Dog trouble: Dog aggression in a post-humanist household

• In Event: 3140 - Innovations in Sociological Animal Studies

Abstract

Studies of modern pet keeping generally focus either on analyzing the unique position of pets in human physical and social spaces, or on exploring the impact on pet ownership on individual well-being, frequently exploring the potential benefits of pet ownership on anxiety, depression, risk of cardiovascular disease etc. However, with their unique position, often as ‘non-human family members’, pets can impact the lives of their owners in a myriad of ways, sometimes with very negative consequences for the owners’ emotional, social and even financial well-being. In this paper, I draw on interviews with 14 owners of aggressive dogs, as well as ethnographic fieldwork in relevant contexts (such as dog-training classes and Vicious and Dangerous Dog Hearings) to highlight a difficult side of dog-ownership that has been neglected in research despite the richness of insight it can offer us. I show that dog owners can feel such commitment to their dog, their relationship with the dog, and/or their identity as dog owners, that they work to preserve the relationship even when the dog is not only disrupting the owner’s lives, but endangering those around them. Ultimately, I put these experience in conversation with literatures on family, social relationships and well-being and argue that relationships with pets can not only be viewed as socially-significant, but as social relationships-in-and-of-themselves. As such, these relationships are both an important part of family life, and can have great impact on individual and family well-being.

Author

• Sanja Miklin, University of Chicago