On being a dog-person: Meaning-making & dog-walking identities

Abstract

This paper investigates the dog-walk as a sociologically significant site of inquiry, offering a reflective account of using walking-interviews to understand an intersubjectively-oriented construction of personal and social dog-walking identities. Taking a Human-Animal Studies perspective and drawing on data from fourteen interviews with dog-owners in Cork, this paper suggests that the dog-walk, although a mundane, daily activity, is a multifaceted and mutually meaningful practice. Reflecting on my use of walking-interviews, I explore the meanings that dog-owners ascribe to dog-walking, how it shapes their perception of self, and consider their construction of social identities as dog-people, hybridised beings comprising dog and owner, whose focus lies in issues of shared interest to such beings. I propose that mobile methods, such as walking-interviews, support enhanced epistemological and methodological insights into how being a dog-person is done.