Life Lessons We Can Learn From Dogs

06 Oct 2008 by Juliet du Preez

I've had dogs for most of my life, so I do have a fair amount of personal experience when it comes to this topic.
Currently Cornel and I have two German Shepherds and I know I could start carrying about them as if they are children and bore half of you to tears, but I shall try to contain myself ;)
Even if we aren't around animals, a great number of people's hearts will melt when they see cute pictures of animals.

I feel that dogs teach us a number of lessons; the most often cited is:

Unconditional love

One hardly has to elaborate on this one. Recently I was looking at a company website (the company does research into the mining industry). I was searching through the staff complement. There on the panel is Herman. Herman is a beagle. His profile reads:
Herman joined RMG in 2007.
Currently he is working on his obedience skills. He is responsible for bringing unconditional love to the office.

Imagine if you had a four-legged friend wondering around the office reminding you of love throughout the day? Now that is an affirmation of note!

Gratitude

How much gratitude do we typically feel or express? I have a sense that a great deal of what we give or receive goes unnoticed. Or we somehow don't have the time to show acknowledgement. Our lives are simply too busy, rushed and stressed. A dog shows thanks for all you provide. With a wag of a tail, you are given a gift in return.

One lesson that dogs give that I think is often not even noticed, is that:

Life Is Fun!

So often we forget this and get caught up in seriousness, the problems we are experiencing, the things we feel we have to prove, all of our "urgent" business.

How many of your current issues and stresses are going to be topmost of your mind three or four years from now? If you stress too much, they may very well be weighing on your health.

Cornel and I wake up in the morning, these two poochies want to play; we go to bed at night, these two want to play. Balls, swimming, ropes, walks, runs with the bicycles, you name it. They have fun, and we can't but also be infected with the feeling. One of my best forms of de-stress with them is to toss a balloon around until it gets popped. How many of us have touched balloons since school days, let alone played with them?

To move away from dogs for a moment, perhaps some of you have seen the video clip that has done the e-mail circuit of dolphins playing with silver-coloured rings under the water? They actually make the rings themselves. The ring is a solid, doughnut-shaped bubble which remains under water. Once formed, the dolphin pulls a small silver doughnut from the larger one. Then it takes a bite out of the smaller ring which subsequently bursts into a mass of tiny bubbles. (If you would like view the video clip, contact us.)

When I watched this, I smiled. Such fun, such play that they have created out of their simple surroundings. I forwarded the clip to a few friends for their pleasure. One of them replied something to this effect:
"There is a lesson in this: Could it be that we are trying to reach for things that dissolve into nothingness?" This lesson she mentions is a debate on it's own, but, that she cannot see the simple happiness and beauty brings me sadness.

A sense of family

What about family life? Dogs are the perfect example of having a good family life. A dog wants company and a personal environment. They don't want to sit alone at home or watch TV while everyone else is doing their own thing. In fact, they prefer for the whole family to join when going for a walk. How many families have regular "group" outings. Dogs are pack animals and, although we may have a tendency to forget it, we too are social beings.

Touch

Nevermind family outings, what about touch?. Dogs love to be strocked and humans need touch. I have observed intimate relationships that grow old and with that the touch dwindles. Without touch, our souls wither. Touch can bring with it a sense of acceptance. This acceptance is part of unconditional love. The act of stroking animals has proven to be therapeutic. Often animals are used to lift spirits in the sick and elderly.

Understanding

I feel we don't understand our dogs (or pets) or their experience of life. Do we try to understand them?
I have been reading a fascinating book "Animals in Translation" by Temple Grandin and Catherine Johnson. This book goes into the behaviour, emotions, perception etc. of domestic animals. (Domestic includes cattle, pigs etc.) There is a fair amount of information in the book which specifically relates to dogs. Reading this book I see how little I know of a dog's world. One thing she recommends in order to try to understand an animal - to the extent that it is at all possible - is to constantly be asking oneself: "How would I feel if what I was looking at right now was something that I had never laid eyes on before in my life?" That is why dogs will bark at you if you look different e.g. carrying a surfboard, or dressed up for a fancy-dress. Imagine if we were frequently faced with things that we had never experienced before. Is that not a scary concept? For beings that find change difficult, this would be a trial of note.

Animals also focus on different things to us in their surroundings. Something we may not give a second thought could disturb them terribly, for example, new tiles and how they shine or feel different on their paws. Do we understand our fellow human beings? Do we try to understand them? Do we even understand ourselves? It was only in my late twenties that I seriously began to explore myself and then, through that, start to connect with others. But major stress very easily breaks any connection with self, let alone others.

Awareness

Animals have emotions and have an awareness of our emotions. Go through any tough experience, and your dog will be sitting closer to you, will follow you. I've been there. It's true companionship. Would that I could be so aware of others' feelings and needs. Would that I could even be so aware of my own feelings sometimes!

Giving

Dogs give you their best, their all, over their short lives. Do we give them as much? Do we give our fellow humans as much?

Behavior

Our children's behavior is affected by our behaviour. So too is our pets' behavior a function of us owners.
This has been shown to me by Cesar Millan, a dog behaviorist. I've seen a number of his DVDs which show how he handles various cases where dogs have problems, such as excessive aggression, obsessive behaviors etc. It always requires a change of behavior on the owner's part in order to fix the situation. (most often they don't know what they are doing that is resulting in the difficulties and it is completely unintentional). Caesar is actually more of a psychologist than an animal behaviorist. He sees the "people problems". I wonder how many people he has inadvertently "treated" during his work.
I simply consider the street in which we live. The "problem residents" tend to have "problem dogs". I'm certainly not saying that this is always the case, dogs do have their own individual personalities and there is genetic influence, but, as with humans, environmental factors play a large part in their behavior. I have made my fair share of mistakes as a dog owner, what could those errors teach me about myself?

I wish that I had found Temple and Cesar earlier so that I could have been a better owner over the years. And my reflection on and insight into the animal world would most likely also have helped me as a person.

"dogs and people belong together"
Temple Grandin