WHY EVEN HAVE A DOG?
What do dogs really do for us? I will agree I was a “NO DOG TILL HELL FREEZES OVER” person for the past 5 years. Come on, dogs stink when wet. Dogs stink when muddy. Dogs stink when they roll in deer poop. Dogs stink after they eat their food. Dogs stink when they fart. Dogs stink if you don’t bathe them periodically. All in all, dogs just plain stink. HOWEVER, most Labradoodles and Goldendoodles do not have doggy odor, thus they really don’t stink except when they have a ear/yeast infection or have rolled in deer poop like Max does if I am not careful when walking him on our 6 acre yard.
Next, dogs jump up on you. They sniff you in areas I won’t mention but most have experienced to-date. They get your clothes wet and/or muddy. Dogs bark at nothing! Dogs want to play when you dead tired, or want to watch a movie. Dogs need walks or they will drive you right up a wall with their undying energy levels. Dogs chew things like eyeglasses, shoes, boots, chair legs, towels or anything you do not want them to chew. Dogs take over your life. They have to be fed certain times, let outside to relieve themselves, they need training, love, hugs, kisses, praise over and over again. Dogs just plain have as many needs as humans, maybe even more? Dogs do not let injuries, stitches, or wounds left alone to heal. Instead they lick, chew, bite them and can cause an infection or further medical attention. Dogs can bite sometimes by mistake while playing by your feet, other times when fearful. Dogs can talk back! Dogs can pee and poop on your rug numerous times no matter how much eliminator products you use. Dogs can cost more money than you can afford when bringing them to the vets. Or more than your kids did at the pediatrician. Good news, you can purchase dog insurance to help recover some medical costs.
Let’s see if I left anything out about how much trouble owning a dog can be for us humans. Dogs can develop weird habits, not come when called, roam neighborhoods, eat things like chicken wings from your kitchen garbage, open screen and storm doors to run free, round off corners on coffee tables, defuzz any stuffed toy in minutes, eat non-edible items at a moments notice, test your patience almost 24/7, make your kids look like saints at times, and in general give you tension headaches for years if you let them or don’t exercise a sense of humor.
So why have a dog at all? Good question! As this is what I used to think, feel and believe in until October 7, 2006. Now I would not go back to life BEFORE Max, Peanut, and Beau. Not for all the tea in china, not for a million dollars! I can honesty say all three of my dogs are work.
It’s plain and simple: everyone’s lives in my house have been upturned and changed indefinitely for sure. But what we have learned, witnessed, felt in our hearts at times, and experienced to date words alone do not describe the full benefits. There are days when a picture whether it is mental, digital and/or photographic in any way, is worth at least a 1000 words. Yet there are times neither a word nor a picture can really portray what one gets in life from a dog, it is something one has to just experience at one point or another in life.
How does one draw the laughter, head tilts, soulful loving eyes just looking deeply into yours? How does one say what the sound of a dog crying in pain looks or feels like? Or when you are sad maybe even crying only to have a dog come and truly comfort you, can anyone put in print the true emotion felt at that moment? Or what is felt when your favorite slippers are shredded with tons of fuzz all over the floor and your dog happily wags it tail, looking proudly at you and drops it at your feet on command. Can anyone describe the mixed emotion of wanting to kill that damn dog one second and then laughing while hugging the same dog the next? Or how about the funny stories down the road you can tell at family gatherings and parties making others have the best laugh they have had in months!
Now let’s turn this around. Having dogs is analogous in certain ways to having children. You learn to laugh, develop patience, better creativity, organizational and analytical skills along with sharpened common sense and problem solving abilities. I haven’t mentioned the word LOVE until now. Can anyone really describe love to its truest meaning, its deepest level, or if writing it for a dictionary exactly how it makes you feel? Can someone really just sum it up carefully and universally into one or two sentences, or is it something we really need to have in our lives daily to totally understand it and like an addict crave it?
Love is not just smiling, feeling happy, being dreamy eyed and idealistic, and the positive list continues onward. Love also consists of tears, fears, worries, frustration, anger, wanting to give up and/or walk away, feeling stressed out and that no one cares, or understands, or helps out or whatever. What really matters is putting the good with the bad, the pretty with the ugly…it is the combinations that are more complex than solving a Rubik’ Cube or channeling quantum physics.
Now what kind of love does a dog possess? A dog teaches something humans have yet to be able to genuinely 100 % do in their own life and that is to love UNCONDTIONALLY. Dogs rarely hold grudges; do not bring up the past in your face.Okay the boot your dog chews daily that is the exception to the rule. Dogs kiss you each and every time no matter how mad you were at them earlier in the day. Dogs greet you eagerly each and every time you enter your home whether you were gone 5 hours or 5 minutes. Dogs just want love and to give love period.
I love how when I have heard of other people’s dogs acting similar to Max when around small children, the elderly, or even someone in pain physically and/or mentally. They calm right down, sit patiently, quietly and almost with a silent inquisitiveness without questions. They act so much differently than usual. These dogs seem to sense the pain, innocence, mental anguish, or that these people are different from others in their home. Dogs are better at sensing differences as well as reading body language than us humans. If we were to watch dogs more often we could even possibly learn more than we try to teach them. Children when small are the same way: through their love and innocence at times they really teach us more than we teach them. “Children learn what they live” is a well known poem however could it possibly overflow into dogs? For me, my answer is yes.
To-date having dogs in my life again has enabled me to think more about my children and how much I should be showing them how deep my love runs for them too. Two of my teenagers still hug and kiss me telling me they love me. The other teenager will again when he is done conquering the world, thinking I am stupid, mean, strict, embarrassing, and out of touch with how things are today. Hopefully, when this one particular teenager becomes an adult he will have the best of what life has to offer: love shared with a companion, also children and pets. Both make you laugh later on and especially when it happens to someone else. For others being able to say “been there, done that” can enable one to reflect a memory, a laugh and move on in life perhaps in a more positive way when you realize this commonality.
Are dogs worth the love, money, time and work involved in the average 10 to 15 year commitment? Sure, but then again what in life isn’t work? If everything were to come easy without some hard work and frustrations at times, would you appreciate and love it as much?
Will you ever have to be up all night with a dog? — Probably. Will you freeze your buns off in winter or wear holes in the soles of your shoes walking them, some will, some won’t. Depends if you have fenced areas in your yard or not.
Will you melt when they kiss you for no reason other than to just want to? Most of us do. Will any of you have at least one stinky ride in a car competing with your dog for fresh air? Most of us have. Or how about talking mushy baby talk when you think no one is within listening distance? I have seen grown men perform this act many a time, as I have seen grown women and children to be included of cuteness acts around a dog.
Will you end up with poop stuck on your dog’s rear end needing assistance of removal? I hope far and few between for anyone’s sake. This is not a cute or joyous feat.
Will you end up having to replace something in your home due to destruction, accident and/or boredom? That is a given. Yet the same dog can also alert and/or save you in times of danger.
Have you ever buried your face in your dog and given the almighty bear hug while whispering the “I love you so much” in your dog’s ear? I know I have numerous times.
Will your yard or houseplants be dug up periodically? Mine have and will again if I turn my back too long. And will you realize like your children and yourself, no one and nothing is perfect in life? If life were to be easy and perfect there would be nothing to look forward to. So will you one day come to realize the same dog that needs care and love can also do the same for us? Or will you pass up the opportunity in life of learning what unconditional love really means?
My home I thought was filled with so much love with my kids and fiancé. My cup was half full and now with 3 doodle dogs my cup is overflowing with love. I have asked so many questions but not for answers, but more for reflection.
And I leave you all with this: Dogs: man’s best friend? Or are they really everyone’s best friend if you allow them to be ? You decide.
“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” quote by Anatole France
The contents of this blog site are copyright (c) 2008, Annmarie Sparks. All Rights Reserved
February 28th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Jack…
Geat post. I added you to my blog roll!…
March 4th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
WHY EVEN HAVE A DOG? seems quite interesting - J.Sanders
March 5th, 2008 at 4:12 am
dog training problem…
wow.. you blog news very quick. Nice Update ……
March 12th, 2008 at 3:12 am
positive dog training…
this article alone provides very clear answer to the most misunderstood part of the issue…
March 15th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Thanks for writing that article. It was very informative and has helped me.
March 25th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Could not agee with you more..
March 26th, 2008 at 12:40 am
Very nice Life Animal blog
June 6th, 2008 at 2:21 pm
I don’t mean to be too in your face, but I’m not sure I agree with this. Anyhow, thanks for sharing and I think I’ll come to this blog more often.
July 17th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
thanks for the great information…