As most of you know I’m terribly attached to my two little
dogs. I’m one of those obnoxious people
that take my dogs in the car, to outdoor restaurants, they sleep with me at
night and I have even been known to dress them in clothes. With that said, I really do believe I have
learned some great life lessons from them.
Here they are:
Attitude is
everything. OK, so both my dogs are
small but they have very big spirits.
One of mine did all the training with me while I was getting ready to
hike in Peru. She (at only 9 pounds)
hiked every week with my hiking club (sometimes twice a week) over 10 miles at
a time. She not only hiked, she would
wade in the creeks, dig holes, chase squirrels, etc. meaning she actually hiked
twice as much as I did. I think she was
able to do it because there were much bigger stronger dogs in the group and she
saw them do it and assumed she could to.
No one told her she couldn’t or treated her any differently so there she
went. A lot of times our thoughts about our
abilities (not our abilities themselves) is what limits us. How much more would we attempt if we assumed
we could accomplish it?
Have a zest for
life. Have you ever seen a dog go outside to
play after being cooped up for a couple of days? It’s amazing – they run, jump, sniff
everything, dig, and roll in the grass.
We recently had a couple of rainy days and after being in doors most of
the time I let mine outside to play. I
thought with the cold temperature and wet grass they’d quickly want back
in. No…in fact, it seemed they were
never happier. They made the best of the
situation. Sometimes our circumstances are not the
best. We all face difficult situations
at some point in our life. The goal is
not to avoid difficult situations but to not let those situations limit of
enjoyment of life.
Be brave. Even though they’re small, both my dogs are
really gutsy. If a piece of food falls
on the ground, they grab it up quick. If
they don’t like it they’ll spit it out but they don’t want to risk missing
out. If there’s a toy they want, they go
for it. They would never let a bigger
dog bully them at the dog park. If there
is some unknown object in the yard, they don’t run or hide – they go explore
and seek it out. Sometimes our fears
limit our choices – we only want what is predictable or safe when there are
great things out there that just require us to be brave to reach them.
Only trust people
worth trusting. It’s a little sad
but one of my pups will still flinch if I make a move towards her too
quickly. (They’re both rescues). Even though I’ve never done anything scary of
hurtful to her, she learned early on in her life some people aren’t
trustworthy. It’s not cowardly to make
people earn our trust, it’s smart. It’s
a gift to open up and be vulnerable to someone – we have to make sure they
deserve it. We also have to be
trustworthy to those we love. I have to
work every day to prove to her that I’m trustworthy and would never hurt her.
(My two pups even like selfies - both rescue pups - adopted through AustinPetsAlive)
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