5 Life Lessons From the Happiest Beings on Earth — Dogs
Our four legged, furry friends are definitely onto something!
With nothing to do during the start of the pandemic, instead of reading more, upping my skills, learning a new language, eating my body weigh in chocolate chip cookies, or spending more time on Netflix — like a normal person — I decide to shadow my dogs. I know, I know, before you claim me to be weird and crazy, hear me out! I’m just weird.
I’ve always been an observer. As a kid, my favorite past time would be staring into a mini fish tank for hours watching fish play or sitting on the bench at the park, eating an ice cream, watching all the kids climb, run, fight, slide, and swing. Even now as an adult, I love being around my friends, seeing them laugh, joke, and interact with each other makes my heart happy! I’m fascinated with behavior, and since the outside world was no longer available, I decided to study my inner one.
If you have dogs, one or more, chances are you know they each have their own personality. We know their likes and dislikes, we train them, play with them, take them for walks, runs, give them as many belly rubs as their big, beautiful, hearts’ desire, and give them the best life we can offer. They’re the loves of our life, of course we pay attention to them, but just how close?
One afternoon, after having what seemed like my 80th meltdown, I began to think about what happiness was and how I could have it while being stuck at home. In that moment, the youngest of my dogs, Nebula, came into my room with her squeaky ball. She squeaked and squeaked interrupting my thought process. We stared at each other for a couple seconds then she play-bowed, signaling she wanted to play. I smiled, got up from my bed, headed to the back yard, and played fetch with my 4 dogs. As soon as they all grew tired, they laid in the shade and proceeded to chew on their squeaky balls, they seemed so happy. “They’re always happy” I said to myself, and a light bulb went off, “THEY ALWAYS LOOK HAPPY!” I yelled internally. It was at that moment reader; I knew I was going to stalk my own animals!
I began observing my dog’s behaviors closer than ever, noting and interpretating. And let me tell you, I’m glad I did, because they taught me, and continue to teach me, fascinating things about life and happiness every single day.
Although these 5 things I’m about to share, may seem a little too obvious, they might not be, since we cannot get this whole happiness thing right.
“What could you accomplish if you knew you could not fail?” — Eleanor Roosevelt.
1. Chase the squirrel
If there’s one thing that makes my dogs more excited than chasing after their squeaky balls, it’s chasing after squirrels. They’ve never come close to catching one, yet they still persist. They don’t give up and not once have I heard them say “this is too hard!” (ya’know, ’cause they’re dogs). For many of us, our squirrel is too fast, and we give up trying to chase after it without a fight. Yes, I’m talking about our goals and dreams, or even that new job we’ve been meaning to apply for but don’t because what if our skills aren’t that good? My dogs may not realize they’ll never catch the squirrel, but they do it Every. Single. Day. And before you come at me with dog logic saying, “It’s in their nature, it’s their instinct to hunt!”. Well, pretend it’s not, take a page out of their happy book, and chase after what you want with enthusiasm every day. Pretend you don’t know you can fail and imagine the possibilities. “What could you accomplish if you knew you could not fail?” — Eleanor Roosevelt.
2. Stimulate your mind.
There are many reasons why dogs destroy everything in their way, become aggressive, or stay hyperactive. It’s called, boredom. Yes! Dogs get bored just as much as we do. I didn’t know this until I began to do research and read as many books about dogs as I could after I was gifted my giant golden doodle, Hercules. Before him, I only had small dogs and I really didn’t know how to manage his roughness and hyperactivity. I came across different behavior tactics on how to “train”, but none worked. I took him for extra runs, would play fetch for hours, and nothing. I thought it was because he was just a puppy and it was his form of playing until I came across enrichment books for dogs. They state dogs need enrichment to reduce stress, give them some control over their environment, keep them occupied in constructive, non-destructive ways, and to boost their confidence. Sounds familiar? By stimulating our mind, we improve cognition, learn new things which boosts our confidence, and it definitely keeps us out of trouble. So next time your find yourself bored or you catch your brain suddenly thinking about unhappy thoughts (especially during this time), grab a book, get a puzzle, take up a new hobby, or play charades with friends via Zoom. Anything and everything that will stimulate that big, beautiful brain of yours.
3. Wake up with enthusiasm.
You know those self-help books and articles that claim you have to wake up at 3am to meditate, workout, drink water, eat, read, watch tv, shower, brush your hair, and a million other things to be successful? Well, they really weren’t thinking about happiness, because if you ask my dogs what it takes to be happy, they will say to wake up at 9:00 am every day, rain or shine! And oh man, do they wake up chipper AF! Their enthusiasm is surprisingly infectious though. I mean, how could those silly, fluffy faces not make you smile? Especially when their excitement IS solely because of your whole existence. Unfortunately, some of us poor people don’t have the luxury to sleep in till 9:00 am (it me, I’m poor people), so what I’ve been doing to help me get half as excited about waking up as them, is I started to think about 3 things in life that make me happy as soon as the alarm goes off. Trust me, some days are harder than others, but it does it work. You also get better and grow more excited the more you do it. Plus, it’s a huge motivator to get out of bed and chase that bread!
4. Get excited over the same old new thing!
The problem with being human is, we tend to grow bored of the toy we’ve been playing with for a while. The car, the purse, the clothes, the person *insert tea drinking Kermit meme*. First world problems are a real pain the . . . good thing I have just the solution. According to my puppers, once your toy is out of sight and back again after a millisecond, it has now become more thrilling! It also works after a wash or when someone else is holding it, because it means play time. I’m a firm believer of never settling, never conforming, think big and do big, always more. What my dogs have taught me is not the opposite, but they have shown me how to slow down, appreciate, and enjoy what I have thus far. Yes, bigger, better things will come in the future, for now, let’s shift our mentality and be enthusiastic for all we have because we’ve worked really hard to have it. Lets savor our same, old, new thing every single day.
5. Play
If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands *clap clap*, if you’re happy and you know it clap your hands *clap clap*, if you’re happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it, if you’re happy and you know it clap your hands *clap clap*! Did you sing along?
Did you wobble your head side to side? Did this childhood memory bring a smile to your face? If yes, GOOD! If no, we have some serious work to do.
As obvious as the word play may seem when talking about dogs (and children), it isn’t so when it comes to adult humans, hence the people who didn’t sing along. It seems as if there is some sort of unspoken rule that forbids us from being playful once we hit a certain age. Instead of the world coming alive with its vastness and with all we can now do as grown-ups, it becomes stiff, boring, filled with anxiety, and we do too.
Hercules, my golden doodle, is turning 7 years old this year in October. He will now be considered a senior because in human years he will be 45, yet he is still as playful as the first day I got him. I love seeing him bring me his big, purple, tug-a-war ball, chase after squirrels, and playing with my 3 little Shih-Tzus. Play for dogs, although fun, is also a big indicator of health, relieves stress, a great way to learn socialization skills, learn about their environment, and it even increases their creativity (Yes, dogs are and can get creative. Definitely not in a way we normally think about creativity, but they can certainly figure out how to solve simple, problems and tasks).
Health, socialization, creativity, learning how to manage stress is basically everything a full-grown human needs in order to succeed in life, yet we are somehow not great in some or all of these areas. One way I believe we can change this is, of course, implementing more play! I don’t mean going out to play soccer, play the violine, or play board games. After observing my dogs, the only play I could think about is bringing back that childlike playful spirit. I truly believe one reason why we drift away from our playful spirit is because of the fear of being and doing wrong, and of not being taken seriously.
Dr. Rudan, in his article On Play and Playing, explains how play, for human kids, is important for health, building relationships, and stimulating the development of cognitive and emotional abilities. He also explains how it is only in playing that the individual child or adult is able to be creative and use their whole personality, and it is only in being creative that the individuals discovers the self. I dont know about you but it sounds like self discovery can lead to some pretty severe happiness. So, let’s teach ourselves, our brains, to bring back that childlike playful spirit for all of our sakes. It won’t come immediately, but the more we sing and dance to random songs, write down our silly daydreams, and engage in experiencing the unexpected, the easier it will become and the happier we will be.
