Why Have a Dog?

We often get a dog to be a life companion and a member of the family—but it ends up spending most of the day alone at home. When we return (or even while we’re away), the dog goes wild and acts out, while we wish it would just be calm and well-behaved.

Dogs are social animals. They weren’t made to sit home alone all day.

They need daily exploration, time with other dogs, time around people, freedom to sniff around, to play—especially when they’re young. And we need to always consider their life needs and what their world looks like from their point of view.

Very often we want full control over what the dog does—what it eats, when it sleeps, where it walks, what it’s allowed to sniff and what not. And yet we give dogs very little choice. We call barking, jumping on people, chasing cats or squirrels, eating trash off the ground, sniffing other dogs’ butts, or growling “behavior problems.” That’s what we go to trainers and behaviorists for. But from the dog’s perspective, most of these are completely normal behaviors.

We tend to have very high expectations of our dogs—they need to fit into our lifestyle, our schedules. And we often forget what the dog actually needs.

Leaving a dog in the backyard doesn’t meet its needs. Letting it run around a dog park doesn’t automatically build a good relationship. Coming home after hours away and expecting calm behavior is unrealistic. If we yell at our dog, we shouldn’t expect it to come running happily when called.

A relationship with a dog—like any relationship—goes both ways.

The more we’re able to give our dog, the more we’ll get in return, because the better companion it will be. If we invest in the relationship, we may just find we have a friend we truly enjoy spending time with.