Our house is near a Forestry Commission car park that is popular with dog walkers. Talking to the owners, they often say how lovely it is to watch their dogs run free in the woods. We used to have a border collie, and it is true, there is a lot of satisfaction watching your dog 'come alive' on a walk, especially in the woods. It's as if their whole day is about this moment where they can become 'a dog'.
The Kennel Club reports that dogs need at least 30 minutes of exercise a day. Studies have shown that dogs suffer high levels of stress and anxiety when they are prevented from going out for a walk. Well I suppose it depends on your breed, but half an hour never really cut the mustard for our border collie. Is there a difference in a dogs mental and physical wellbeing between running free in the woods compared, for example, chasing a ball in a park. Does the stimulation of the woodland satisfy the dogs' needs a little better?
Before I moved to the woods, I used to cycle a fair bit. A typical Sunday ride with the club was 4 to 5 hours. When it came to racing, that was only about 1 hour...but it was brutal. I got quite addicted to it; I was a fairly shit racer; not only scary, it was both mentally and physically challenging. On many levels, it would seem that cycling ticks the characteristics of being 'wild'. I suppose it mimics a few of them but that's all; a poor substitute.
You can replicate the action of splitting logs with an axe in the gym, but it really isn't splitting logs. Every log is slightly different, the sounds, smells, the axe getting increasingly blunt, the chance of injury....the list goes on - but most importantly you know that the log is essential to keep you warm in winter......it matters.
Humans are not allowed to be wild anymore. It appears that choice has been taken away from us. Internet access is a basic human right, but apparently living as nature intended isn't. The easier we make our lives, the harder they become. Like our dogs, we seem to think a 30 minute session of exercise is enough. Better than nothing I suppose but hardly the lifestyle that hundreds of thousands of years of evolution respects.
Whilst I claim to be 'rewilding' myself, I am not living wild. However, I have been enjoying Mark Boyle's book, The Way Home about living without modern technology. There was one particular line that stayed with me.
"I certainly have no longing, to fall back into a way of being which sells comfort for the price of everything it is to be human"
So whilst we enjoy and understand our dogs' need to be wild, it seems for ourselves it is no longer relevant. I suspect there are very few who really know what it is like to be human. Maybe though, we can try and get a taste; from there...who knows?