How "Positive" Is Our Relationship With Our Dog?
Do you take the time to have a positive relationship with your 'best friend'? How often have we seen a child tell their pet "I love you" and show them how much they love them by giving them a hug or something they know they like? Probably more often that we 'grown ups' tell the people in our lives how much we appreciate them and when what they do makes our life easier? We tend to put such things at the top of our priority list more so when we lose someone or a pet that we loved, then we really understand that expressing our love needs to be part of our everyday lives.
When we lose someone from this world, it reminds us that it could always be too late to say the things that really matter to those we know and care for - and we are encouraged, if only for a short time to put this at the top of our list of what's important in our lives.
Our world is far more complicated than it used to be.
There are many demands on our time and energy and we can easily get caught up in 'doing' instead of 'being'.
We've probably all heard the statistics that we tend to recognise the negative in our relationships rather than the good on a ratio of about 50:1 - it is usually related to our relationships with people but applies just as much to those we have with our dogs! Children and dogs are very good as teachers, they tend to live more joyfully and in the moment, they pay attention to the good stuff far more, gaining and spreading more joy.
If only we paid more attention to the things we love about our dogs instead of the things they do that we would like to be different...
if we only relaxed a little, chilled out and looked for the fun...
perhaps our dogs would sense this and relax too...
perhaps there would be fewer dog attacks and less reason to dwell on the fear of things getting 'out of control'...
fewer injured children and fewer dogs put to sleep for just being dogs themselves and reflecting what is going on around them to the best of their understanding...
Let's spend more time daring to appreciate why we brought our dog(s) into our lives...
enjoy them more and confidently voice the positive in these relationships...
and see what might change in us and in them!
When we lose someone from this world, it reminds us that it could always be too late to say the things that really matter to those we know and care for - and we are encouraged, if only for a short time to put this at the top of our list of what's important in our lives.
Our world is far more complicated than it used to be.
There are many demands on our time and energy and we can easily get caught up in 'doing' instead of 'being'.
We've probably all heard the statistics that we tend to recognise the negative in our relationships rather than the good on a ratio of about 50:1 - it is usually related to our relationships with people but applies just as much to those we have with our dogs! Children and dogs are very good as teachers, they tend to live more joyfully and in the moment, they pay attention to the good stuff far more, gaining and spreading more joy.
If only we paid more attention to the things we love about our dogs instead of the things they do that we would like to be different...
if we only relaxed a little, chilled out and looked for the fun...
perhaps our dogs would sense this and relax too...
perhaps there would be fewer dog attacks and less reason to dwell on the fear of things getting 'out of control'...
fewer injured children and fewer dogs put to sleep for just being dogs themselves and reflecting what is going on around them to the best of their understanding...
Let's spend more time daring to appreciate why we brought our dog(s) into our lives...
enjoy them more and confidently voice the positive in these relationships...
and see what might change in us and in them!
