If your dog is your BFF, boyfriend, and more, you’re not alone. A new study has revealed that there are a whole group of people who love their dogs more than the important humans in their lives and I just have one thing to say to that: duh!
- Dogs are intrinsically innocent. In their deepest core, dogs have no idea what the bleep they’re doing. Nothing is ever their fault and they have no real agenda other than to eat, play, sleep, and go for walkies. They’re just born on this earth to be themselves, plain and simple. If they ever do attack, it’s for their own self-defence or an animal instinct that’s being activated. It breaks my heart when people treat dogs badly when they misbehave because they have no bad intentions.
- Dogs will always forgive us. This is kinda sad because a lot of people actually neglect their dogs knowing that they can get away with it, but if we leave our dogs home alone too long or skip out on a W-A-L-K one day, they instantly forgive us. It’s all they know how to do because to them, their owners can do no wrong.
- They can’t leave you (and they don’t want to). If you yell at your pup about pooping on the new rug, they’ll be back by your side by dinner time, eternally loyal. Maybe that’s why we love our dogs so much! They can’t leave our sides and they don’t even want to. There’s a reason why doggies are often referred to as being “(wo)man’s best friend.”
- It doesn’t matter how old the dog is—it’s still the sweetest thing on earth. In the study I mentioned earlier, 240 participants were given four fake police reports depicting assault upon a victim. Each report had a different victim: a puppy, a one-year-old baby, a 30-year-old adult and a 6-year-old dog. At the end of the testing period, it was found that the majority of the participants had equal empathy towards the puppy, baby and the adult dog, which doesn’t surprise me one bit. It doesn’t even matter how old the dog is, it still has just as much innocence as a newborn baby in our eyes. Aw!
- Our dogs understand us better than some humans can. Our dogs always seem to know when we’re upset. They’ll cuddle up beside us and give out a big puff through their cute lil’ noses as if they’re absorbing our sadness. They’re truly sad for us and in some deep way, like they understand how we’re feeling. They’re like little humans who can’t talk!
- Three words: My Dog Skip. Think about all the movies that REALLY made you cry—I mean SERIOUSLY made you turn on the waterworks. I bet you anything they involved a dying dog. I remember just losing it when I saw My Dog Skip for the first time and purposely will remember that movie when I need a good cry. It’s just so sad when dogs die because they NEVER deserve it. They couldn’t have possibly done anything bad in their lives to ever deserve to suffer.
- It doesn’t help that they sometimes act and look like actual humans. There was another study done on the facial expression of dogs where it showed that puppies will raise their eyebrows and widen their eyes in order to attract attention from a human just because they want it! Not even for a treat! They just wanna be close to us. How cute is that? I always thought that dogs only really want food from us, but this study has proven otherwise…
- Our dogs need us. Not only do our dogs long for our love and attention, but they also need us for shelter, food, and general safety. They depend on us for everything and we would be horrible people if we thought that they deserved any sort of pain or punishment. They’re helpless creatures who are completely dependant on us, it’s no wonder our eyes light up with empathy every time we see a dog, even if it doesn’t even belong to us.
- Why can’t we feel about humans the way we feel about dogs? The fact that we’re so head-over-heels for our hounds makes me think that this sort of empathic behavior should maybe be directed towards actual human beings, as well. If we just pretended that we were all dogs and were acting from a place of complete innocence, maybe the world would be a better place? This study proves that we have the capacity to care with deep empathy, so let’s use this ability more often!
