Not only can dogs be great fun and a comfort to us humans, they can also teach us to be better people. If you’re skeptical, let’s look at some aspects where, in my opinion, dogs outperform us:
• Unconditional love: we’ve all come across the “what’s in it for me?” type of person. Only prepared to help or do anything for someone else when there is a quid pro quo scenario: “I’ll scratch your back if you’ll scratch mine”. Dogs don’t think that way. When it comes to humans, they will give love, conditional on nothing. You’ve had a bad day at work. On arriving home, your dog won’t be thinking “I’ll only go and greet her if I’m given my supper”: no, your dog will greet you like you mean the world to it, no strings attached.
• Compassion: part of a dog’s DNA is to want to help us, particularly if we are troubled, either physically or mentally. They pick up on the fact that we need help and will respond by helping us with their own brand of therapy. You don’t need to ask them for help: they already know. Can we always say the same about ourselves? If we’re honest, I suspect that most of us don’t show enough compassion at times or always in a timely manner.
• Transparency: what you see is what you get. Once you get to know your dog, you will understand that Fido isn’t trying to fool us. Wagging his tail, barking in a particular way, sitting by you close to feeding time, etc.: you know exactly what he’s trying to tell you! However, with humans, how many times has someone said something to you and you spend the next hour trying to figure out what they were REALLY saying. You try to interpret what they said as the words they spoke didn’t jive with the manner they used or the body language you saw.
• Consistency/ Reliability/ Predictability: dogs like routine and predictability from us humans: to the point where they can get quite stressed if they observe that something “out of the normal” is happening. Once they are used to our habits, have been well socialized and have had obedience training, dogs become very reliably consistent. They live in a black and white world. Have you ever taken time to observe your dog’s actions during the day? If you have, likely you will have seen a certain pattern develop: if it’s this time, Fido will likely be doing this. When I do this, Fido will do that. By continually observing our body language and how we react to situations, they form an understanding of how they should live their lives and what is expected. Can we say the same about human-human relationships? All you can say about some people is they are consistently inconsistent! You never know where you stand with them.
The expression “The more I deal with people, the more I like dogs” encapsulates these areas where dogs can teach us a thing or two!
