Dog Wisdom

Why is it dogs show more wisdom than humans? My dog is often my guru. Dogs seem to have an innate understanding and deep knowing  of the really important things in life. Possessing patience beyond human capabilities, they put up with us clueless humans, loving us unconditionally in spite of our all our ridiculousness. 

My sweet dog, Izzy, is 3ish-4ish . We don't really know how old she is, because we don't know where she came from. They found her in a nearby county emaciated, injured and having signs of a recently having had a litter. No puppies to be found though. She was scared, starving and sick but I am told, was never anything but sweet. 

We rescued each other 2 years ago. Our relationship was rocky in the beginning. I don't think Izzy had lived inside a house before, ridden in a car before or walked on a leash before. There was a lot to be learned about each other. We had some arguments. There were some losses. A few pair of shoes and a variety of miscellaneous items chewed beyond recognition along with some unpleasant rides through slippery mud being pulled by an enthusiastic, squirrel chasing beast, were a small price to pay for love. Though there were trials and tribulations in adjusting to our cohabitation, after about 1 month, we found our rhythm. 

Someone was mean to Izzy at one time. Quick movements toward her, a loud truck or a man's loud voice frightened her. Although much less now, to some degree, they still do. In spite of her fears, she LOVES people. Her favorite place is right, smack dab in the middle of a large group, a small group or in a lap (even though she weighs 50 pounds). Her desire to connect with people overrides her fear of them. I watch her transcend this fear all the time. 

Not women, but men seem to scare her. It doesn't stop her from approaching them though; however, she does it differently than she approaches women. When Izzy meets a man, she goes towards them and waits for a signal before she comes close. If she gets a yes, she sort of slowly waggles her entire body towards them and then falls at their feet and then rolls over for a belly rub. It's an interesting ritual. I always think what a brave and beautiful soul she is when I see her do this. Instead running from what she is afraid of, she is curious about it. She approaches it with caution. She respects it and then surrenders. Do you think we could learn a few things from this approach?

Today is a beautiful spring-like, Sunday morning... mine and Izzy's long walk day. We usually go to the woods on Sunday mornings, which is really her favorite thing to do, but I was lazy this today. Since we weren't going to walk in the woods, I figured at least we should take a different route through the neighborhood than our usual weekday walk. We wound around the neighborhood soaking up the sun breathing in spring for about an hour when we started to head back home. We walk fast.  Mostly because Izzy likes to walk fast, and I don't like being pulled by the leash... so I keep up. I think that's supposed to be the other way around, but it works for us.

About a half mile from home, I think Izzy realized where we were going. Her pace slowed down almost to a turtle's crawl. I checked to see if there was something wrong, like she had a thorn in her paw or something. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with her. I noticed she was just taking things in. She was savoring the day. She looked at me with those soft, intelligent amber eyes and then towards the sun as she took in a big whiff of spring. It was as if she was saying to me, " Do you see this beauty? Let's slow down and breathe this in. Take in this moment with me." Maybe I am delusional, but it sure did seemed that way to me. Regardless, I slowed down, breathed deeper and noticed a lot more as I did so. It's always about the journey, not the destination. We took another loop around before going home... this time with more feeling.