The unique love between humans and dogs | Elias Weiss Friedman

0:06You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hugh. Dogs hanging out with their owners, dogs on journeys, dogs doing surprising things. The photographer and creator of The Doggist, Elias Weiss Friedman, has captured images of dogs all over the world. And in his 2024 conversation with Ted's Chloe Shasha Brooks, he discusses the wonder and the learning we humans can gain from dogs and our relationships with these fantastic creatures. Coming up.

0:45Elias, thank you so much for joining us. It's my honor to be here. So you have a very popular platform, The Doggist. On Instagram alone, you have 7.6 million followers. So you bring a lot of joy to a lot of people around the world. And in your photographing of dogs, you also tell stories in the captions. So I've noticed a theme throughout these captions about the deep love people have for their dogs, sometimes in ways that seem to exceed the love they might even have for people. Can you tell us about the uniqueness of the relationship between dogs and people that you've noticed? Yeah. You know, I've photographed something like 50 ,000 dogs in the last 11 years all around the world, mostly in New York.

1:25But one of the sentiments and stories I hear most often is this idea of, like, unconditional love. And the common thing is, like, I've had a hard day. I'm stressed out. Someone cut me off in traffic. and I come home and my dog is looking at me like this and it all washes away. And so that's like a really powerful thing. And dogs are so generous with their love and they're also really generous with their eye contact. That's something I try and capture is this directness. But like you're saying, it's sort of like a more simple relationship than we have with people. If I come home, Elsa's there to greet me and she wants a belly rub.

2:05And Sam, my fiance, is also there to greet me and generally she'll say, hey, honey. But, you know, maybe she's had a day or, you know, I left the towel on the bed again. So in your travels, you've photographed dogs all over the world. And I've noticed in your writing that you note the differences in cultures about how people relate to dogs based on where you are. So will you tell us about some of your most favorite cultures around dogs? Yeah. I mean, I think there's a universal thing around dogs. Like, that's one of the great things about my job is I can travel anywhere. You know, just yesterday I was, you know, walking around Atlanta, meeting people and their dogs.

2:44But, you know, there's some trends. Like in L.A., people are, the dogs are in people's cars with them. So they spend even more time with their dogs. But there's just sort of like this universal thing where I can travel anywhere. I could go to Antarctica and find a dog and relate to someone and connect with some, you know. If I'm photographing people, they may not be as interested. Because like, oh, what's this about? but as soon as I started talking about their dog, they're like, oh, sure, how do you want him? Let me get the eye boogers out. Kind of a funny one. I was in Croatia, and they often have these town dogs that are just roaming around the entire time while you're out having dinner.

3:22And I asked the local, what's this dog? He's like, oh, that's Zutti, which means yellow in Croatian. So I was trying to get a picture of Zutti, and I captured him. But, you know, maybe he lives in one place, but he wanders around. The whole town is his. In places in Europe and Switzerland, they take dogs very seriously. Like, in order to become a breeder, you need to, like, go to a dog training class or something. And I appreciate that sort of, like, they're part of our family. Whereas I think in the United States, sometimes we'll, like, there's no rules about breeding. And that's why we sometimes have overpopulation.

4:02Right. Yeah. Right. Right. Let's talk about service dogs for a moment. So anytime I go to the airport and I see a service dog, I cry in a good way because I just think it's so amazing that they can do work for us in such a crazy environment. But they have so many other functions. They do so much for people. And there's so much research about post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health conditions. I imagine you've met a lot of folks who have really benefited from service dogs. So we'd love to hear some stories. Yeah. I mean, there's all types of service dogs, like the therapy dogs, even at the airport.

4:36They're guide dogs that guide visually impaired people. But I've done this series over the years with this organization called America's Vet Dogs, and they raise and train lab mixes for veterans, and they often have PTSD. This is a series I did with this woman named Sharon and her dog, Eddie. And it sort of started as this typical, you know, I'm meeting this woman at her house and we're going to chat. And I get there and, you know, she's demonstrating the different things that he can do. And he'll do nightmare interruption. If she's having a nightmare, he'll come up and nudge her awake or pick up her keys or turn the lights on.

5:14And that's all sort of like typical. And she was normal. And she was an RN. She was a nurse in the army. And so she, has seen people at their worst. It's hard to come back and just forget that or reintegrate. But it wasn't until later in the day that I went to their headquarters of America's Vet Dogs and spoke with the president. And she was like, I heard you met Sharon. I was like, yeah, I did. And she was like, you know, when she came to us, she was nonverbal and shaken. Sorry, it chokes me up sometimes talking about this, but Eddie, her dog, made her the way she is now, and that's so transformative and powerful.

6:04It's like, what else? She was on, I'm sure, all types of drugs, and it didn't work as well. And she came across as someone who was articulate and thoughtful with her dog, and her dog empowers her that way. Later in the day, I met Nathan, and same program, America's Vet Dogs. He was a retired veteran from the Air Force. He was in charge of, as he called it, nukes, the nuclear division. And as you can imagine, like, in that role, you have to be, like, perfect. All the time, if they ask you, are you good? Yes, sir, I am good, even if you're not good. So you just sort of, he was describing it as he became robotic and dehumanized him.

6:49And when he retired, it's like, How do you just reintegrate? And it was really hard for him. He was completely asocial and wouldn't leave the house. And he just, America's Vet Dogs offered him this dog in this training program. And I'm sure there are multiple factors, but now he's a public speaker, like the opposite of what he was before. And it's like, how do you pinpoint? it's like hard to like quantify what the power of a dog is but it's real yeah um and you know it's it's amazing and then my buddy angus and you know he's he's not a veteran he's not a visually impaired person he's not something who automatically sort of you would think qualifies for a service dog but he's someone who like has serious trouble with anxiety and depression he's had for a long time, is on all types of drugs, which have all types of side effects.

7:50And he, you know, came to me, he's like, dude, he's like, what do you, what would you think if I had a dog? Like, do you think that'd be a good idea? And I think that, you know, that'd be a great idea. And we should have left it at that. And then I get a call that he's, he's like, I'm at the airport. I'm flying to Wyoming to pick up, to meet a potential service dog for myself. You know, he found some breed that that specializes in it. And, you know, a month later, this dog arrives. And, you know, he loves this dog. And he's never alone anymore. And, you know, he is single and he goes on dates.

8:26And sometimes the dates don't work. And he would have this, like, fear and this spiral of going home to nothing and not being okay and feeling rejected. And he was telling me, like, now with Opal, he doesn't have that fear anymore. It's like, if it doesn't work out, you know, I'm good. Opal is going to be there waiting for me, and she's probably hungry, and I'm going to take her for a walk. Like, it's the opposite of this spiral. It's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. And this is Maggie, who's a facility service dog. So instead of having one handler, she helps with lots of people, like in a hospital or something.

9:02And I was just having, like, a regular Tuesday in whatever mood I was, and taking pictures of Maggie, learning about her. I did, like, a nightmare interruption. and she said, do you want Maggie to give you a hug? She's a big hugger. I said, okay, yeah, sure. And I get down on my knee, and she comes up and just embraces me in this really trained way. It's not like a dog jumping up on you. But instantly, I felt this, like my emotions, like my day was completely different. It was like this powerful force of happiness, and I didn't realize that I needed it before, but Maggie made me realize that I did need it.

9:45Yeah, that you were not in the best mood perhaps. Yeah, you know, they're just like whatever mood you're in, they're going to enhance it, you know? That's awesome. So you grew up with a lot of dogs and you started The Doggist in 2013 and you didn't have a dog then because you were like, I need to travel and take these photos and so when you finally did get a dog recently, last few years, right, how has that changed your perspective on your work. Yeah. I mean, it was sort of like my little secret, like the doggist doesn't have a dog. And I sort of decided that, well, I need to travel and meet other people's dogs.

10:21I have dogstalgia. I know I'm single. I'm not ready for a dog. But then during the pandemic, I decided to foster and I met Elsa. She came up from Texas and she was amazing. She She campaigned for my heart and she won. And I was like, well, you know, it's time for me to grow up a bit. And, you know, I fell in love with her. And she just sort of, you know, a lot of people say like they open another chamber of your heart. And she did. And she, you know, deepened my appreciation for other people's relationships with their dogs. You know, it's like, it's hard to know unless you have your own dog, like what that feels like.

11:09You know, when I got Elsa, my fiancé and I got engaged. You know, it's just sort of like a catalyst for love, you know? That's awesome. Well, may we all feel the kind of love that Elias feels with Elsa. Thank you so much, Elias. Thank you. Thanks for joining us.

11:35That was Elias Weiss-Friedman in conversation with Chloe Shasha Brooks at TED Next in 2024. If you're curious about TED's curation, find out more at TED.com slash curation guidelines. And that's it for today. TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This episode was produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Green, Autumn Thompson, and Alejandra Salazar. It was mixed by Christopher Faze-Bogan. additional support from Emma Taubner and Daniela Balarezzo I'm Elise Hugh I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feet thanks for listening