Puppy Power

 I saw a shirt recently that proclaimed - Everything worth learning I learned from my dog. Cute though that is, my dogs lick themselves and sniff one another inappropriately so I won’t take every lesson a pooch has to teach as necessarily the best option (your mileage may vary). I will, however, agree that a great many characteristics inherent in dogs are worth emulating (loyalty, kindness, devotion, love, enthusiasm for life). There is one lesson above all the rest that stands out, though; a single character trait I’ll venture is common to every dog I’ve ever met and that is the absence of malice. I know you’re thinking of the annoying neighbor’s dog who would apparently like nothing better than to dig under the fence and chew your ankles off the next time you walk by, but hear me out.The nice thing about dogs is they don’t come with a lot of baggage. Even an adopted mutt who has led a rough life is likely, at worst, to haul a small carry-on bag full of fear. I’ve had dogs in my life since birth, have worked in veterinary medicine and, as a child, even spent time working (hanging out mostly) at a guard dog training facility in Germany as a child and what I’ve never seen in a dog is malice or hate. If there’s one thing we could stand to learn from our dogs, it’s the inability to hate. Continued…