Why Dogs Come into Our Lives

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“Dogs come into our lives to teach us about love, they depart to teach us about loss. A new dog never replaces an old dog – it merely expands the heart. If you have loved many dogs, your heart is very big.” – Erica Jong

Dogs enter our life and change us forever, not only they teach us what unconditional love is, but they have an incredible power to radically change our life, and make us better human beings. They are so much more than pets; they are companions, friends, a source of comfort, and sometimes even a great therapist during a bad day. They may be a responsibility that others cannot bear, but for those of us who have experienced what it means to have a dog, they are family.

Probably often we wonder why  this particular dog enters our life and does it at a particular time of our life. Twist of fate, or perhaps just a coincidence? Regardless of whether you thought about choosing a breed, or just adopting any dog,what matters is  when and why the dog appeared in your life. Was it a gift - asurprise from a loved one, or a form of consolation after a difficult period, illness or loss. And what happened next? And I assume that contrary to appearances many wonderful things happened.

Sometimes we don’t realize how many new adventures we may have thanks to our dog and the support we may get along the way. Dogs will enrich a life of many people. Why? No one can introduce new people into your life like a dog, you can become great friends with your neighbors that are pet owners as well, meet new people walking your dog or in a dog park. Older people not only that they will have opportunities for regular exercise and contact with the environment, they will not feel alienated and lonely. The dog would never allow it.

Dog in the family is an ideal thing, especially in a family that only have a child, and this raises the concern of raising a selfish child.  As it turns out - a great solution may be the company of a dog. Psychologists say that children growing up with animals are assertive, sensitive, communicative, and have more empathy. As long as you have the right approach to the child and the dog, we don’t want to spoil the first one and do not treat the other one like a mascot. The family is harmony, for good and bad, to support each other and share.

Often the dog comes in very specific moments of our lives. During  relationship breakdown, losing a family member or a closefriend or financial turmoil. Sometimes consciously we decide on a pet to escape the problem, or for support. When later, in retrospect, we summarize our world 'before' and 'after', wonder how did we made the decision, we realize that in addition to all those responsibilities walks at six in the morning, giving up on vacation in Egypt, the struggle with the leash, bitten slippers, and dig out holes in the  garden, the dog enriched our world. He made surviving our illness much easier , we cried over our breakup snuggling next to our dog, and we are no longer lonely, somehow the daily task of walking the dog created a new circle of friendships. Then came  new hobbies, friends, travel, which  were some of the most interesting in our lives. And what is important – that  we realized we can be loved unconditionally, because that’s the only way the dog can love. Later, the rest becomes obvious  we became part of agroup of people addicted to dogs and it’s company.

Dogs also bring to us a specific feeling of safety and security when it comes to watching our house or just being present next to us. We pet them to come to our nerves, we let them go ahead of us when we feel threatenedin  hopes that they will protect us. We used them in  all different kind of therapies are the results are amazing, they prove the incredible power dogs has.

And then it comes a day that we have to say goodbye to our beloved friends it is very difficult to do and we truly never get over that, they become part of our life and then they are gone. Most of us in pain ,grieving will go and adopted another dog, not to replace the one we just lost, but to help us in the grieving process and bring back some light and happiness to our life. We know all dogs enter our lives for a reason and we receive from them so much more than we can ever imagine.