Dog: Pure Awareness is a psychological and ultimately spiritual exploration of the human-dog connection. People think of their dogs as companions, as partners, and as members of their family, and this book takes that idea seriously. The answers in Dog: Pure Awareness come from an original and revealing combination of relational psychology and shamanic understanding. The connection between a human and his or her dog is treated as a relationship: two beings in close connection who find strength and a sense of belonging in each other. Using psychological concepts such as attunement and perceptual awareness, Dog: Pure Awareness explores the ways in which human and dog experience each other.
Margot Lasher is a writer and psychologist who studies the relationship between dogs and humans. Her book, Dog: Pure Awareness, uses psychological relational theory to understand the deep connection that develops between a human and a dog. She has taught about the human-animal bond at the New School and in the continuing education program of the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology.
Her dog, Shiro, had a role in her play about the human-dog connection when it was performed in Burlington Vermont last summer. She also had a 10 minute play about people watching their dogs in a dog park, called, amazingly, Dog-Park, in TenFest at the Playwrights' Circle this summer. Two actors played the dogs as they sniffed, rolled and play-fought on stage.
In addition to Shiro, she now has a puppy, Holly, who she is training to act in her next play.
