Dog's Best Friend

It is a well known fact that "Dogs are a man's best friend". In fact, Harry Truman said, "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog." And it is no surprise that almost every US President in recent years has had dogs while in office.

However, my guess is that Presidential Dogs have no choice because they hardly get to socialise with other dogs.. what if they get kidnapped by terrorists!!!!

But for normal dogs like us, who are our best friend? Is it our human companion or other dogs?

I have seen so many dogs, when off-leash at the park, went crazy playing with other dogs, ignoring calls from their human companions. I have also seen countless humans chasing & shouting after their dogs and finally gave up as they can never outrun the dog. (it is really a funny sight.. many a times, I tried to control my giggling)

WHY?? The humans will start asking themselves or complained to their human friends that their dogs are usually very obedient at home, but once outside, they turned deaf and/or rebellious.

Let me give you our dogs' perspective. We ignored you because you are NO FUN as compared to the other dogs. And it is all your fault because you allowed us to play endlessly with other dogs, and just stand there and watched us play. And if you tried to recall us, we will pretend not to hear knowing that you will eventually give up trying to recall us.

When I was merely a puppy, I resented HC's strictness. She will allow me to play with other dogs only for a short while. And when she calls me back, I HAD to respond to her within the third call. If I rebel and let her chase me around the park, I will get a major punishment from her! But I have learnt to realise that if I respond to her, I will get rewarded either by a praise or a game of fetch.

What I am trying to say is, it is okay to allow your dogs to have fun with other dogs, but ultimately, they must still prefer to play with their human companion. And at any time, they should respond to their human companion. The human should be the dog's best friend just as dogs are man's best friend.

Long ago, HC had signed up for Mogens Eliasen's online newsletter - The Peeing Post and found this particular article extreme beneficial. It talks about how humans should strive to be the best fun provider in order to improve the bond between them. Note to humans - please sign up and you will get regular online newsletter for FREE!

Oh... the previous post - I talked about Rude Dogs. I was rude once cos I loved to snatch other dogs' new squeaky balls all the time. When that happens, HC will punished me by scolding me and/or making me sit/stay at a corner. But she will later show me my ball, and started playing happily with me. After a while, I started to realise that it is definitely more fun if I just play with my own ball with her. In fact, if I happened to take someone else's ball mistakenly (same type of ball), she only need to say 'leave it' and I will obey.

(HC : we had the experience of having this crazy dog who keeps snatching Joey's ball all the time. I have tried to bring a few balls with me as spare but all will be stolen by him. It is so frustrating, and more so, when the owners merely said, 'Sorry.... but I cannot control my dog too!'. So, I make sure that Joey does not learnt this bad behavior too by being firm with him initially.
This particulr dog is trained using 'Positive Reinforcement' by some self-proclaimed animal behaviorist who prefers to reward good behaviour and ignore the bad ones. Yeah.. she didn't realised that by ignoring the bad behavior, it will distress the other party.What is ironic is that when the owner show the treat (reward) to the dog, he ran away from her because the stolen balls are definitely more fun than some treats that he can easily have anytime of the day)