Twelve days of Christmas - rescue dogs

Day 4

How did your best (human) friend become a best friend?

Often best friends have known each other since they were very young, but sometimes they are people that have met much later in life.

Sometimes it is instant- sometimes it takes years to develop a strong friendship.

Friends often have similar thoughts about specific subjects, but not always, so this may take a bit of working out.

Knowing when to bite your tongue and when to offer an opinion-sometimes you may never really agree on some points but if you respect their opinion you may reach an accord. If you value a friendship there is always a solution and through the to and fro of communication often there is a flash of understanding

Friendship is complex but we all know it makes our lives better.

Why is this important? Because when a dog steps into a new home it does not always go well from the beginning

Because we humans are the ones that invite dogs into our homes we have to be prepared to think about how we can begin the process of trust and friendship

Our dogs may not like us much at the beginning -this may be because we look or move like someone that scared them, or because they have had such bad experiences that whatever we do it is just going to take time until a dog can accept us

This is why the Day 1. 2. and 3 posts were written first

Please forget those old mantras especially----

“A trained dog is a happy dog”

I am trained too ---in a variety of things--- but that does not make me happy.

Training is not a panacea and is not the building block to trust. Before that can happen we may need to consider how the world may look to the dog that is living with us-not the one we would like

If the world and the humans in it have been less than kind then we can’t blame a dog for being uneasy around us

As the days and months tick past we humans can often see the road that has been travelled and the bumps which have been encountered

I always think that when a dog begins to unpack their problems it is the beginning of the trust which will develop.

There are people that take dogs on that are less than sympathetic when a dog is less than “well behaved”

Often rescue dogs are damaged goods and we have to accept that and allow them to inform us about the problems they have

Build the friendship by ditching expectations.

NB

Please do like and share this post-even if you know all of this and are providing it for your own dog there are many dogs out there that need this message to spread so their lives improve

Pennie Clayton 2025

#speakingdogs