Subscribe to Feed
I have always had dogs growing up and most of the time they were big dogs like German Shepherds. The dogs always went where I did and I don’t remember having any problems with wild animals. Dogs like that are protective but I always demanded that they listen to me.
I think that many breeds of large dogs can make good companions for children and adults. One trend I noticed when I was growing up was a large number of Doberman Pincher’s owned by guys that wanted to be tough. Now I like Dobermans but I don’t like owners that try to make them mean. The same trend has continued today and even more irresponsible pet owners, evidenced by people getting attacked.
I will not focus on the bad owners and mean dogs in this post but rather what was and is still right about owning dogs! Dogs are loyal and protective of their owners! Here is a short video of how one dog protected a girl. I will talk about the ways pet dogs are helpful and how they can continue to be Man’s, Woman’s, Girl’s, and Boy’s best friend!
Here is a copy of the story. Now I notice that many people are thinking the girl is crying wolf (I had to work this into a post somewhere), it would not be the first time a coyote attacked a kid. This happens in San Diego County every year or so. The good thing about this is the dog jumped in to help. Most any large breed dog will come to a child’s rescue.
I have started noticing walkers taking their dogs along for the exercise and protection. I think this is a good idea. Robbers will not try to figure out if a dog is protective but rather go after an easier target. I also see even today women and girls jogging alone at dusk or alone on remote trails during the daytime.
From a purely self-defense perspective, a woman should take precautions such as mace, dogs, and or walk/run with friends. The good thing about this approach is bad guys take easy targets. Robbers and rapists do not want to get caught so a reasonable approach would be to go to the extra effort and get the dog out of the back yard!
The large family dog generally spends most of his/her life in the back yard in today’s society. People tend to take their iPods for walks more so than the dogs! Lets compare and contrasts the two walks.
If you take your iPod for a walk, you can leave right away and you can drive to your workout destination without getting dog fur in your car! You don’t have to give your iPod water and your iPod will entertain you (to the exclusion of your awareness)! You will have to recharge your iPod but you will not have to pickup an embarrassing dog dropping on your neighbors front lawn. The down side of this approach is you are a prime target for an attack – alone, distracted and vulnerable.
Now if you had taken your dog for the jog, you would have had to find the leash and settle the dog down as soon as he saw the leash. You might have to transport the dog to the workout area and then keep your pet under control. Who knows – if your dogs has not been out for a while, he may resemble a husky and pull you! Anyway any bad guys will probably give you a free pass because dogs will attack if someone messes with their owner. My pet chihuahua will attack anyone that messes with my wife! (although she is not really that intimidating).
So remember! Dogs can be you and your family’s best friend!!! Keep your workout safe and take your best friend out on your next workout and have a mutually satisfying, safe, experience.
If you have enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to my RSS Feed.
March 13th, 2009 at 2:32 am
Dogs have always been an integral part of human life.
Ancient cultures all over the world have documented evidence that dogs were an important part of life. Look into the Egyptians’ relationship with their dogs, the royal dogs of ancient China and Japan, and the dogs of ancient Rome.
Dogs have saved countless lives as our guardians and have served nobly in times of war ever since ancient Rome.
Today, they not only add light and laughter to countless families as a friend, companion, confidant, bed-warmer and night watchman…..but they guide the blind, assist the disabled, give people with seizure disorders a new lease on life, they search for disaster victims, people who get lost in the woods, they help find illegal drugs being smuggled into other countries, they find bombs and other explosives…..there have even been dogs trained to detect cancerous skin lesions on humans, long before the cancer began to spread.
There probably isn’t any accurate, documented evidence of when the term “man’s best friend” came into play, but regardless of when the phrase popped up, it’s obvious dogs have been an integral part of human society for thousands of years.