Update: I’ve been kicking myself because I forgot to mention the deepest way I realize how dogs feel like children to me. It’s when they’re sick. Not a little below par, but worryingly sick. That’s when in an instant the rest of life is a blur. My only thoughts are why? what can I do? how do make them better right now.
I wrote a post several months ago titled Dogs Are the Best People. Between that post and the About page for Tech & Nonsense, some of you might already know that I am very much a dog person. And my friends would point out that that is putting it very mildly. I’ve had close friends tease me about how much of a dog lover I am.
This post will just add to that reputation. I feel that dogs - and maybe pets in general, even the inferior ones like cats :) - are like another child. It’s a thought I’ve had for many years that has come to the very front of my mind over the last few years in particular. That’s because during those years my beloved and somewhat giant Black Labrador called Baz passed away and not long before he passed I adopted Lucy, pictured above.
As I mentioned in that post linked above, the big Black Lab is probably the single dog I’ve felt the closest bond with - which is saying something after decades worth of having dogs in my life as a child and an adult. Lucy is a very different sort of character to Baz, but after close to two years of having her as my companion and office colleague, we’re forming a different but great bond as well.
Baz was a typical Labrador - never stressed, not a care in the world other than getting and eating as much food as possible and chasing a ball when I threw it. Lucy was beaten up badly and found wandering the streets before landing at a rescue agency, For her first several months here with me, she had multiple times per day where she showed me that she did not really trust me. That was with me feeding her and walking her and , for just a month or so seeing how calm and well treated Baz was.
So with Lucy my golden rule has been all about patience; about gradually building up trust and never, ever forcing her to do anything. Just as one example. when she was scared to get in the car to go see the vet, we waited until she was. And my routine evolved to include an extra 10 minutes on both ends of every car journey.
Back on topic; why do dogs feel like another child to me?
For a few reasons, and I am confident that most of them are not unique to me:
They’re open hearted and even innocent perhaps as their basic nature, as I believe children are. They’re respectful and behave well with encouragement and education if needed, as our children hopefully are for at least some of their pre-adult years.
Of course, there are plenty of ways that dogs are very different to children, and to many adults as well. I love those parts of dogs’ character maybe even more than their child-like qualities.
I love that dogs are generally - I’ve never owned a Husky :) - less argumentative than most people. They’re just great listeners. If I moan and groan about the stress of my workday, Lucy won’t tell me to have a better attitude. If I halfway shout at something happening on the TV screen, she’s worried but clearly on my side whatever my beef with a ref’s decision or something similar is.
Oh, and both Baz and Lucy have listened to so much nonsense, silly talk from me over the years. Working fully remote for the last several years, I have shared an awful lot of words on cybersecurity topics with them - and they have shown their deep loyalty by (at least a few times) pretending to be interested. That might be another difference between dogs and kids. My daughter was adept at rolling her eyes and making it clear that she recognized my nonsense for what it was (and is) at a pretty early age :)
For any of you who are dog or (God forbid) cat owners I’d love to hear your thoughts on whether see some childlike traits in your pets. Or just some of your favorite character traits about them in general.
scrolled through after posted, my sincere apologies Patrick. I rambled on way too long!
I've been meaning to respond to your article for last few days. I'm a big dog lover myself and my newest addition is a now 1 yr old Huskador? which I'm told is one of the acceptable labels for a half-Husky, half-Lab, and she is also named Lucy! Small world fellow Texan.
Lucy is a joy to watch with her black coat and crystal blue eyes although they seem to change some days. Hard headed? a bit for sure, .just e that Husky side If I could convince her that dog food really is for dogs, she might fill out a bit more and I've tried some of the best brands. It's my fault though since I'm a night owl and snack on pretzels, letting her snack a few too. I've since stopped that habit but apparently she has a long memory because she is a picky eater.
One of the best thing about she has turned out to be a great companion to my much older (14 yrs) mixed breed female rescue that we've had 12 yrs ourselves. They kind of remind me of how my daughter was when her younger brother was born. We've moved cross country a few times and they've always been there for each other when having to adapt to yet another new school.
I'd never really considered getting a second dog in the house since our Izzy was indeed old and set in her ways, but she's actually the one who found Lucy and alerted me. A neighborhood young adult, we'll call him Jeremy!, couldn't keep Lucy so he dropped her in our fenced in backyard when she was about 8 wks old. Unfortunately it was one of those rare freezing rain, abnormally cold winter days in south Texas, and Izzy heard crying and whining before I did. Izzy wouldn't be deterred and kept going to the back door to be let out,which was odd itself as she detests going out in a slight drizzle. much less a steady downpour. I opened the door and Izzy waddled out to the near corner of the house and just sat there looking back and forth from SOMETHING to me. I really didn't need our usual telepathy to know I needed to do SOMETHING already and quick, since Izzy was shaking off water drops at a steady rate. I grabbed a windbreaker and peered around the corner still a bit apprehensive since I hadnt yet heard whimpers because of the rain and had been fearing maybe a snake. Izzy had alerted me to one of those before too.
So condensed version, a tad late maybe, that is what brought Lucy into our lives and it hasn't been the same sense. I know that some days early on Izzy really, really wished she'd ignored those sounds in the yard and her life wouldn't have had a puppy chewing on her tail, Izzy's tail that is, no chewed on re-gifted softballs plunked in her water bowl or those pretty blue eyes intently focused, watching and waiting on a twitch of movement from Izzy as she naps on her "bad" days. They've played together in the sprinkler on hot days, Izzy helped house train Lucy, and I was able to video Izzy running again playing chase for the first time in a longgg while.
Lucy is also a great listener especially on days when I'm sad, watching Izzy's, too soon for me ,decline. Izzy is now blind from cataracts, has kidney stones and has battled long time heart issues, and I sometimes just sit and talk to her after giving her her meds whether they'll help or not at at this point, it's our routine. I might whisper about it to myself, and there's Lucy with her head on my knee, head tiled to the side looking at me with now some days hazel eyes, telling me it's gonna be ok.
So yes, dogs are like our children. We want to heal them, protect them , lessen their pain and keep them safe, as much we can anyway. (Guess I should add anyone with a heart for pets anyway). That's all dogs want. The only difference that I see is that dogs live to please their owners. That's pretty much all they want, besides decent food, warm bed and tons of pats, pats more pats & words of praise. Not that parents are "owners" of our children but wouldn't it be nice if our children were as easy to please? On the contrary though, we parents tend to live to make our children happy above all else, to their detriment sometimes. But that's a different issue for some other time. I've dogs to feed and pick up after... just like I did with my kids.
Sorry such a long comment. I do tend to ramble.