I'm going to start by quickly stating that this article may come off completely bias and opinionated, but most people that know me by now should know the extent of my admiration and love for dogs.
To me, dogs are one of the most amazing things about this earth. They have so much life and personality to them and benefit human beings in so many ways.
Owning and caring for your own dog has been scientifically proven to improve human health and really can add ten years to your life. It relives stress, makes your more responsible, calms you down, and even makes us physically healthier, making us 12% more active than our lives before. However, taking care of dogs is no walk in the park (if you have ever walked a dog in the park you would know how inaccurate this is). They're time consuming, needy, and a lot of hard work. This animal relies on you to walk them, play with them, feed them, make sure they're getting outside to go to the bathroom, etc. and the healthier and more active dog you have, usually the more well-behaved.
Dogs are a special kind of animal: they're so pure and angelic and are always so happy to make humans happy (queue my bias and opinionated writing). As humans, we have such a wide opportunity to make dogs happy as well. If you're ever having a rough day, feeling stressed and anxious over school, or even just feeling sad for no reason, I highly recommend spending time with a dog. No seriously, it's like an instant cure. Ask a friend if you can take their dog for a walk, go home and play with your own dogs, or visit an animal shelter and visit the dogs that don't get nearly as much love as they deserve. No animal should ever have to feel neglected or unloved, and neither should we - this is why dogs and people come together.
Dogs make us better people. We're in better moods, our life has more meaning, and you have a friend to talk to and hang out with all the time, what could be better?
The other day I was walking to class, an anxious ball of stress about to take a chemistry test, and a man walked by with his dog. The dog came right over, tail wagging, sniffing my pants, and even just patting him a couple times relived me of a little bit of that stress.
This is the benefit to raising your own dog. They eliminate stress and put you in an all-around better mood. It's such a gift to come home after a long day of school or work and see a small little animal not being able to contain it's excitement that you're home.
Owning a dog forces you to look after and care for something other than yourself, and gets you into the habit of feeding, walking, bathing, training, and playing with an animal that relies on you to survive. Adding this responsibility to your life can only prepare you for the impending adult responsibilites that are destined to follow as we grow older and make our way into the Real Worldâ„¢.
Human beings don't deserve dogs for all they give to us. They improve our lives tremendously and make us all around better people, wanting nothing in return except a few pats and maybe a walk. They give us unconditional love, even when we're having a really hard day and don't really feel like playing tug-of-war. There really isn't anything much better than that (but that could just be my bias again, who knows).
