On February 10, 2012, Nancy and I met with about ten volunteers from the Peninsula Humane Society at the end of the day to discuss our book,  #DOG Tweet – 140 Perspectives On What Our Dogs Teach Us About Being Human. The volunteers care for and train surrendered dogs and other animals, preparing them for adoption. We had gathered to engage in what I had imagined to be a “crowdsourcing” event, designed to test the approach and validity of our book’s content. Crowdsourcing, according to Wikipedia, “is a problem-solving and production process that involves outsourcing tasks to a network of people, also known as the crowd.” Whether or not we fit the evolving definition of crowdsourcing, we hoped to bring people together to share their perspectives on what makes these dog/human relationships so special. This was to be more than “brainstorming” as we did not wish our colleagues to limit their perspectives to the cognitive domain. We wanted to hear about the emotional, somatic, social and even spiritual contributions dogs made to the lives of others. We wanted to know how those contributions might enable us to improve ourselves and our relationships with others, and human and nonhuman alike. And we were not disappointed. Here are some of the thoughts that arose out of our conversation. Keep Reading »