I own a dog, which may explain why I think about them from time to time.

On a walk with him today I became somewhat preoccupied again, wondering about how he views the world. Dogs communicate, a little, through their various barks and things, but I believe it's true that they don't have language.

Which gets me to wondering.

I think it's fair to say that I'm pretty dependent on language. To be honest, I can't imagine going more than a minute or two without using a word or two to think about things, but I think my dog has managed to go through his entire life without thinking about anything using any words at all. I cannot fathom what such a life would be like.

An early scene in the movie Brainstorm featured an advanced technology that let people experience what was going on in someone else's head, in this case, a monkey's. They didn't spend much time on that, but I wonder if we could even begin to understand the thinking of anything that didn't use words.

How does my dog view me? I know he looks at me, but it's unlikely he knows my name as well as he seems to know his own. Then again, I don't pay enough attention to what first goes through my mind when I see someone I know. I doubt I first think "Rob" or "Debi," but I might. It's simply too quick for me to notice.

Still, I do wonder what my dog thinks hampered as he must be by having no language. Is life, for him, a series of sensations? Of instinct? Does he simply ignore everything that falls outside his limited view of the world?

He must be able to identify some things, but doing so without having names for them is beyond my ability to understand. How he sees the world is a mystery to me, and I have no idea how much overlap there is between his view and mine.

Still, when I'm not wondering about his dreams, I wonder about his waking hours.