Monday, June 20, 2011

Learning Patience From Dogs

I've been doing a lot of people watching lately from my kitchen counter top. You see, the benefits of living on the 3rd floor with lots of windows in the kitchen (which i had a hard time getting used to because you can see in from the road) is that you get to observe people daily while they go on about their business.

I've always noticed the people who walk their dogs for two reasons. The first being that i want a pet. I didn't really grow up with a pet; we did have an Alsatian puppy for a while but he sadly died. We only had him for a few weeks so i never really knew what it felt like to have a pet. Back home where i grew up, most people didn't have one; dogs are mainly used as protectors as opposed to pets. The second reason i noticed these people (which is the main reason for this post) is how their dogs always seem to be in charge of the walks; especially those without a leash on.

If you went walking with a kid, you can always tell the kid exactly where to go and frown when they vie off that chosen path. With dogs, it seems to be a completely different scenario. I'm sure you could train your dog to be obedient and all, but they always seem to follow their nose. And that's when i see the dog owners being really patient. No one's there yelling at the dog to stop sniffing and continue with their walk; instead they wait patiently until the dog is ready to move on.

There's this particular man who walks his dog pretty much everyday just early into the afternoon. I've noticed that his dog always stops to smell an area that has something that wasn't there before. Today in particular, his dog stopped for almost 3 minutes to sniff around the lamp post outside (yes, i was timing it). I sat there, whilst sipping my milk tea, how this tolerance for the dog's need to stop and smell would translate into patience in their daily lives. Maybe they end up being more patient with the people around them? Or rather become more tolerant of people's attitudes and needs that they mightn't understand?

Now, i've never walked a dog in my life so i have no idea what it's like. But i'm sure there are some pet owners reading this who might be able to chip in and say a few words.

Until next time, do have a lovely Monday

2 comments:

  1. Mike's dog is a NUT, he will go crazy like he's never had a walk before then tug and pull the whole way without a care that he is choking on his leash. (Thus he now has a harness). But he's so adorabubble <3

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  2. Lol. You lot need to take Mike's dog to yoga class :)

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