Close up of a dog's nose and teeth

Love and Boundaries: Dog Lessons + Podcast

Posted on by da-AL
Close up of a dog's nose and teeth
This picture by Sofia Oratowski of her golden retriever always makes me smile.

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Think my doggies are my surrogate kids? Think again. Great as humans are, dogs let me experience me a different level of  joy, love, care, and wisdom.

How I wish I’d  begun to become a student of dogs way earlier. Growing up, I learned to be too nice, too accommodating, and accepting of bad treatment. If only I’d had dogs as a child!

Since caring for them, I’ve learned how what’s good for them is good for myself, too. Daily, training them teaches me about happiness and healthy relationships. One overarching lesson is that we teach others how to treat us.

My dogs patiently show me about boundaries…

  1. What boundaries I need and want. It’s okay to need and want them.
  2. What makes a harmony family.
  3. What dogs are capable of and what’s reasonable to expect from them, in terms of trusting them to learn, remember, and do.
  4. That boundaries are best communicated clearly and nonjudgmentally. If they go unheeded, I can try other ways.
  5. Patience and consistency are essential.

Keeping them physically and emotionally healthy benefits both of us…

  1. Walking my dogs daily means I walk too. It’s a time to bond. For dog and human alike, walking and playing heals mind, body, and soul.
  2. Together, we meet our neighbors.
  3. It’s easy to think I’m too busy for play and walks. They’ve taught me I shouldn’t overextend myself.
  4. They’re always happy to see me! When I’m not thrilled to come home to loved ones and myself, I need to work harder to nurture social and personal havens.
  5. Angels exist, and they’re not just dogs. For all the times I worried that I wouldn’t have the resources to keep pets, people have stepped forward. Striving for independence is great, yet my dogs remind me that everyone and everything in the world are interdependent.
  6. Cesar Milan, a.k.a., The Dog Whisperer, often talks about the importance of choosing pets who match our energy levels. Appreciating compatibility affords me insights into myself and others.
  7. Trust requires time. Every day is another chance at building and rebuilding trust.

Few things can match how, when I leave my home for only a short while, my dogs’ eyes shine with pure joy when I return. We don’t have to be dogs to show appreciation.

Have your pets made you a better human?

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Published by da-AL

Happiness Between Tails speaks to and from the heart. It connects lovers — of pets, authors, books — and of my still-unreleased novels, “Flamenco + the Sitting Cat” and “Tango + the Sitting Cat.” The stories are my love letters to all who fear they're too odd, too damaged, too old, too whatever to find happiness. ContactdaAL@gmail.com • BuyMeACoffee.com/SupportHBT

55 thoughts on “Love and Boundaries: Dog Lessons + Podcast”

  1. I don’t have a dog, I think dogs are too dependent, when I go to visit family or friends, their dogs jump all over us and leak us and follow us everywhere. Your article almost convinced me but I’m too busy and I’m not home very often and don’t have a garden so the dogs would not be very happy with me 😦

    Liked by 1 person

    1. maybe later, when you have time? I believe that dogs must be trained – as with children, pets need to be socialized, which takes time & patience. they demand of us, yet they give back 200 times more 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  2. I love this post. I have love dogs, but was bitten 20 years ago (long story) and was afraid of a Great Dane that was often loose on our street when I was 5 years old. My parents would not allow a dog until my Mum got one for my Birthday when I was 15… She picked it (I had no idea), and brought it home. It was really for her… I did walk him (a little Yorkie) but he became her lap cushion and she indulged him terribly. He was a menace with anyone else and would bite (except for me… because I would take him for walks in the park and throw balls for him).

    Nowadays, my lifestyle doesn’t allow for a dog (I travel abroad a great deal), but I do pet sit many dogs and fall in love with every one of them. It is so hard to leave them when I’m no longer required 💔

    Liked by 1 person

  3. This is such a good post. I am such a proponent of kids learning great things like love, respect, responsibility, even mourning and sadness. I appreciate the listing in this post. Good job.

    Liked by 1 person

    2. This times 100000! I could have a terrible awful frustrating day at work, but when I roll up to our house, mine are waiting and greet me “YOU CAME HOOOOME!!! It’s a Miracle!!!” So happy to see me that my mood lifts immediately. Pure unconditional love.

      Like The V Pub, we cannot imagine life without ours.

      Liked by 1 person

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