A dog by my side #2

I was thinking about yesterdays blog this morning and thought I would continue along the same lines. It's back at it today; I've been sort of off since Wed. so it's up and at it early and I again have dogs by my side, only two this morning though. Tilley is still in bed and it looks like she has no intention of getting up. Luke took my husbands warm spot the second he got up and Jessie is curled up tight beside my left knee.

Dogs have been with us for some 10-15 thousand years; it is a rough dating process. But dog remains have been found as far back as this, they may still find older remains but to date it is about 10-15 thousand. So we have had dogs at our side for a very longtime and in this time there has been a huge evolution, with the dog but with humans as well. Many humans are now seeing dogs as companions instead of "just dogs." Oh there are still some still to be educated but that takes time.

And there are still lots of people who completely miss the whole dog thing entirely, sad but true. I have often talked to "new dog people," about when they were not dog people. They admit to having been one of "those" people; being completely taken by surprise when they got their own dog. They had no idea what they had been missing. A dog by your side has many meanings but each and everyone is positive. There is the dog at your side that I wrote about yesterday; patiently by your side no matter where you are, there they are. There are the protection dogs, educated to serve and protect and that is what they do.

On Saturday I was at my daughters college graduation; there were massive crowds in attendance but one caught my eye; a young yellow lab guiding her human safely through. This union of dog and human was amazing to watch; the girl walked confidently through the crowd, the dog walked with purpose glancing every couple of steps up to her humans face checking in so to speak. There are dogs who we entrust with the lives of our children, seizure alert dogs, hearing ear dogs, therapy dogs and the list goes on and on.

There are hundreds and thousands of human/dog teams who makes regular visit to the sick, elderly or incompasitated just to brighten their day. Even if a dog is not our dog; that dog laying or sitting beside us can bring peace and tranquility. We often ask alot of our dog and then there are times we ask nothing. And speaking of evolution; over the years there has been a huge "behavior/training" evolution. We humans have discovered a better way to communicate and help our dogs to live with us in our human world a much more positive way. There are still some trainers left back in the dark ages but it is hopeful that they will be left in the history books with all the other archaic things from the past.

Living with dogs you take the good with the bad; as do our dogs. Not all humans are easy to live with just like some dogs are more difficult than others but at the end of the day if you have a dog at your side; you are one lucky human.