There is no faith which has never yet been broken, except that of a truly faithful dog." – Konrad Lorenz, zoologist Rather than telling them off, which feels like a rejection to them, try gently redirecting their attention towards one of the best dog chew toys to help them learn the behavior you expect of them. A man and his dog are silhouetted against the rising sun amid dense fog on a cold winter morning on the outskirts of Chandigarh on February 9, 2020 Awesome read. Learned a lot. Top bit I'll share, because it's towards the end of the book and fresh in my mind: if shelters stop guessing at breed names (and thus stop labeling kennels), adoption goes up across the board for every dog. Also breeds are nonsense thing to be concerned about. Forget about breeds when seeking a dog! Sociality genes are associated with human-directed social behaviour in golden and Labrador retriever dogs. PeerJ, 6 (2018): e5889

Zazie: For you, was the realization that what’s special about dogs is love, not intelligence, a gradual thing or was it an ‘aha’ moment? Petting, scratching, and cuddling a dog could be as soothing to the mind and heart as deep meditation and almost as good for the soul as prayer." – Dean Koontz, author of False Memory There's just something about dogs that makes you feel good. You come home, they're thrilled to see you. They're good for the ego." – Janet Schnellman We take it for granted that a dog can just be left and it’ll be okay. This causes real distress to dogs." My main characters are the most sunny, happy, optimistic, loving creatures on the face of the Earth. I couldn't be happier that's where I start. I can put as many flawed people in the dog's world as I like, but the dog doesn't care. Dog doesn't judge; dog doesn't dislike. Dog loves. That's not so bad." – W. Bruce Cameron, author of A Dog's Purpose, A Dog's Journey, and A Dog's Way Home

Licking you

We’ve been able to identify the genetic changes that took place in the journey from wolves to dogs thousands of years ago." They [dogs] never talk about themselves but listen to you while you talk about yourself, and keep up an appearance of being interested in the conversation." – Jerome K. Jerome, humorist

A dog will teach you unconditional love. If you can have that in your life, things won't be too bad." – Robert Wagner, actor from The Longest Day Petting, scratching, and cuddling a dog could be as soothing to the mind and heart as deep meditation and almost as good for the soul as prayer.” No one appreciates the very special genius of your conversation as much as the dog does." – Christopher Morley, American journalist, novelist, and poet

It’s In Their Genes

Once you have had a wonderful dog, a life without one, is a life diminished." – Dean Koontz, author of Whispers You get someone who stays up all night torturing himself mentally over the question of whether or not there's a dog.” Magnetic resonance imaging has drilled down on the neuroscience, showing that dogs' brains respond to praise as much or even more than food.

Jamie Richardson, a veterinarian and medical chief of staff at Small Door Veterinary, says that merely hearing your name will be enough to get some dogs excited. "Over time, dogs learn to recognize human names. If they hear a loved one's name mentioned who isn't present, they'll get excited at the thought that they might appear," said Richardson. 3. They follow you around And what we found was that there are three genes that show mutations on the journey from wolf to dog, and in humans if you have mutations in those genes, not only do you have Williams Syndrome, not only do these three genes contribute to Williams Syndrome, but they contribute specifically to those aspects of Williams Syndrome that have to do with forming strong warm friendly relationships. So we’ve been able to identify the genetic changes that took place in the journey from wolves to dogs thousands of years ago. Genetic changes which we know from studies in our own species looking at Williams Syndrome, and also some experimental work that was done on mice where scientists can actually mess around with the genes and seeing what changing a gene does directly to an individual animal. So we have several lines of evidence that dogs are exceptionally gregarious, exceptionally friendly, because of these genetic changes. And that may well be the crux of it. Obviously dogs are different from wolves in many ways, but this I think might be the critical mutation, the critical change, that makes dogs the amazing beings that they are.

Happy greeting

A person can learn a lot from a dog, even a loopy one like ours. Marley taught me about living each day with unbridled exuberance and joy, about seizing the moment and following your heart. He taught me to appreciate the simple things-a walk in the woods, a fresh snowfall, a nap in a shaft of winter sunlight. And as he grew old and achy, he taught me about optimism in the face of adversity. Mostly, he taught me about friendship and selflessness and, above all else, unwavering loyalty.”