29 Aug All Things are Possible with Coffee and a Dog: Beyond the Beans Ecuador 2019
If you’re a Dublin regular, you’re well aware of our love of dogs! Today’s post from Sarah Cooper (Sarah Rachael Photography) goes “beyond the beans” to explore the special kinship between dogs and people of all stripes (but especially, it seems, coffee lovers!).
Grab a coffee, a Milk Bone, and your favorite furry friend to cuddle with for this “pawesome” share from Ecuador (and be sure to follow us on Facebook or Instagram for more updates and amazing photos from Sarah!).
“All things are possible with Coffee and a Dog!”
As anyone who visits Dublin knows, we are dog people here. We love them in all shapes, sizes, breeds and colors. After visiting Ecuador we can’t help but wonder if there is a special connection between coffee people and dog people… Maybe it’s really a special connection between people and dogs ?
Dogs are such a part of the culture in Ecuador. They are everywhere. They were roaming the streets on their own, in packs and at every farm we visited. The relationship between people and dogs is a bit different here. The dogs are mostly used for protection, but at the same time all of the ones we encountered were very friendly and seemed to enjoy the company of people; even strangers. At home we may feel timid to have so many random dogs come up to you on a walk down the street – but here it was second nature and we never questioned the dog’s friendliness.
Most of the dogs had owners, even when roaming out on their own. The farm dogs seemed to stay put on the farm, only roaming within their farm land. We never saw them stray too far from the families on the farm while we were there. In fact, some of them tagged along for parts of the coffee tour and we always enjoyed loving on them.
It was a little strange at first to see dogs roaming on their own down the street since we are used to keeping them in our homes, on leashes and within gated fencing. But what struck even more was that the cows, pigs, chickens and horses were the ones tied up on ropes on the side of the road so they would not wander away.
But the dogs… the dogs wandered during the day but always came back to their people by evening. What does this say about dogs and humans?
Why is it that the dogs did not need to be tied up or kept confined to keep them with their people? While the relationship between people and dogs looks a bit different in another country – there was still a connection there that is not seen in other animals. The dogs had a choice to leave, be out on their own, but they chose to stay with their people. You could argue to say it is where they are fed. And, while that may be in part true, they also get food off the streets and in the wild. The horses and cows and pigs all were fed by their people, yet they needed to be tied up to stay.
We looked into it a little more and found some fascinating information on how the dog human- relationship began and we found, ‘How The Dog Became The Dog’ by Mark Derr – starting back from when humans used wolves for hunting.
“The dog is a creation of wolves and humans — of two equal beings that came together at a certain point in history and have been together ever since.”
It is cool to think that there really is a special connection between a human and a dog. We can feel it to be true.
Annnnd that is why we love them so much at Dublin. Treat yourself to some of our in-house roasted coffee and bring your pup. We will treat them to our ‘pup-accino’ and make them feel like family!
“How Beautiful it is to find someone who asks for nothing but your company.”