The importance of having the respect of your dog.
Dogs are an important part of our family life, however they aren’t exactly friends or kids. They seem that way to us a lot of the time but recognizing the differences help us and them. Though part of the family, one main difference separates them. They live in a dog’s world, not a human’s world and it can harm the dog and family to humanize them. One part of the human-dog bond that makes a huge difference in our relationship with them comes down to mutual respect.
Mutual respect builds a relationship with our dog that helps ensure a safe and healthy life. Without this two way street of respect one can expect some serious problems. Behavior and safety issues become the center of the relationship when we don’t respect our dogs enough to not treat them as humans. But, what do I mean by humanizing a dog?
Humanizing our dogs.
For most of us the easiest thing in the world is to forget that our dogs aren’t people. Who wants to think about the hundreds or thousands of years our ancestors took to mold modern day dogs into who they are today? Dogs have been chosen and bred to be more and more like us, especially in the last few hundred years. They have expressive eyes that wolves lack. This comes from extra muscles that allow for expressions that look human to us. We look into the soulful eyes of a dog and wonder about their feelings. Some one a long time ago had the first dog with those eyes and made sure there were more for future generations.
Part 2: A dogs life.
With such eyes , playfulness and other characteristics that draw us to owning and caring for dogs, they become part of the family. We care for them as children and sometimes treat them as such. However, they live a dog’s life. They can’t understand our words and certainly not our thoughts even though they do a great job of acting like they do sometimes. Our responsibility to them requires we overcome the desire to humanize them in order to take the best care of them possible. We must respect that they experience a dog’s life. Join me in Part 2 of this series as I explore a dogs life.
Another way to build respect with your dog.
Front Range Pet Sop serves the Denver Metro area and beyond. We provide expert service for your underground electric dog fence needs. Call us with questions you have about installing an invisible fence for dogs on your property as well as servicing an existing system. We have information about dog training collars and indoor units. These can keep your pupper out of restricted areas or off of specific pieces of furniture. This includes kitties as well! Give Will a call anytime @ 303-345-4452 because he loves to take your call!