It crawls with four legs, bounces in your face, soft, wet, hairy, and all-around precious, you feel your heart just might explode into glittering stardust. A lab, a retriever, a French Bulldog. It doesn’t matter. Your dog will not only be your pet, but it will also be your professor. See through romps in the mud, 2 a.m. spooning sessions, and the tail-whipping-happiness of returning home. Dogs enforce life’s big rules — the ones we’ve long forgotten. How to breathe, live, love, and have fun. Here are five lessons everyone picks up.
1. Patience Is a Virtue (and a Skill)
No one teaches patience like a puppy who won’t stay. We all know the pain that comes with cleaning up accidents in the house, and know the frustration of wondering what shoes the dog has licked to death whilst you were upstairs for 2 minutes. It can wear you out, but then, you learn. You stop reacting, and start understanding, and all of a sudden you realise — things take time, milestones are small moments and patience is not about waiting but what you do whilst you are waiting. In a world that perpetuates a waiting game for instant gratification, sometimes you just have to.
2. Love Without Conditions
Dogs don’t care what you look like, or how much you make, or what kind of day you had. Their love is unconditional, even when we are inadequate. That exuberant tail wagging at the end of a long day is a daily teaching of the idea that love is not about perfection, it’s about presence. French Bulldog, with their big beautiful eyes, their loving disposition, and small stature, speak volumes about how to love, by showing you show up time and time again.
3. Consistency Builds Trust
From our daily walks to when it’s time to feed, dogs instinctively feel good when life is predictable. And they feel reassured when they basically know what’s going to happen next. That’s the funny thing about us dog lovers; we feel the same. Life, it seems, doesn’t need to look too dramatic, only predictable, if there’s someone you can trust.
4. Gratitude in the Simple Things
Have you ever stopped and watched your dog’s reaction when you reach for the leash? Or relish in how they freak out at the simplicity of playing fetch? They have an attitude of gratitude that we so frequently dismiss. They’re truly thankful for the little things. A walk. A snack. Lying in the sun. They teach us to take pleasure in the simplicity of life. That life isn’t perfect — but it is pretty freaking awesome when you’re together.
5. Living in the Moment
Maybe the best thing dogs have to teach us is how to be in the moment. They don’t fret about that yelling they got yesterday or worry about the vet they’re going to see next week. They are here and now — for the car ride, for the snuggle, for the whiff of fresh air. We see them fetch a ball, we see them sleeping at our feet, and it reminds us to quiet our minds and be.
In the End
Because owning a dog isn’t just about company – it is about potential. They have an awesome way of nudging the intangibles out of you: patience, love, discipline, thankfulness, and waking up. So many times, we are looking for happiness when it has already found us. If we are lucky in life, we get to be humble students one wag, one walk, one cold nose dove bonk to the forehead at a time.
