Azawakh as a Projection Canvas
What the Dog on the Other Side of the Leash Tells Us About Ourselves
Addressed to Azawakh keepers, fanciers, and breeders
I am writing this as someone who has lived with this breed, left it, returned to it, and left it again. As a supervisor, Jungian-informed coach, Master Certified Coach, solution-focused practitioner, and Pentecostal theologian, but also as a human being who has been shaped, destabilized, humbled, and instructed by the Azawakh.
This is not a romantic text.
It is not an attack.
It is a mirror.
The Dog as Meaning, Not Just Animal
Very early in my life and work, I learned something simple and unsettling:
We do not gravitate toward objects, animals, symbols, or callings randomly.
What we admire, long for, defend, or feel magnetized by often carries information about us. Sometimes it mirrors who we believe we are. Sometimes it embodies what we lack. Often, it carries parts of ourselves that have lived in exile.
Dogs are not exempt from this dynamic. In fact, they are particularly potent carriers of projection because they are alive, relational, emotionally responsive, and socially visible.
The Azawakh more than most.
The Azawakh and the Psyche in Exile
The Azawakh is a dog of liminal spaces.
Geographically, it comes from the Sahel, one of the harshest environments on earth.
Psychologically, it carries paradox.
It looks fragile and breakable.
It is not.
It appears ethereal, aloof, almost helpless.
It is fierce, autonomous, sharp, and capable of violence.
It is deeply loyal yet fundamentally free.
Sensitive yet capable of ferocity.
Reserved yet capable of intense bonding.
This constellation resonates profoundly with people who know what it means to live outside the norm, to develop on a parallel psychological track, to carry depth, contradiction, sensitivity, and strength simultaneously.
This is one reason, proportionally, why so many people from the LGBTQ community feel drawn to this breed. I say this not as theory but as lived experience.
Being othered, misunderstood, exoticized, admired and rejected at the same time, forced into early self-reflection, carrying spirituality or identity outside the dominant system. These experiences map uncannily well onto the symbolic image of the Azawakh.
The dog becomes a living embodiment of the parts of the psyche that once lived in exile.
Projection, Self-Extension, and Ego Defense
Here is the uncomfortable part.
When a dog carries meaning beyond itself, it becomes more than a dog.
It becomes a self-extension.
At that point, criticism of the dog is no longer about the dog.
It is experienced as criticism of the self.
This explains something many of us have witnessed or participated in:
-
Inability to tolerate feedback
-
Intense defensiveness around breeding decisions
-
Shaming, ostracism, and moral superiority
-
Narcissistic or exclusivist dynamics within the community
This is not because Azawakh people are uniquely flawed.
Every breed community has this shadow.
But the Azawakh amplifies it because the symbolic load placed on the dog is unusually heavy.
When Breeding Becomes Identity Preservation
Let me be very clear:
Breeding dogs is already a massive responsibility.
Health screening, genetics, temperament, environment, pack dynamics, safety, ethical placement. This alone is more than enough.
When breeding also becomes:
-
Legacy building
-
Ego preservation
-
Identity stabilization
-
Vicarious living
-
Proof of worth, depth, or belonging
We enter dangerous territory.
At that point, the dog is no longer allowed to simply be what it is. It must carry unresolved psychological material for the human.
And humans will defend that arrangement fiercely.
The Cost of Containment
The Azawakh is not easy to contain. Not practically. Not psychologically.
Western civilization is hostile to its nature: cars, small spaces, leash laws, muzzling regulations, social expectations. Add individual variability, sharpness, fear responses, bite risk, and pack dynamics of a primitive breed, and the cost becomes very real.
Many of you know exactly what I mean when I say sacrifice.
Sacrifice of spontaneity.
Sacrifice of freedom.
Sacrifice of safety.
Sacrifice of other life roles.
What concerns me is when this sacrifice becomes unconscious martyrdom, fueled by the belief that only through suffering can one be worthy of keeping something so “special.”
That belief deserves examination.
A Personal Admission
I want to be transparent.
You have seen me enter and exit this breed.
You have seen me give up dogs.
You have seen me fail to contain the infrastructure needed.
I paid for that with reputational damage, shame, exclusion, and judgment.
What I can say now, with clarity, is this:
I chose not to lose myself.
I chose to prioritize other life roles.
I chose discernment over narrative loyalty.
And yes, I paid a price.
But I also learned something essential:
A hobby should not consume your entire soul.
When someone’s public life contains nothing but this dog, I do not see devotion. I see risk.
This Is Not Just About Azawakh
Let me be explicit:
This is not a claim of uniqueness.
Every breed, every spiritual path, every calling attracts projection. The Azawakh simply makes it more visible because it is small in number, young as a global breed, and symbolically dense.
This is why the community can feel harsh, critical, rejecting, and emotionally unsafe at times. Not because people are evil, but because unintegrated projection makes dialogue dangerous.
A Call at the Turning of the Year
We are just past the winter solstice.
The days are getting longer.
This is a fitting moment to ask:
-
What part of myself does this dog carry for me?
-
What am I living through my dogs instead of in my own life?
-
What would dignity look like for me, my family, my dogs, and this breed?
-
Where is discernment asking me to intervene?
I offer this not as condemnation, but as invitation.
May your involvement with this breed bring fulfillment, not trauma repetition.
May it add to your life, not consume it.
May it serve your dogs, not enslave you.
I wish you spaciousness, love, dignity, respect, and light in the year ahead.
And may we all learn to carry our projections consciously, so our dogs do not have to carry them for us.
