Now that I know that becoming a dog owner is not as simple as I thought it was going to be, learning how to train and interact with him is important if I want to be a responsible dog owner.

In one of the dog training books, there is a saying that each and every dog owner needs to keep in mind: “Dog is animal first, then species, then breed, then name”. In short, what the author means by that is when interact with dogs, treat the dog as animal first. Animal works with instinct. It does not really rationalize. Animal does what is necessary to survive. Then look at dogs as species – canine. Dog is a social species. They need a pack to survive. And in the pack, they need a leader. Dogs need excercise/jobs/things to do. Without excercise, dogs can go crazy due to boredom. Dogs rely on nose first then eyes, then ears to explore the world. Next is to see dogs as breed that classify dogs based on their strong functions in a pack: dogs that hunt, herd livestocks, do sports, etc. Lastly, look at dogs as names (Tatty, Rosco, Lassie, Scooby Doo, Rin Tin Tin, etc). Those names exist mostly for human to communicate. Without names, dogs can survive just fine. The author repeteadly emphasized that I need to treat dogs in that order: Animal – Species – Breed – Name.

Now this helps me realize something. I realize that I can look at other things in similar fashion. When I see two objects, I see that all this time I heavily focus on the name only. But if I focus my attention to the type of object (breed) or to the materials it made of (species), I have a lot of information that I never thought of before.

For example, I was in the kitchen when I thought about this. I looked around and I saw a food processor, a knife and an aluminum spoon. All this time, I have focused my attention to what those objects are called and thus their main functions. Food processor is used to chop foods to a pulp. Knife is used to cut or slice food and aluminum spoon to scoop foods.

However, if I thought about those three objects and start looking at their types, I can see that the three objects can be considered sharp tools. Sharp tool is an item where in one or some of its parts have thin edge. Sometimes, the edge is thin enough that it can be used to cut, slice or chop. If I look it that way, I can use spoon as a tool to chop foods. I can use food processor to cut or slice or knife to chop food to a pulp. The three objects can serve the same purpose. All three can be sharpen in order to become more effective in chopping, slicing or cutting.

Now, those three objects are made of metal. Anything made of metal can be bent without breaking. On high heat, those objects can melt. And I just found out by doing a quick search on Google if metal can evaporate into gas… and it does! That’s when I realize that I already look at these three objects from yet another more basic level: aggregate objects. For lack of better word to describe what I mean, I borrow terms from Computer Science. In computer science, an aggregate object is an object that contains other objects. An aluminum spoon consists of aluminum oxide, sand, iron, and other metals (thanks Google). I remembered when I was a kid, I borrowed one of those blow torch that my dad usually used to melt gold (he is a jeweler). I used the torch and heat up an aluminum spoon (mom & dad, if you read this… sorry. I melted one of the spoons and threw it away when I was a kid). The spoon started to bent, then melted.

Anyway, now I see that any object is an aggregate of other objects. It is apparent that any object around me can be broken down, melted, separated or extracted into other objects. When I see it that way, the name ‘spoon’, ‘knife’, ‘food processor’ and ‘salad bowl’ are in fact no longer applicable. When I understand where all these objects coming from and how they can change, break, separate, melt or be extracted into different objects, I realize that their shapes, purposes and names are just temporary usage.