No doubt, the majority of the academic community thinks that this dog-crazy scholar is a few biscuits short of a box. Whenever I dare to express my beliefs that dogs have emotions, can think on their own and have the capacity to distinguish right from wrong, my experience is that most of the traditional learned community roll their eyes and think that I should be dropped off at the dog pound.

On the other paw, the holistic scientific community sits at my side when I throw the ball about canine sentience and a dog's sensing ability on a metaphysical level. I have written previously about the dog's ability to know when its owners are coming home through morphic field phenomenon.

I have a new idea that builds both on Sheldrake's morphic resonance and the fact that quantum physics tells us that we are constantly exchanging molecules with everything in our environment. I call my concept the canine quality of "reflexive resonance."

Reflexive resonance is the idea that dogs can mirror their owner's medical conditions. My hypothesis is not the same thing as zoonosis, whereby animals and people can pass diseases such as rabies and staph infections between one another. Rather, reflexive resonance deals with the echoing of more profound pain and illnesses that simply cannot be explained by the traditional medical model.

I first encountered this phenomenon when I was a Master's degree student and a fellow classmate shared with me the story of her sister's illness. She told me that a few years earlier, her sister had been diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer and was undergoing treatment for her affliction. Six months into her sister's treatment, her beloved dog fell ill. After some tests, the veterinarian informed my classmate's sister that her dog had been stricken by the same rare type of cancer that she herself was battling. Blessedly, the sister survived cancer, but her dog ultimately died. My classmate assured me that to this day her sister believes that her dearly loved dog took her cancer away and sacrificed its own life in order to spare hers. Since then, I've been listening more closely when people with back problems have told me about their dog's slipped disc or when people with ulcers tell me they feed their dog a sensitive stomach diet. My ears stood up recently as a runner explained how she was rehabilitating her dog after having knee surgery because she herself had undergone the same medical procedure earlier this year.

Surely, I'll need a Great Dane of evidence before I introduce my hypothesis to the academic community without worry that they'll tie me up in a doggie straight-jacket. If you have an experience of reflexive resonance that you are willing to share, I'd love to hear your tale. I'd even be willing to sit up and beg for such a treat.

Wags,

Tracie

TRACIE LALIBERTE-BAILEY of Attleboro is a professional lecturer, educator and published writer on the subject of dogs. She is pursuing a doctoral degree on the human-canine bond. You can contact her with any dog-related questions at tracie@dogpawse.com.