Dogs: Man's Best Friend

Whether it be a trained dog or a family pet, dogs are indeed man's best friend. If treated with kindness, a dog will remain loyal to its owner and do anything, even risk its own life to protect its own family.

I am sure we have all heard of fire dogs. Those dogs that assist the firemen during a fire to find victims. There is no doubt that these dogs do this job without question because of the loyalty they feel towards their family of firefighters. Why else would they put themselves in harms way? What about the dogs that help track down suspects, and missing people? Drug dogs? All of these dogs are highly trained, there is no doubt, but they also have a great loyalty to their partners.

Yes, now and then, dogs will bite. It has been proven that the majority of the time, when a dog bites a human or another animal, it is doing it because in some way the dog feels threatened. A properly cared for dog does not, in general, bite just to bite. It must be provoked. Often times, the dog is provoked if it feels like its family is in danger. Most dogs will do anything to protect their family.

It is also said that a dog is a very good judge of character. I have had a few instances in which a dog of mine seemed to really dislike someone that I thought was a friend. In every case, the dogs dislike was warranted. Those people turned out being people I was better off not having in my life. Because of that, I have learned to take a dog's perception of a person into consideration a bit more.As I said before, dogs will protect their family at all costs. A dog would jump into a pit of fire, or even in front of a person holding a gun, risking its own life just to save those it loves and trusts.

Recently, in the news, there was a sad, but touching article about a dog and his owner. It seems as though the man had been missing for quite some time. Another man came upon the dog who kept running back and forth from the man to a truck. The man followed the dog and found his owner dead. Apparently, the dog did not leave his owners side, even after he died, until he sensed there was help. Authorities believe the man killed himself, and the dog stayed with him, eating rabbits and what-not to stay alive until they were found. Touching that an animal can be that loyal. Sad because of the tragedy involved. This was a story posted by Associated Press. I found in on Yahoo news. You can find the details there.

My point is simple. We, as humans underestimate the loyalty that dogs give us when we treat them right. Often times, we misunderstand a dogs behavior and scold them, not really knowing the reason behind their behavior. Maybe we should take a closer look before we scold our dog. It seems to me that all a dog wants to do is help the human family that has adopted it . I am sure that if you think about it, you too can remember a time in your life where a dog was there to help you. After all, a dog is a man's best friend.