3 Ways Your Dog's Social Life is Better Than Yours (Guest Post)

Yes... the busy minutes and hours just keep piling up. Even Chooey is demanding more time from me. I'm really sorry, my friends. I want to be a lot of things right now, and it's forcing me to put blogging at a low priority scale. This guest post itself should've been up last week because it's funny--and let's face it, it's the truth!

This amazing post was brought to us by Amber Kingsley. She's a writer, travel junkie, coffee addict and an animal lover as well. 

By William Wallace Denslow [Public domain]
 via Wikimedia Commons

We have a little, black dog, a Cairn Terrier named Kady, who looks exactly like Toto from The Wizard of Oz. I can say without a shadow of doubt, that she has a much better social life than I do, mainly because of her demeanor. Like Toto, this dog believes she is famous, that everyone and everything put on this planet is here for her enjoyment.

This dog has no fear and barks at nothing and no one. When walking with her in the evenings, upon seeing other humans with their dogs, she quickly and happily approaches them. She often gets so excited, she simply runs around in circles out of pure joy. When the doorbell rings, it is not a package delivery for us, in her mind, it is a messenger sent specifically to her for love and attention. She’s quite the little package herself.

If Kady had opposable thumbs, was a little bit taller, I’d swear she’d be on social media. As pack animals in the wild, dogs are actually very social creatures. That being said, here’s three reasons why your dog’s social life is probably better than yours:

#1 - The Meet and Greet

As humans, we usually shake hands when meeting, or there’s always the “high-five” or “fist-bump” used as our interactive way of greeting each other. As we all know, dogs get right down to business and go in for the intimate sniff of the private parts. According to the Huffington Post, sniffing each other’s rear end is more complicated than one might imagine.

Nice too me you, human.

We’re all well aware that a dog’s sense of smell is highly magnified compared to ours, and this unusual greeting can actually tell one canine the emotional state, gender, diet and other information about the dog they are greeting. If you think about it, that’s a lot of information from a quick sniff. It’s one of the many examples of chemical communication that can be found in the animal kingdom that we don’t possess as mere humans.

#2 - Perception and Companionship

Ever had a really bad day, perhaps you’re upset or depressed about something and you don’t really want to talk about it or share your feelings? But you decide to put on a happy face and go hang out with your friends anyway. Most of the time you’ll get away with this charade around your friends and family, but not with your dog.

If you're depressed, I can pretend to be depressed,too. Just to make you feel better...

A study from the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, found that dogs can sense feelings of happiness and sadness in their human companions. Many dog owners believe their canines can understand them on a deeper level and this research only confirms what pet parents have suspected for many years. Dogs instinctively know when we are happy and get excited right along with us. Then can sense when we are sad and cuddle up next to us for love and support.

#3 - More Facebook Friends?

Earlier I suggested that if my dog could type, she’d be on social media. It turns out that pet parents that post profiles for their animals online have a surprising number of followers. An infographic called “Savvy Social Critters,” shows us that 14% of dog owners maintain a Facebook page for their pet.

Yeah, this pretty much proves that this fact. They get more cards than we humans do.

Of those animals with an internet presence, 42% of them have between one and twenty-five friends and 20% gain an audience of fifty to one hundred followers. These socials stats also report 27% of dogs have their own YouTube page and 6% are active on Twitter. Although the average number of followers on Facebook is around two-hundred, I know many people who only have a few dozen internet connections.

Even though they have a better sense of smell, know what we’re feeling and might have more online connections than we do, they are still our beloved pets and we’d do almost anything to keep them healthy, happy and safe.

Oh, and one more thing: If you guy's haven't visited Sue and Steve yet, please do. Your kind words and comments on Taiko's passing will mean a lot to the WDA.