ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the roles played by dogs – as sentient mobile devices, as commodities for human use, and as working equipment – are observed in the light of human influence shaping them into goods for human benefit. However, the multispecies participants have learned to appreciate and respect the abilities and caregiving behaviours of one another, so that shared identities emerge and develop, each partner learning to ‘become with’ the other, reducing both human exceptionalism and the commodity effect. Transhumanist concepts of enhancement through technology illuminate the possibilities for elimination of suffering but the scent-detection dog and others with keen olfactory sensitivity may advance nonmechanical innovation in global health treatments. The working assistance dog may become an extension of the human self, providing an economically viable and non-invasive form of bodily enhancement, acceptable to the chronically-ill individual and the wider community. Unlike the inanimate insulin pump, the sentient medical alert assistant acts as an animate instrument, as a tool of mediation with usable power and prowess for the achievement of social benefit. Historically, horses have empowered industry, and then been abandoned and replaced by oil and steel drivers of energy; but the nonhuman animal reshaping of modern society continues to progress as exemplified in multispecies medical collaborations.
