Body Transformation

They might make it easier for the dog to sink completely into doggy headspace, without holding back anything. If you are just kept in restraints all the time, it might still be at the back of your mind that one day you might be forced to go back to normal human life and human rules, but after being modified that's no longer an option so psychologically it would make it easier to completely let go and completely embrace the lifestyle. It would be easier to drop human modes of thought and forget about having a human past, and lose all shame and commit mentally 100% to being a doggy. So as well as the restrictions it would also provide a sort of reassuring freedom. It would lock the doggy's self-image, so that the doggy could concentrate on living in the present and devoting itself to becoming the best doggy it could possibly be, without any reservations or worries.

The leg op make it easier for the animal to scoot about on all fours (perhaps with bouncy kneepads), so that might increase mobility and agility. It would change the doggy's centre of balance so that its body felt more natural on all fours, and more like a floor bound animal's body than that of a human who just happened to be on their knees. The Owner wouldn't have to worry about doggy getting cramps or in growing toenails, or circulation problems or potentially fatal deep vein thrombosis or nerve damage or smelly feet or other injuries to the restrained lower legs that might not be easy to spot. Sleeping in a dog basket or cage or kennel would be easier.

It wouldn't have the feeling that if only their restraints were taken off it could get up and walk away. It wouldn't be playing any more, it would be the real thing, the floor bound position would be its version of "standing up" and that would be how they would now feel most natural. It could sprawl out comfortably on the floor without breaking character. Psychologically, high objects and light switches and table tops would now be forever beyond its reach and it would know deep down that this was now its permanent position and place in life.

And without that sensory feedback, the animal's feeling of itself would change. Have you seen those "homunculus" models that scale body parts according to how strongly they affect the owner's consciousness? Without lower legs or fingers, the animal's sensory balance would shift more to the snout, mouth, tongue, genitals and torso (they say that some leg amputees have a heightened sex drive afterwards).

Losing the fingers and thumbs would mean that the animal wouldn't need to wear unhygienic mitts all the time, and didn't have the distraction of fingers that it wouldn't be using anyway. That sensory bandwidth could shift to the rest of its body. The owner wouldn't need to keep removing the mitts to check that everything was healthy.

Speech prevention could be done in less extreme ways than cutting the vocal cords. There's a mainstream operation that they already do in Japan that allows the tongue to extend further, by cutting some of the tendons underneath. It means that the person normally needs to learn to speak again, but in this case that wouldn't be needed. If speech is not an issue, you could go for the most extreme version of the operation, and get the doggie a big long lolling licky tongue .   But perhaps after the Owner has learned to read the animal's body language well enough for communication, and the animal has not used speech for a very long time anyway, full devoicing might be a powerful symbolic act, and might physicalise the beast's status as a dumb animal.

It could also emphasise the bond between owner and animal, making it a big deal that the two could understand each other non-verbally in ways that an outsider would never be able to manage.

So there are some positive aspects to do with bonding and comfort and health and commitment and experiencing a private shared journey, and being all you can be, its not all negative.

Dog Thing - dog-muzzles@yahoogroups.com Saturday, August 16, 2003