I’ll tell you something that absolutely breaks my heart – when people don’t pay attention to their pets. I also get irritated when they don’t pay attention to their children, but that’s a topic for a different thesis.
The other day, I was driving down the street and noticed a man walking his dog. The guy was on his phone, either texting or surfing the web or watching a video, and he was paying no attention whatsoever to his dog on the other end of the leash.
At one point in time, I thought the dog was going to step out onto the street. Thankfully the guy happened to look up at the right time and pull his pup back to him. You would think that would have taught the guy a lesson, but nope. He went right back to his phone.
As I growled in frustration, I started thinking about how many people consider animals almost more as decorations than actual family members. Have you ever witnessed this?
People, like this man, who walk their dogs and pay no attention, what happens if the next time your dog goes after something, you lose control of the leash and he gets away? What if it happens in front of a moving vehicle?
Would you blame the dog? Because I hate to tell you, it’s not his fault. At all.
Or people who pay attention to everything around them except their dog and then wonder “how in the world he got into” something. It’s mind-boggling. If you had been paying attention to your dog, you likely could have kept him from getting into something he shouldn’t have in the first place.
The same holds for potty training. My dad was always guilty of this one. He would get frustrated when the dogs gave him a hard time about going to the bathroom (if it was raining or they were in a snit or if they maybe ate something that didn’t agree with them). He’d get very aggravated with them and his demeanor would say exactly that.
Dogs are ridiculously intuitive. I mean, some canines are able to sense oncoming seizures in epileptic patients and warn them before a seizure even happens. Additionally, studies have found that dogs are also actually able to smell certain types of cancers. No joke. Because a dog’s sense of smell is so precise, he can detect the chemical odor of cancer in the breath of patients and help with early detection.
I think that’s utterly amazing.
My point, though, is that if our pets are capable of discerning seizures and cancer, can you imagine how easy it would be for them to be able to sense something as simple as our moods?
I guarantee you that yelling at a dog who is already having some issue with going to the bathroom isn’t going to make the outcome any quicker or easier. Trainers have found that
positive reinforcement works far better in potty training our pets than yelling and screaming and the age-old “rubbing their nose in it” ever will. A dog wants to please. If he knows he has, he’ll learn far faster.
In fact, let me go one step further with this. When potty training children, you wouldn’t yell at them to get the desired results. Why in the world do you think it would work for a dog?
Here’s the thing. Animals are a responsibility. Not unlike the aforementioned children. They require care and attention in order to thrive – also like the aforementioned children. If you would prefer a pet that is more decorative and doesn’t make you stand in the rain, waiting for him to urinate, go to the nearest toy store and get a stuffed one.
Seriously.
For those of us who truly know the joy an animal can bring to our lives, we’re happy to put down the cell phone on a daily walk (it might even be good for us, too – imagine that), or allow our dog the time he needs to go to the bathroom, because those moments together are about the bond we share, as human and canine (or for you lucky folks with loving cats, human and feline).
Our pets aren’t just decoration. They should be part of our lives and we should treasure every second we have with them.
Trust me when I tell you, the texting can wait and unplugging from those computerized contraptions in our hands might do us all a world of good.
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Jennifer Vanderau is the Public Relations Coordinator for the Cumberland Valley Animal Shelter and can be reached at [email protected]. The shelter accepts both monetary and pet supply donations. For more information, call the shelter at 263-5791 or visit the website www.cvas-pets.org. CVAS also operates a thrift store in Chambersburg. Help support the animals at the shelter by donating to or shopping at the store.
