Changing with the whims of dogs: An inter-species exploration of self-alteration with companion animals

Abstract

This article offers an alternative understanding to the therapeutic experiences of human interactions with companion species, particularly dogs and horses, through a phenomenological discussion of more-than-human intersubjectivity. In an ethnographic account of residents of the Central Coast, New South Wales, Australia, the lived experience of mental health changes in the companionship of non-human others reveals the importance of human attitudes and their interpretation of companion species' communication. In this ethnography, dogs and other companion animals are often valued for their sensory insight, trusted perspective and sensitive character. In appreciating and desiring positive relationships with their companion species, the participants of this ethnographic study were able to access embodied forms of self-alteration in order to appeal to the sensory communication methods of their dogs and horses. Horses have a particularly powerful impact as their sensitivity and massive size demand that humans pay careful attention to their energy, posture and voices. While the positive impacts of human–companion animal interactions can be understood through clinical psychiatric discourse, this undervalues the importance of a more-than-human intersubjective perspective, which can reveal non-human species as co-creators of human knowledge and being.