49 pages • 1 hour read
Running with Sherman
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 5-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “Miners, Muckers, and Mean Mother—"
While in Colorado researching his previous book, Born to Run (2009), McDougall first comes across the sport of pack burro racing, in which competitors race next to donkeys through intensive off-road courses (See: Background). The sport was notably open to women in 1951, whereas the Boston Marathon did not admit female runners until 1972. Its World Championship is held yearly in Fairplay, Colorado. The races developed as a way for dwindling mining towns to honor their Gold Rush days, especially the bonds between prospectors and their burros.
McDougall is invited to compete in a race in Leadville, Colorado, where he meets Curtis Imrie, a major figure of burro racing’s inception. McDougall’s first attempt at burro racing is humorously calamitous: He is forced to quit the race midway due to his animal’s stubbornness.
Chapter 6 Summary: “The Beastmaster”
Tanya is incredulous when McDougall tells her he wants Sherman to run the World Championship in Fairplay later that year. McDougall’s instincts tell him the best way to help Sherman heal is “movement-as-medicine” (58), as physical activity releases “healing hormones” (58) into the body that precipitate recovery.
McDougall reflects on the actor Jimmy Stewart’s reputed love for animals and ability to work with them, which he attributes to empathy, imagination, and communicating “with them as equals” (60). Much of this can be achieved in paying close attention to an animal’s behavior, a skill McDougall argues was with humanity from the beginning. Humans cohabitated with animals and used them to build their modern society, first with wolves who were domesticated into dogs, followed by a plethora of other animals. In the Industrial Age, however, humans became alienated from animals, and both humans and animals have unconsciously suffered since.
Chapter 7 Summary: “‘Earl’s in for murder. Several, in fact’”
McDougall takes a deeper look at the human-animal connection through E. O. Wilson’s concept of the biophila hypothesis, which suggests that, because humans and animals evolved together for 300,000 years, humans are instinctually comforted by animals (See: Background).
McDougall illustrates this theory with a case study of an FBI agent allowing her service animal to comfort witnesses, drawing more reliable results from interrogation. He then recounts the instance of a sparrow flying into a criminal mental health facility in 1975 and being cared for by the inmates, leading to a calm ward and curbing violence. This incident led to a full program in which inmates were allowed contact with animals, drastically reducing recidivism and stress.
Later studies with children indicated that the act of petting an animal provides great physiological relief, releasing small amounts of oxytocin, “the love hormone” (70). Similarly, dogs are used by the military to assist PTSD patients, and employed by other institutions to treat depression and anxiety. McDougall suggests that dogs may be particularly suited to this work, as humans have developed such a long relationship with them, making them easy to train. Donkeys, however, are notoriously stubborn, and are strong enough that they cannot be forced into doing anything. McDougall realizes he needs help in training Sherman.
Chapter 8 Summary: “The Barely-a-Puddle of Doom”
McDougall and Mika attempt to get Sherman to walk on the asphalt, but he is unwilling. McDougall faces down his instinct to force Sherman to confront the barrier, recalling Tanya’s advice to allow Sherman to confront his fears on his own terms.
The first instance of training is also depicted, as McDougall and his daughters take Sherman down the road. Sherman freezes, however, when frightened by a small puddle on the side of the road. Again, McDougall suppresses his urge to hurry Sherman along, using patience and a method of evaluating the environment from Sherman’s perspective—a tactic he learned from a “Temple Grandin biopic” (81)—to help Sherman get past his fear of the puddle. At the end of the chapter, Sherman runs for the first time, trying to keep up with McDougall’s daughters.
Chapters 5-8 Analysis
Chapter 5 contextualizes Sherman’s goal. To do this, McDougall introduces Curtis Imrie, an important figure in the burro racing world who was McDougall’s introduction to the sport. McDougall focuses on the challenges he had in the first race for comedic effect, but also to emphasize how inexperienced he is and how large a task it will be before he and Sherman are even able to compete.
Chapter 6 introduces McDougall’s belief in The Restorative Power of Connecting with Animals and his own personal wish to connect with animals himself. He reflects upon the mythology surrounding Jimmy Stewart and his relationship with Pie, the tricky movie horse. The time spent on relating Stewart’s legend, and the inclusion of an excerpt of the poem Stewart wrote about his dog, suggests McDougall has a longing for this connection, and likely views animals as equivalent beings, rather than inferior. McDougall wants the same communicative abilities that Stewart had—he seeks a communion with Sherman, and wants to do it through a medium (running) that is important to him.
Chapter 7 provides the scientific foundation for McDougall’s argument about interspecies relationships, relying on the prominent work of E. O. Wilson. McDougall positions the calamitous species spilt at the beginning of the Industrial Age, in which human inventions supplanted the services that animals long performed for us. This crisis has led to complications in The Role of Animals in Modern Society. The question of how humans are to recharacterize their relationship with animals emerges here and will linger for the rest of the text. In a sense, McDougall’s depiction of rehabilitating and training with Sherman is his most enduring answer to the question: Humans and animals need one another and mutually benefit through bonding as equals.
Chapter 8 returns to the concept of unpacking trauma, first broached by Tanya in Chapter 2, when McDougall recalls that Sherman must be approached with an understanding that both physical and emotional healing must happen. This is dramatized as McDougall and Mika attempt to get Sherman to tread on the asphalt. McDougall must temper his instinct to hurry Sherman along in the training, and is ultimately tested in this right away. McDougall’s early tussling with this is the beginning of him shedding his ego and embracing a more holistic approach to training.
McDougall initially seeks the quicker method, but it is the less compassionate method, and not one that would yield positive results for a traumatized mind. Evoking Temple Grandin, McDougall stresses the need to put oneself into the mind of the animal and to evaluate the situation from their perspective. This is simply a practice of empathy and compassion, but it is also one that is eminently practical in terms of human-animal relations. At one point, McDougall even uses Grandin’s name as a verb—“I glanced around and tried to Temple Grandin things out” (85)—indicating how indebted he is to her insight. The method proves successful, and by the end of the chapter, Sherman is running.
Unlock all 49 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
