The recent passing of my brother's dog has reminded me just how important the canine species is to homo sapiens. I am blessed with two wonderful dogs. The first is a miniature or Italian greyhound and the second is a lovable mutt who seems to be part shepherd and either husky, malamute, and who knows what else. The Italian greyhound is the best behaved dog I have had and the second is the best all around dog I have ever had.
There is an old saying in politics that if you are in Washington D.C. and need a friend, then get a dog. However, I don't think that should be limited to Washington. There is no better friend than a dog. Charles DeGaulle reportedly said something to the effect that, "The more I learn about people, the more I appreciate dogs." The vast majority of dogs, it is sad to say, is better than the vast majority of people. Most people harp on a dog's loyalty, but that is only a small part of their value. We can learn a lot from dogs. Mark Twain said to the effect that, "If you bring in a stray dog and feed it, you will have a friend for life. And that, my friends, is the main difference between a man and a dog." The way I phrase it is that if you are nice to a dog and treat it well, it will like you and be nice back. However, that is not true for far too many humans. Dogs don't care what you look like, how much money you have, what kind of car you drive, what clothes you wear. What is important to them is how well you treat them, or in short, the nature of your character. It has been said that virtue is its own reward. That's important to remember, since it doesn't seem to be rewarded very often in modern society. Dogs appreciate the virtuous person, more than our fellow humans do. Dogs live in the moment, they do not dwell in the past nor worry about their future. It does not take much to make a dog happy; meet his/her basic needs and throw in some exercise and play and a dog is as content as can be. These are important life lessons we would all do well to heed.
If you are a dog owner or are considering becoming one, I recommend that you watch the show The Dog Whisperer on the National Geographic Channel. Not only do you learn a lot about dogs, you learn a lot about people and life. One thing which I find particularly instructive is that when people are having problems with their dogs, very often it is the owner who has the problem, not the dog. Dogs have an amazing ability to pick up our feelings and emotions, even when we are not aware of them ourselves. Many times the Dog Whisperer will find that an owner will communicate anxiety and/or fear which the dog feeds off of. After watching the show, I have seen this with some other dog owners.
Scientists are finding out that dogs are much smarter than was previously thought. A border collie recently was found to know/understand over 300 separate words. Even your average dog without any training can pick up a couple of dozen words. Stanley Koren, who has written several dog books and has a Phd. in Psychology, estimates that dogs have the equivalent intelligence of a 3 or 4 year old human. And, when it comes to picking up cues from humans, dogs may be even better than many humans. An experiment which I found very interesting showed that in this regard dogs are smarter than chimps. Dogs instinctively know what it means when a human points; chimps do not understand the significance of that motion. The experiement was done with a dog that had not interacted with humans before, yet that dog knew what pointing meant while the chimp did not.
Yet we must remember one of my adages. A dog is a dog, nothing more, nothing less. By that I mean that while they share their lives with us, treasure our companionship, and give us their love, they are not little humans. Some people seem to want to anthropomorphize their pets. Because they are dogs, they do have distinct instincts and needs which differ from our own. Thus, they are nothing more than dogs. On the other hand, dogs have shown themselves to be much smarter than previously thought and are truly a boon companion. So, a dog is truly an important species which contributes greatly to human welfare. Researchers have found that the mere act of petting a dog lowers one's blood pressure and reduces anxiety. That is why they have therapy dogs, not therapy any other animal. Throughout human history dogs have helped us, guarding our flocks, herding our sheep, aiding us in our hunting. Dogs can sniff out drugs, explosives, and even cancer. They can help find trapped survivors in disasters, corpses under rubble and, of course, provide immense help to the disabled. What other animal does so much for us?
Finally, I want to pass along two of my favorite dog stories. The first one from a book recounts the story of a feral dog who would scavange the trash cans behind a restaurant. Someone noticed that the dog would take some food a short distance away and eat it, then take some other food and trot off. Curious, the observer decided to follow the dog to see what he did with the food he didn't eat immediately. The dog trotted along into a nearby woods and after a half mile or so came to a hole in the ground and dropped the food into the hole. The observer watched the dog do this a couple of days in a row and finally approached the hole. Inside an abandoned mine another dog had fallen in and was unable to get out. The first dog must have heard the cries of the trapped animal and dutifully brought food to it every day, proving that dogs certainly have a nobleness of purpose.
The second story is from a TV show I saw about dogs. The teller of the tale is now a veterinarian and he told of how he grew up on a farm with a family dog. One day he and his older brother decided to go with their father out to fix some fence. The brother put his bike in the back of their pick up truck and rode in the back with their dog. As their work was finishing, the brother decided to take his bike and ride back, as that was why had had brought it. After a bit the father, younger brother and the dog in the back began the drive back over a dirt road. All of the sudden the dog jumped out of the truck and began running alongside the truck, barking loudly. The boy and his father couldn't understand this unusual behavior, slowed down a bit, but kept going. Suddenly the dog sped up and ran in front of the truck. Although the father slammed on the brakes, he couldn't stop in time and ran over the dog, killing him. However, in doing so, he stopped in time to avoid running over his older son. He had fallen off his bike and was hurt, lying in the middle of the road at the bottom of a small rise. Because of the nature of the road, the driver wouldn't have been able to see his son in time to stop, but the dog somehow knew that the boy was in danger and ultimately sacrificed his life for that of the boy's. You can have no better friend than a good dog.
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