Good morningReader!

I have a strange question for you today.

What does anthropology have to do with walking your dog?

Until recently, I’m not sure I would have known how to answer that.

But I’ve been talking with my friend Professor E.A. Burlingame, an anthropologist, author, educator and podcaster behind A Taste of Anthropology, and she has me looking at something I’ve spent years talking about from an entirely different perspective:

Both ends of the leash

Anthropology is, at its heart, the study of human beings—our cultures, behaviors, beliefs, relationships and the ways we’ve developed and changed over time.

And I believe there’s tremendous value in understanding where we’ve been.

We’ve all heard some version of the idea that if we don’t learn from the past, we’re likely to repeat its mistakes.

But perhaps understanding humanity can do something else, too.

It can help us understand one another.

It can make us curious about why someone thinks differently than we do instead of immediately judging them.

It can help us communicate.

It can help us examine our own traditions and beliefs.

It can even make us think differently about our relationship with another species.

Like the dog standing at the other end of our leash.

🐕 Two species. One relationship.

Humans and dogs don’t speak the same language.

And yet somehow we communicate constantly.

Your dog watches your face.

Your posture

Your hands.

Your tone.

Your movements.

And whether you realize it or not, you’re constantly learning to read your dog, too.

Now think about what happens when you walk or run together.

You establish a rhythm.

You learn one another’s pace.

You communicate.

You cooperate.

You explore your community together.

Your dog may even introduce you to people you never would have met otherwise.

A SIMPLE DOG WALK BECOMES SOMETHING MUCH BIGGER.

And that’s one of the reasons I’m fascinated by this anthropological perspective.

Perhaps the more curious we become about what it means to be human, the more curious we can become about the other living beings with whom we share our lives.

🐾 September gives us the perfect opportunity

Today is September 1, and we’re beginning something new at Doggone Healthy Choices.

September is a particularly meaningful month for our community because we’re recognizing Responsible Dog Ownership Month and National Service Dog Month.

Think for a moment about the relationship between a service dog and their human.

Two different species learn to communicate and work together with extraordinary precision.

The human learns the dog.

The dog learns the human.

And together they become a TEAM.

That’s both ends of the leash in one of its most powerful forms.

Throughout September, Freedom and I are going to explore that human-dog partnership through movement, training, nutrition, stress management and everyday life.

AND YOU’RE INVITED TO JOIN US.

Today, we begin by getting calm.

We’re not beginning September by racing out the door.

We’re going to arrive at the workout first.

Freedom and I will begin with a short Calm Arrival:

🐾 Slow, controlled breathing

🐾 Shoulder rolls

🐾 Forward and backward arm circles

🐾 Hip circles

🐾 An easy march

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While I’m preparing my body to move, Freedom will have a job of her own.

Settle. Watch. Connect.

I’ll ask her to sit with me, WATCH me, make eye contact and calmly engage with what I’m doing.

I’m warming up my body.

She’s warming up her attention.

And we’re preparing both ends of the leash to work together.

We’ll use this basic Calm Arrival throughout September even though the workout itself will change from day to day.

Then we’ll begin building our walking/running workouts step by step with a goal of reaching a 5K by the end of September.

No perfection required.

We’re simply starting.

We’re fueling the journey, too.

Exercise is only one part of this.

I’ve also been working on a seven-day, low-budget vegan meal plan built around five smaller meals each day.

Nothing fancy.

Nothing requiring a cart full of expensive specialty foods.

We’re talking about accessible plant-based foods and practical choices that can support an active lifestyle without destroying the grocery budget. Don’t worry you can opt to go non vegan- we are not judging anyone this month- we all have our own journeys.

Remember our everyday food choices are part of our culture, too.

What we eat, why we eat it, how families pass food traditions from one generation to another—even food can tell a story about being human.

🙏 And then there’s faith.

Faith is another enormous part of the human story.

Across cultures and throughout history, human beings have developed traditions, rituals and communities around questions of meaning, purpose, suffering, gratitude, life and death.

Anthropology can study those traditions.

For me personally, faith is also something I live.

And that’s why you’ll continue seeing faith and wellness woven into what we’re doing here—not as something separate from everyday life, but as another part of the whole person standing at this end of the leash.

Meet my friend Professor E.A. Burlingame

Since EA is the person who got me thinking about all of this, I’d love for you to discover what she’s creating at A Taste of Anthropology.

She’s an anthropologist, author, educator and podcaster who takes anthropology beyond the classroom and explores how understanding humanity can help us better understand ourselves and one another.

And she has some free resources you can explore, including The Tolerance Process and How Anthropology Can Make You a Better Person.

Explore Professor E.A. Burlingame’s free anthropology resources

Go take a look. You may find yourself thinking about being human a little differently.

I know I am.

And today, Freedom and I begin putting another idea into practice. And throughout September we’ll be testing out a new workout regiment to:

Do better Pushups

Situps

Planks

Train for a 5k in 4 weeks

And build muscle to burn fat

And stretch and relax, with some Doga moves, each day we’ll talk further about our journey…..today we:

Breathe.

Settle.

Connect.

Move.

One human.

One dog.

Two species learning how to work together.

That’s what I mean when I say wellness happens at both ends of the leash. 🐾

See you tomorrow,

Until then have a happy and healthy tail wagging day,

We hope you will join us and signup for Professors

newsletter today as she has a lot to teach us,

Pamela and Freedom

Doggone Healthy Choices

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