There are millions of pet owners in the United States. We have pets that vary from the exotic, like Mike Tyson owning a tiger, to the college student that keeps a goldfish in a bowl. (Goldfish swallowing was a fad in the twenties so let’s hope that doesn’t come back soon.) But our favorite pets have always been cats and dogs, and the percentage of people who own one or the other is split at about 50/50.
So it’s certainly no surprise that we love our pets, especially if you look at all of the money that we spent to feed them, get their medical care, and buy them clothing and presents every year. The next favorite thing that we love to do with our pets is to train them. That’s one of the reasons that “The Dog Whisperer” is such a favorite show on TV. We often look at our pets as children that we must teach. We want them to be more human and sometimes that causes problems.
It’s fine to teach your dog some basic behavior and even a new trick or two. Cats can be trained, but as some of you cat owners may well know, it is a lot more difficult. But after that, it’s best to just sit back sometimes and let the cats and dogs be themselves. If you do that, the situation just might be reversed and you might learn a thing or two from your pet instead of the other way around.
If you’re tense and irritable just watch your cat for a few moments. They are masters at relaxing. Watch them stretch and groom themselves and then zonk out for a nice little catnap. Dogs can also be a good source of information as well. Here are a few things that you might be able to learn from your dogs and cats, according to WebMD:
First thing that you can learn is to forget multi-tasking. Give a dog a job to do and they will devote their full attention to it. That’s why they make such good guide dogs. It’s also the reason that most of them can be easily trained. If you divert a dog’s attention away from the task at hand however, he will quickly become devoted to the new task and forget all about the old one.
We all know that daily exercise will help us lose weight and become healthier. Dogs love to walk and taking a daily walk with them is a good way to learn how to get in shape.
Having a lot of friends can be good for your health because we are social animals. Older people who have many friends are less likely to die than those who are alone. Take your dog to a dog park and look how quickly he wants to meet other dogs. Actually, because dogs and people are both social animals, that’s the reason we hooked up with each other in the first place.
A recent Harvard study came to the conclusion that we are happiest when we are living in the moment and not worrying about what is going to come tomorrow. Kind of sounds like your dog doesn’t it?
I used to have a cat that would hold a grudge. If you made him mad he might wait for an hour before he would attempt to scratch of bite you. But most cats and dogs never stay mad at you for very long. It’s a good lesson to learn.
They say that “curiosity killed the cat.” But I think that’s rare. Being curious about everything is a way to find out about new things and in the cat’s case, maybe even get a meal. In the humans case, staying curious keeps you young.
Pets love to play. And so should humans. It will make you laugh and laughing has been proven to help you live longer. What’s the point of being a grownup if you can’t act like a kid every now and then? Huh?
Source: http://pets.webmd.com/slideshow-things-you-learn-from-pets