The 10 Simple Life Lessons I Learnt From My Pet Dog

There’s a lot to learn from man’s best friend

Over the centuries, dogs have evolved to co-exist and proved their loyalty towards humans. Despite them having lower brain capacity and intelligence than us, they subconsciously possess great qualities that humans could inculcate in themselves.

Here are mentioned some of the best qualities I observed in my pet dog Bibo.

1. It has a lot of faith:

Every night, we leave our dog out from its room to roam around for security. And the morning at 6:00 AM, we get his breakfast and he quickly runs into his room cheerfully, and we lock him till evening again.

He got used to his schedule of leaving him out and locking him in. And he never thinks, “What if they don’t leave me again in the evening?” He just goes inside having faith upon us that we leave him out again in the evening.

2. Always content no matter what:

Every evening, I take him out for a walk. After freeing him out from his room, he runs joyfully in the compound and waits for me at the gate to tie his rope around his neck.

Some days I would be busy with my studies and I’ll not be able to spend time with him for a walk. Then, I bring him to his pole to tie him there. He simply comes towards his pole without any disappointment and allows me to tie him there.

So, he’s happy if I take him out, and still happy even if I don’t.

We have a soft sofa outside where he roams around at night. He doesn’t sleep on it. He made a bed himself on ground with thermocol and plastic covers, on which he sleeps every night. He’s content with what he’s having, and stays happy for the littlest of things.

3. Never forgets his duty:

He enjoys it when someone pats on his head and stays there as long as they leave. But while we’re patting him, if he sees any stranger coming inside our house, he quickly leaves us and starts barking at him.

That shows his commitment towards his basic duty of protecting us even while he’s enjoying something.

4. Glad to invite someone:

While sleeping, when we pass across or go towards him, he wiggles his tail and invites us towards himself. As long as we stay outside, his tail doesn’t stop wigging and his eyes don’t stop staring at us.

Cultivating this basic quality from dogs attracts grace and people towards us.

5. Lives in the moment and never holds grudges:

He always stays in the present. I don’t see him remembering past experiences and people that hurt him. He’s very content, just sniffing around the house and playing around with frogs , and never stopping wiggling when he sees someone close to him.

One day, one guy from a group of boys near our house hit our dog with a stone. From the next day, I don’t find him remembering the incident the time he sees the gang. He’s never bothered about what happened in the past, and what’s gonna happen in the future. He just lives in the present.

6. Has a lot of patience:

Most of the time I take him for a walk, I take him to the end of the long road and bring him back, without a halt. On some occasions, I meet people I know in between. I hold the rope in my hands and talk to them.

One day, I completely forgot the presence of my dog with me and conversed with them for 10 minutes. Later, I found him standing and looking up at the clouds, just waiting for me. He didn’t disturb or pull me while our conversation was on. That’s the patience we need to inculcate too.

7. Gentle and never boasts his size:

Its breed is Great Dane, which is one of the largest dog breeds. Nevertheless, he’s gentle towards children and subtly enjoys them patting on him. One day, a little girl accidentally hit him on his face, and he just took it.

He knows he could just scare away people like a magnet and iron fillings, but he’s just gentle. As it’s said by Uncle Ben in Spiderman, “With great power, comes great responsibility.”

8. Gives respect:

We didn’t teach him, but he doesn’t come to us while we’re on phone or conversing with someone. He only comes to us when we’re free from any work, and could receive him.

This quality is admired by people who visit our home.

9. It’s very courageous:

All the pet dogs in our locality are afraid of a large number of unruly street dogs and run back to their owner on their sight. Unlike them, our dog, on its instinct, barks and attempts to attack them, but we hold him back anyway.

It’s his initiative that shows his courage and not being afraid of the number of opponents.

10. It listens to people:

It's a funny thing that I observed. When I speak to him he just looks steadily in my eyes with an expression, “Wow! That’s a great idea! I didn’t get one.” He assumes that I know all the world’s knowledge.

Over time, we people have lost the quality of listening. We only listen to people for the sake of giving them a response, but not with an intent to understand them. This subtle art of listening is something most of us have to inculcate too.

Summary — 10 best qualities we can learn from dogs:

1. Faith
2. Contentment
3. Responsibility
4. Inviting
5. Living in present
6. Patience
7. Gentleness
8. Respect
9. Courage
10. Listening

More related stories from me:

• 15 Subtle Body Languages of Dogs to Help You Understand Them better.
• Pigs Aren’t As Dumb As You Think! We Have Been Underestimating Them.