Barking Dog Dharma

Why Failing to Get Your Dog(s) to Stop Barking May Be a Good Thing

Unsplash Photo Credit: Robert Gramner 

Every evening as the sun goes down, I saunter along a pathway to a cluster of mailboxes where I retrieve the postal mail for the day. Without fail, two of my neighbors' dogs  bark at me ferociously whenever I’m headed that direction. All this despite it having been my daily pattern for years.

I’ll admit to being a bit peeved every time it occurs. But what I always find fascinating are the futile attempts on the part of the dog owner to get them to shut up every time I fuel this uproar. “Stop that, stop that,” he yells as the dog’s completely ignore his valiant effort to get them from being a nuisance. 

Recently, I was metaphorically reminded of why these dogs insist on barking every time I’m within eyeshot of them.  In the book “The Bhagavad Gita" author Eknath Easwaran unlocks one of many meanings of the word dharma as…

……. the essence of a thing or what makes it what it is. 

So how does this apply to dogs? Well, it's the fact that a dog is a dog is a dog. In other words, it’s a part of most dogs' instinctual nature as a protector to bark. An ancient story Easwaran highlights in his book illuminates this. He writes: 

A sage, seated beside the Ganges, notices a scorpion that has fallen into the water. He reaches down and rescues it, only to be stung. Some time later he looks down and sees the scorpion thrashing about in the water again. Once more he reaches down to rescue it, and once more he is stung. A bystander, observing all this, exclaims, “Holy one, why do you keep doing that? Don’t you see that the wretched creature will only sting you in return?” “Of course,” the sage replied. “It is the dharma of a scorpion to sting. But it is the dharma of a human being to save.”

In Taoism, we often talk about the importance of staying in alignment with one’s natural essence and inner nature. Like dogs, there are certain tendencies we have baked into our DNA as humans that shouldn’t be squelched. Unless of course, they become harmful to others. 

So now, whenever I head over to see what’s in the mailbox, I remind myself amid mild annoyance that these dogs are just naturally being dogs. At the end of the day, attempting to get them to stop barking is akin to trying to get me to stop reading books. Because it’s a natural part of who I am, it simply ain’t gonna happen.