc!”, and let slip the dogs of war’. It is now applied to those leaders who set country against country. A 2003 article by John Pilger headed ‘George Bush’s other poodle’ described (former) Australian Prime Minister John Howard in less than flattering terms, the implication being that he would do the bidding of the more dominant country. (35)

Caricature and political satire, metaphor, allegory or fable, the dog lurks in the shadows of representation. Not only does an owner bear an inter-species resemblance to their chosen breed, the analogy goes, but their personalities are usually well-matched. If Churchill battled the black dog in his personal life, cartoonists were fond of characterising him as the English bulldog – indomitable. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the poodle remains in the minds of the public shorthand for pampered silliness, submissiveness and luxury. The terrier is a smart one, as we saw so recently in the advertising campaign for Hyundai (in comparison to the plucky blue heeler in their famous ‘Bugger!’ campaign). We respond to these canine stars with more than the gush factor – the dogs are stand-ins for attributes that we would find hard to put into words, but immediately comprehend.

Dog days

O sirrah, down! Why snuffle at the door?
You restless dog, here’s not the place to rove.
My cushions–there! Don’t wander any more.
As if you’re lost: lie down behind the stove.
Out there you showed a poodle’s pedigree,
And played your tricks upon the hilly crest;
But if I give you hospitality,
Lie down, and be my welcome quiet guest. (36)

The mysterious poodle that Faust so innocently invites into his study is eventually revealed to be the devil incarnate – Mephistopheles. Not withstanding the shock that a poodle could be cast as the devil, Goethe’s tale is one we can all identify with: responding to the antics of a stray dog, and offering it the comforts of a warm room and a soft cushion. Their chance meeting on a ‘hilly crest’ was to result in the famous Faustian pact: selling one’s soul for worldly gain. But literature has its benign dog muses as well. Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s spaniel Flush in Virginia Woolf’s biography of the same name, John Berger’s noble outcast King, John Steinbeck’s travelling companion Charley (also a poodle, but one who goes ‘pfft’ and does not cast spells), Paul Auster’s ingenuous Mr Bones and Louis de Bernières’ outback loner Red Dog among them.

In the course of selecting work for Who let the dogs out, I visited many galleries and artists’ studios. More often than not, I was met first by a dog, then by their companion. Dogs relieve the silence of the studio (none of us, even Faust, really likes talking to ourselves), they give advance warning of impending guests, they put gallery visitors at ease. I was most struck by the fact that a formal gallery visit soon became laughing and joyful as various works were found and brought out.
As they recline on the many variants of cushions and blankets dispersed for their comfort, dogs make excellent and ready-to-hand models. The canine model is quite happy to lie there, at times even willing to adopt costumes and poses. They will not criticise the portrait, nor question the wisdom of this or that composition or choice of colour. Odalisque, hooligan, angel, hero or friend, these art dogs (and there are even more than I had hoped to find) testify to the strong bond between their species and humankind.

I am sure the artists in Who let the dogs out would agree with the perceptive hero of The curious incident of the dog in the night-time who says:

I like dogs. You always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy, sad, cross and concentrating. Also, dogs are faithful and they do not tell lies because they cannot talk. (37)

It’s a dog’s life

There are those lucky dogs whose daily walks provide the artist with their subject matter, capturing the antics and postures of chasing, sniffing and dog socialising. Author Jeffrey Masson writes:

I keep looking for my dog’s favourite walks, but the truth is, they have no favourite walks; only I do. They love all walks. They love walking. They love being wherever they are. (38)

If until recently we knew little about the effect of dog companions on our health and emotions, we knew even less about the workings of the dog mind. For whatever reason, the study of dog behaviour has often occurred as a by-product of other studies, such as the researcher who thought ‘I bet my dog could do that!’ when faced with unco-operative chimps in a laboratory test in regard to human cognition. (39) By contrast, the dog perspective on the world has been captured in fiction, anecdote and image for centuries. The artist’s keen observation, the empathy that is born of imagination, gives us access to this exclusively canine realm.

The experiments cited above have revealed that the canine species is particularly suited to living and communicating with us. They read our body language and we read theirs. Given the closeness of this inter-species relationship, there is a great temptation to anthropomorphise. We talk to them in baby talk, confide in them when no-one else will listen, feel thankful that we have another living being with us when we are lonely or sick. Those who live with these clever, comforting, funny and faithful creatures know what they are capable of. It has taken science a little longer to prove how and why dogs bring out the best in us as Paul Auster so movingly describes in Timbuktu:

… because [Mr Bones] loved her more than any other living person in the world, he was glad to serve as her confidant and sounding board. There was no-one else to fill this role for her, and even though he was a mere dog who could neither counsel her nor answer her questions, his simple presence as an ally was enough to give her the courage to take certain steps she might not have taken otherwise. (40)

Merryn Gates
Dedicated to Lop Lop (1989–2006)

1 For example, the Canine Helpers for the Disabled Inc, QLD, www.therapydogs.org.au; and the Delta Society Australia Ltd, Sydney, which promotes ‘the beneficial effects of companion animals which range across the full human lifespan ... enhanced social skills in childhood; reduction and better management of hypertension, heart attacks and strokes; improved mental health and well being in the frail aged’. www.deltasocietyaustralia.com.au
2 Australians such as Dr Alan Wilton, University of New South Wales; Professor Paul Hemsworth, Director of the Animal Welfare Centre, a joint centre of the University of Melbourne, Monash University and Department of Primary Industries, Victoria; Dr McGreevy, lecturer in animal behaviour at Sydney University, contribute to the research.
3 Simon J. M. David and Françoise R. Valla, ‘Evidence for domestication of the dog 12,000 years ago in the Natufian of Israel’, Nature, 7 December 1978, pp608–610
4 Jonica Newby, ‘The dingo in Australia’, The Science Show, ABC Radio National, Saturday 23 June 2001
5 Equally so in recent novels such as Michelle de Kretser’s The lost dog (Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2007) and Louis de Bernières’ Red Dog (Secker and Warburg, London, 2001), and in the cult success of television series Wilfred (written and performed by Jason Gann and Adam Zwa, director Tony Rogers, SBS 2006).
6 Jonica Newby, The Animal Attraction, www.abc.net.au/animals/program5/transcript.htm
7 Charles Darwin, ‘Domestic dogs and cats’, Chapter 1, The variation of animals and plants under domestication, 1861, www.fullbooks.com
8 Emma Young, ‘Wild dingoes descended from domestic dogs’, New Scientist, 29 September 2003
9 Jonica Newby, ‘The dingo in Australia’, The Science Show, ABC Radio National, Saturday 23 June 2001
10 Laurie Corbett (previously of the CSIRO and currently Earth-Water-Life Sciences Pty Ltd) in Jonica Newby, ibid.
11 James Serpell, The domestic dog: its evolution, behaviour and interactions with people, University of Pennsylvania, 1996
12 Colin Pardoe (bio-anthropologist, ACT) in Jonica Newby, ‘The dingo in Australia’, The Science Show, ABC Radio National, Saturday 23 June 2001
13 ibid.
14 Charles Perrault, Fairy Tales, trans. Geoffrey Brereton, Penguin, 1957 (first published in Paris in 1697)
15 Brothers Grimm, first published 1812
16 Aesop’s Fables, with illustrations by Arthur Rackham, Avenel Books, New York, first published 1912, p177
17 Sabrina Liao, Chinese astrology, www.12zodiac.com/learnsign/dog.html
18 ‘[the] left wrist was partially under its forehead, and hand upon the thorax of the puppy, which had evidently been buried complete with the human.’ Simon J. M. David and Françoise R. Valla, ‘Evidence for domestication of the dog 12,000 years ago in the Natufian of Israel’, Nature, 7 December 1978, p608
19 Dmitri Belyaev’s Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences’ project began in the early 1950s; as discussed in Barbara Petura, interview with Ray and Lorna Coppinger, www.WorkingDogWeb.com, 16 June 2001
20 Lyudmila N. Trut, ‘Early Canid Domestication: The Farm Fox Experiment’, American Scientist, 87:2, March-April 1999
21 Brian Handwerk, ‘How did dogs become adept at playing humans?’ National Geographic News, 6 February 2004
22 John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley, Heineman, 1962
23 ‘A study conducted in 1999 [in America] noted that 32% of the pet-owning victims of domestic abuse reported that one or more of their children had hurt or killed a pet.’ ‘Animal cruelty and family violence: making the connection’, American Humane Society, www.americanhumane.org
24 www.petalia.com.au
25 ‘Whilst The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, UK was founded in 1934, the modern guide dog story started in Germany in 1916-17 when dogs were trained to lead soldiers blinded in the First World War.’ www.guidedogs.org.uk. Labradoodles (a cross between the labrador and the standard poodle) were first bred in Australia as an allergy-free guide dog by Wally Conron in the 1980s.
26 ‘At 30th June 2007 almost six hundred Pet Partners (trained volunteers and their Delta accredited pet dogs) were visiting children’s and adult hospitals, nursing homes, hostels, rehabilitation centres, mental health units, hospices, children with special needs and disabled residents in supported care every week.’ www.deltasocietyaustralia.com.au
27 Jonica Newby, The Animal Attraction, program 5, referring to the Companionable Zoo at Devereaux Kanner Day School, Pennsylvania, USA
28 Elizabeth Barrett Browning To Flush, My Dog, first published 1844
29 http://bestinshowonline.warnerbros.com
30 General W. N. Hutchinson, Dog breaking: the most expeditious, certain, and easy method whether great excellence or only mediocrity be required with odds and ends for those who love the dog and gun, (London 1909) as quoted in
www.poodlehistory.org
31 American film trainer Charlene Dunlap, in www.poodlehistory.org. She has instructions for general training and dancing with dogs on her own site www.caninehorizons.com.
32 Robert Rosenblum, The dog in art from rococo to post-modernism, John Murray, London, 1988, p33
33 Alec MacLeod, Dogs in Metaphor and Idiom, unpublished, California Institute of Integral Studies, www.ciis.edu/faculty/macleod.html
34 The Royal College of Surgeons, UK, www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums/exhibitions/churchill/history.html. The Black Dog Institute, Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, NSW, is named after this term.
35 John Pilger, ‘George Bush’s other poodle’, The New Statesman, 20 January 2003
36 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, first published 1808
37 Mark Haddon,The curious incident of the dog in the night-time, Doubleday, 2003
38 Jeffrey Masson, Dogs never lie about love, 1998
39 Brian Handwerk, ‘How did dogs become adept at playing humans?’, National Geographic News, 6 February 2004
40 Paul Auster, Timbuktu, Faber and Faber, London, 1999, p195