Patience 101- Canines and Humans
In my experience changing a dog’s unhealthy habits can be accomplished with more ease than changing a human’s unhealthy habits. Why? Is it because the dog is less intelligent than the human? In my estimation it is not that the dog is less intelligent.
A dog is generally more observant and
therefore a more insightful communicator than an ‘untrained human’.
Insight and observation are attributes that support logic. The lack of
insight creates opportunity for confusion, emotion and chaos.
A dog will willingly accept another mode of behavior when true logic is offered
whereas we humans – in our single minded fashion ‘doggedly’ reject
logic in favour of our emotive state. A type of stubborn that does us
little good. What we need instead is ‘good’ stubborn. For the purposes
of this discussion we will call ‘good stubborn’ – patience.
A dog has plenty of patience - to wait patiently for an opportunity, or to persist with great determination.
On the other end of the spectrum, we humans are rapidly losing a sense of what patience truly represents.
As technology continues to evolve at an
ever increasing rate we humans are facing a real challenge on many
fronts – some of which directly affect our ability to understand and
support the psychological well-being of our canine companions.
We are becoming less adept at perceiving
and intentionally using all of our senses. This has a deleterious
effect on our ability to effectively communicate. We are relying more
and more on technology and less on our own senses to accomplish many
normal daily functions. We spend less time on face-to-face communication
– this trend certainly does not improve our face-to-face communication
skills. Our desk-top and mobile devices perform ‘spell check’ for us.
The internet allows us to look at a vast array of images and information
during the course of a typical day. Our human brain is fluid in its
ability to evolve along with us as we change the way we work and play in
our daily lives. If you spend a sizable portion of your day using a
technological device (computer, hand-held device, etc.) you gain skills
but you also lose skills. What you gain is access to a wealth of images
and information. What we lose is our attention span, and with that goes a
loss of attention span and the ability to accurately observe and retain
information. To gain back what we are losing and strike a healthy
balance between what technology has to offer and what nature gave us to
use is of the utmost importance to maintaining healthy relationships
with ourselves and with others.
“The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place” - George Bernard Shaw
Our sense of time is changing – what was
once considered fast is now considered slow. Our sense of patience, our
sense of being present in the moment is changing. We think of ten
seconds as a long time, when in fact it is just a few seconds.
Misunderstanding, miscommunication, loss
of patience, loss of perspective and falling victim to our default
state creates a situation where the human and the dog end-up in conflict
– this is reflected in the ever increasing number of dogs with behavioral problems.
Labels: Animal Welfare, Communication, Education, Technology
posted by Pieface @ 9:47 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home