Being a dog is a huge responsibility. Besides being cute and our humans’ centre of the universe now we must be their therapists too. Do all of this and more for free – beat that! No matter how many silly names we are given by our humans, we must be patient with them. And one more thing that I’ve realised is our humans are super needy. Thus, I’ve put together 7 commandments for every dog to ensure our humans are happy, healthy and well looked after.
Read other O’pawnion pieces here
Help them stay active
Its crucial that us dogs and our humans stay active for physical and mental stimulation. Even if your humans are feeling lazy, which they do very often, make sure you still go for walks a few times every day. Don’t mind if they complain about it – humans are weird enough to think that they are doing us a favour by taking us out for walks.
Encourage them to rest enough
Like staying active is important, resting enough is even more important. Sometimes our humans ignore the need to take time off to rest. I mean they even feel guilty about resting, which is not cool at all. I sleep for almost 19 hours a day, but I don’t feel guilty about it. In fact, it helps me to stay energetic and be alert on our walks. The same applies to our humans. So, do encourage your humans to rest enough.
Ensure they eat healthy and stay hydrated
Watch what your humans are eating. My humans hardly eat healthy, always snacking on something or the other. Although I always try my best to encourage them to eat healthy. There’s no point in saying that “we spend more on the dog’s food than ours.” That’s the lamest excuse, believe me!
Also, just like humans fill our water bowls, they should frequently fill up their glasses and drink water. Thankfully I’ve trained my humans to drink enough water before and after our walks. And sometimes filling up my bowl serves as a reminder for them to stay hydrated.
Make sure they are well groomed
Now here’s the thing, I can’t deny that us dogs will always be better looking than our humans. This is just how it is – quite like sun will never rise from the west. However, make sure they are well groomed too; they bathe and brush their teeth every day, clip their nails and trim their hair occasionally. [Thank DOG, we aren’t humans and don’t need to bathe every day. Oh wait! Is that why my humans want to be their own dog – weird!!!]
Create and follow a routine
The importance of a routine can never be over emphasised. Its good for health and mind ours and our humans’. I’ve done quite well in this department. My humans are so routine oriented that you can almost always spot us on our walks, eating our meals at the same time every single day. Well sometimes we try to break the routine too and go for long drives. What do you guys do? Some ideas might be helpful.
Don’t ever leave them alone
This is serious, very serious. No matter what excuse they may come up with don’t leave them alone. If they tell you they are going to work, do grocery, eat out, for a movie or a party, look deep into their eyes. That will do the trick and they will never leave alone. They may even cancel their plans and rightly so to never have to do anything alone without us dogs.
Help them stay happy, always
Finally, and importantly, the reason we exist is to ensure that our humans are happy. That is our life’s biggest responsibility which we must take seriously. So, lets pledge to keep our humans happy. Yes, we may have shorter lives than our humans, but we can certainly make our time together most memorable and beautiful. I told you humans are extremely needy, they really need us.
Our Paw-in-Chief Mr. Popo contributes O’pawnion pieces for PawzNRead website.
