Dogs: People with short legs in fur coats.
Imagine the scene. You are walking along the beach with your dog off the lead taking in the scenery and you spot a man walking along with his trusty Labrador enjoying each other’s company. The man throws a stick to his dog and off the dog bounds, straight into the water to retrieve it, bringing it back to his master with pride.
You also notice a woman walking in the opposite direction with her Labrador, again off the lead and having a good time with a ball. As the two people and their two dogs get closer, a couple of things could happen. The dogs could attack each other, or they could make their acquaintance. You stand for a while, watching out of fascination what will happen.
The dogs spot each other and run forward to investigate each other a bit further. As they approach, a little bit of caution is visible, but only for a second then it is a full on sniff-a-thon! Sniffing each other’s noses, bodies and rear ends, they accept each other, and when the sniff-a-thon is over, they are great mates, mock fighting, running and rolling around and generally showing off having a good time. Friends made, simple.
They have no inhibitions, their owners allow them to socialize with each other and they can be immediately trusted to play nicely after their initial contact. What great role models well-mannered dogs are for humans, able to make new connections and friends easily.
Children start out in life this way, yet somewhere along the way, it all changes.
We have been brought up to act in a certain way all of our lives, but dogs and kids have no problem socializing at all. Imagine what life would be like if we carried on making new friends and acquaintances as easily as dogs do or as we did as children, but now as adults.
Next time you see a couple of dogs getting to know each other, look how simple they make it and how nice it feels to make a new acquaintance. You won’t help but smile.
Linda Coles is the author of “Learn marketing with social media in 7 days” (Wiley) and is a speaker and trainer on building relationships. She lives in New Zealand on a fig orchard.
Human/Dog Counselor
11 年You are so correct, Linda. As a teacher of Dog Psychology and Counselor to humans I am always touting the point of view that our aim is not to have dogs understand and embrace our points of view...rather what a better world it would be if we could slow down, see things through their eyes, and adopt many of the same practices. The better leader I become to my dogs and all dogs I interact with, the better human I become n general.
Very true. Some people would laugh at this,but there is so much to learn from dogs for us humans.
MD at Ess Vee Investments Ltd
11 年Good one... Thanks for sharing.
ACADEMICS IN IT, TRAINER,START-UP EXPERT, BLOGGER, CONTENT WRITER
11 年correct, dogs are true friend ....Dogs are the only animals that respond to human social cues. We can learn a lot about social behavior by studying canines.. This photograph describes the scene perfectly and we are smiling.
Territory Manager at Peridot Products (Pvt) Ltd
12 年ummmm....just thinking if dogs have their hands on social networking tools ....... would they be like this or else ?