You Dog You!

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I have often watched my dog Herc with a sense of curiosity and amusement. I think we can learn a lot about being a good human by watching and behaving more like dogs. Now, don’t get me wrong, if I took on the personality of this big goofball I wouldn’t last a day before I was committed to the loony bin. Can you imagine? Me as a 6 foot 4 man running at you full speed first thing in the morning with a glint of insanity in my eye just to greet you with enthusiastic hyperactivity. As you say hello and shake my hand, granted you just saw me yesterday, I declare with excitement that I am so happy to see you that I peed a little. Then there is the eating thing. I am not sure if eating your food in as few bites as possible is socially acceptable. Wait….yeah…I may already do that. Forget that one and ignore my eating habits next time you see me. Thank you! Anyway, randomly eating grass in the yard and forcing yourself to vomit at the most inopportune time is probably a bad behavior as well. Of course sniffing someone else’s butt to get to know them better is definitely gross and frowned upon in today’s society, but lets be honest that visual is kinda funny. Let’s not even get into the grooming habits of pooches in front of company. OK OK!! So maybe there are a lot of behaviors that we don’t want to follow, but the actions above are not what I am talking about. I never have to worry about where I stand with Herc. His love is 100% unconditional. No matter what I do, or have done, he is waiting there for me when I get home. No judgement, no disappointment, he is just happy to see me. He doesn’t ask for anything in return other than care and companionship. When things get tough and uncomfortable in life he doesn’t abandon me. He senses when I am low and seems to understand that he should be close. Not to fix things that are going wrong but just to support. He stays close just to let me know he is there. He is constantly on watch and ready to defend his people at a moments notice. He does this because his pack, his tribe, is everything to him and he will never ever retreat from them. His loyalty to his pack, to his family and to his friends will never be shaken. This is admirable. This is humbling. This is a lesson we could all stand to learn.