Walter Benjamin used strolling through the city of Paris as the means by which to understand the night life of its streets. In this sunnier account I'm reflecting on a bike ride I did one day down through the Valleys of South Wales and a sort of canine observation exercise which unfolded naturally before me as I cycled along. The anthropologist Bourdieu in his Distinction describes how social class is expressed in a myriad of small cultural choices and I'm sure he would have regarded the kind of dog we like to have around as part of this habitus.
