5 Things I've Learnt From Owning a Dog (Or Two!)
Are you a dog person? I am, majorly.
All my life my parents and grandparents have had dogs, mostly more than one in each household. My Grandparents like to tell a story from when I was about 2, I was sat on their living room floor surrounded by 4 of our rather large furry friends when the doorbell rang. The dogs raced to the door, I got trampled, my parents were terrified and I sat up, shook myself off and pointed after them completely unfazed: 'door!'
Our current doggies are called Jinx (on the left) and Branda (on the right, obviously). Jinx is a 9 year old not-sure-what breed and Branda is a 15 year old border collie. I feel as though I've had a lot of experience when it comes to dogs, so here are 5 key things that I have learnt from these experiences...
1. Having an old dog is a little bit like how I imagine having a toddler would be.
Branda is no longer the young, fit and able dog that he once was. He is, of course, still gorgeous, loveable, friendly and wonderful but oh-my-goodness is it hard looking after an older dog. He falls over (sometimes into his water bowl), he sleeps a lot and sometimes he poops in the house. Now the experience that I have with dogs is something that I am certainly lacking when it comes to young children, but I feel like there are at least a few similarities, right?
2. If you are the only one at home to look after them, lay-ins are a thing of the past.
Dogs do not understand lay-ins, not one little bit. And when they're awake, you're awake because they will do all they can to get your attention. Jinx uses her incredibly strong tail to bash things around the house until someone gets up and stops her; and once your up, there's no way they'll let you go back to bed.
3. Dogs sense weakness.
I realised after I wrote that that it sounds so daunting, but what I really mean is that a dog 100% knows who the weak link in the family is. By this I mean a dog knows who to give the puppy eyes in order to be fed, fussed or allowed somewhere they aren't normally (usually a bed or sofa). Luke's dog knows that this weak link is always me and my dogs know that this weak link will always be Luke.
4. Tidy does not exist in dog world.
Water splashed outside of the bowl and onto the floor, dog hair threaded into every single jumper that you own, toys littered all over the carpet. You name it, your dog will leave it somewhere that it's not supposed to be. For example, Jinx has a penchant for soft things and so, if all eyes were not on her at all times, she used to regularly steal cushions, teddies and slippers to take into the garden and chew.
5. A dog is part of the family.
Yes this last point is soppy and cheesy but hey, guess what? It's true. I miss my dogs when I'm not around them, I greet them when I walk into the house and I like to cuddle them in the evenings while I watch TV. They are part of the family and that's exactly how it's supposed to be.
Haze x
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