狗狗是独立的，和我们的关系是亲密的 (2017-10-31 12:33)

“Dogs are loyal, and faithful, and want to please, and they don’t judge you, they love you for who you are …”

When I see this on social media, hear this in conversation, or read it in some article I gag ever so slightly. Okay maybe more than that.

It is a massive reductionist view of an entire species, discounting the individual personalities of each an every individual within the species. It sets dogs up to fail, especially those that fall outside of this fairy-tale bullshit version of canines.

I have never met a dog that wants to please, nor would I want too, how creepy, cast like, and subservient. I want a dog that stands on their own four paws, squarely in this world, and teaches me something about them, takes me on a bit of a journey. Give and take.

I have met dogs that love their owners and want to be with them all of the time, but if I put a rabbit in the front yard, loyalty goes out the window. So are they loyal or do they just love the relationship they have with a human, and also love chasing and eating rabbits?

Faithful? What or whom? Is this some religious ideology we have put on dogs? Again, rabbit, lets test faith, and then lets see if instinct is stronger than human needs.

Dogs judge. They do. So don’t think that if you act like a jerk you will be absolved in the eyes of your dog, they will also think you are a jerk. No skirting around that one.

Dogs think, have ideas, solve concepts, reason, observe the world around them, and have dreams all of their own. This is independent of us. Why? Because they are living beings just like we are, they just happen to be a different species.

To have a dog is to form a relationship, take the good and the bad and work on it together. A relationship is about knowing each other, the true each other.

Pretending your dog is a saint will only set them up to fail, and by default, the species in general.

We are all living beings, sharing this planet for a moment in time. We all do good things, and bad things, and the hope is we do more good things together and learn along the way.

Be honest, it makes things more real, Nancy