No One Says Hello Better than Your Dog

Have you ever stood at the front door of your house, dreading going in because you know the dog is waiting there? Of course not. Well, perhaps momentarily, if there's going to be a lot of leaping and cavorting that's going to involve sending an expensive outfit to the dry cleaners. Other than that there's really not a down side to being greeted at the door by your dog.

The dog isn't waiting on the other side of the door with the day's dilemmas sandwiched in between two slices of blame, heavy on the woe. The dog's waiting there, beside himself with happiness to see you, not matter how bad his day or yours has been. First things first, a big, wiggly, happy-you're-home greeting. The bad stuff can wait for later. This is important.

Do you know why we all sneak bites of our dinner to our dogs? Easy. Because they are so demonstrably appreciative. You can invest hours of your time preparing a meal, only to have family, guests, in-laws and your kids bolt it down without noticing or pick at it, complaining about the parts they don't like, or worse, taking it for granted. But take a minute to spread peanut butter on a slice of bread and the dog will tell you that's the best thing he's eaten -- since the last time you gave him something. In an hour, when you're cleaning up after the dinner that was taken for granted, he's there, beside himself with gratitude, ecstatic to lick the scraps off the plate as you stand there and wonder if maybe you've been feeding the good stuff to the wrong ones.

When you're sick, what happens? Pretty much everyone stays clear. You might get an offer to bring back a hamburger and some long range sympathy, but no one really wants to get too close. It's hard to blame them for not wanting to get sick, and in a backhanded way it's helping because as sure as they fall ill, Someone's going to have to take care of them. But there's only so much TV you can watch and so long you can read when you feel bad and some company and conversation would sure be good. And there's your dog. Laying quietly beside you, attentive to your every move and mood. You feel loved.

And you know what? Dogs are never petty. They're always eager to forgive us for ignoring them when we're busy or shooing them away when we're pressed for time. If we stay out too late with friends or business associates, they're just as happy when we do come home as they are when we're there at our regular time -- happier sometimes, even if some of the celebration does have to wait until after the too long postponed potty outing.

When you do something for your dog (that's "for" not "to" as in bath or nail clipping) you find out that dogs know the meaning of positive reinforcement better than we ever will. You throw the ball and what happens? You're laughing and instantly relaxed, watching your dog fly across the ground after it, back legs nearly overrunning the front legs trying to slow down enough to shag the grounder. Then there's that positive reinforcement. Here he comes, feet looking like they're skimming over the earth, back to you, tail wagging, eyes shining, bringing back a wet, slick-sticky ball as part of your reward, but the best part of your reward, the strongest reinforcement is that communication, eye to eye, heart to heart, reassuring you that you're loved, you're a good person, and that this is what life's all about, the payoff for all that other stuff you have to do. You throw a ball, your dog brings goes to get it, comes back and offers you his heart. How's that for positive reinforcement?'

Brought to you by the writers at Pet-Super-Store: Where you can find a huge selection of dog bark collars.