What Do Our Pets Need?

Emotional Needs of the Animals We Care For

Kindness for All Creatures

An Excerpt from Kindness for All Creatures

Core Needs

What do animals need? Basics include food, water, shelter, rest, safety from undue fear and harm, opportunities for play, company, solitude, territory (a nest), enrichment (stimulation), toys and activities, and healthy interactions. Most pets need praise and positive feedback. This is certainly true for dogs and cats! From a Buddhist point of view, we should attend to the animal’s body, heart, and spirit, keeping their past karma and their future rebirths in mind. They deserve love, respect, effective limits, and clear communication—much as children do—with the obvious difference being their level of cognition and trajectory of growth. Ideally, we would simulate, as much as possible, the original natural environment for each species.

However, in reality, animals under human care face many limitations and compromises. Many do not have their core need of safety from undue fear and harm met; animals everywhere suffer mistreatment, from benign neglect to brutal abuse. I once saw a heart-wrenching video of a dog repeatedly attacking two goats. The video was a plea for people to call local authorities to demand the owner release the goats to a sanctuary, as he refused to ensure their safety around his own dog. Under the resulting public pressure he did so, to everyone’s great relief. The goats’ wounds were treated, and they then went to live at the Goats of Anarchy animal sanctuary. Stories like this remind us that the heart of generosity and compassion can be vocal and effective, bringing hope and healing for suffering animals.

We can change the world, and it absolutely does make a difference when we speak up and act together to rescue animals, even if it’s on a small, local scale for the sake of two goats and a dog.

Animals in harm’s way need and deserve our loving, patient protection and advocacy. Opportunities are all around for us to lean in and offer our lovingkindness through skillful intervention. We accomplish much through our attention to right speech, right action, and right livelihood, three vital aspects of the Mahayana Way.

Tending to a Pet's Emotional Well-Being

Tending to pets’ bodily needs is fairly straightforward. But one must have enough additional time, energy, and focus to tend to pets’ emotional well-being as well. Providing loving warmth and affection creates a mutually bonded heart connection with pets, as we fulfill the role of benevolent caregiver. Remembering that pets are in a dependent position can help awaken our compassionate heart and our patient demeanor.

Considering the spiritual trajectory of the animal, we should try to provide opportunities for our animal companions to create positive karma and reduce negative karma. For example, we can look for ways to decrease the likelihood of our pets hurting or killing other animals, even instinctually. Fostering the intention to help pets in this and future lives is the bodhisattva motivation, whether at the aspiration or enactment level. Just aspiring to place others first is a crucial step toward doing so on a regular basis. As my teacher Reverend Taitetsu Unno regularly demonstrated, a pet is no different from a revered and beloved ancestor and should be treated accordingly.

Animals need to be met on their own level of cognition and emotional processing, not projected on as if they are a person capable of processing complex thought and emotion. For example, if a puppy soils the carpet during toilet training, we don’t punish them later: dogs have no cognitive connection between a past error and a present reprimand, so punishing a puppy for a past wrong is simply cruel. To be kind, patient, and effective, toilet training has to be sensibly proactive in order to prevent accidents and has to provide frequent opportunities for praise when a pet eliminates in the proper place. We wouldn’t expect a young child to process adult emotions or behave as an adult. Neither can we expect animals to behave in a way apart from what their nature, type, breed, and age dictate.

Rather, we can set them up for success, with appropriate expectations in suitable environments.

My friend Simon in Austin, Texas, left his two young puppies in the house when he went to work. Because no behavioral structure had been set, the puppies instinctively sought out things to chew and places to relieve themselves. Rather than punish them (which, again, is never effective after the fact for beings who live strictly in the now), he promptly installed a baby gate to confine the pups in the tiled kitchen. Because they were teething, he provided them with their own toys to chew, and a neighbor came over at intervals to let them out into the yard.

We cannot bend biology to our own will, but we can offer progressive, age-appropriate, and compassionate training complete with clear signals, communication, and consistent reinforcement.

Pets want to behave in a way that pleases their human caretakers.

If we clearly model what we expect, reward immediately when intended goals are met, and withhold praise or treats when noncompliance occurs (whether intentional or unintentional), animals learn to live in harmony with us.

Simon’s pups quickly learned to wait to relieve themselves until they were let outside. They responded to being praised and given a treat after eliminating outside. This is how our patience pays off, for us and our animal companions. Clarity and compassion are minimum requirements for being good animal guardians.

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Sarah C. BeasleySarah C. Beasley (Sera Kunzang Lhamo) is a senior lay practitioner in the Nyingma School, Dudjom lineage, with thirteen years full-time direct training in traditional Buddhist teachings and methods for body, speech, and mind. She spent nearly seven of those years in closed intensive retreat under the guidance of Lama Tharchin Rinpoche and Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, supported by Tsadra Foundation, and worked for three years on Practices for the Dead (and Dying) including guidance on how to care for pets during the aging and death passage.

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