If only humans were as loyal and diligent

[The emperor has no clothes]

http://time.com/5474782/family-california-camp-fire-returns-dog/

[Pete]

Some humans are and some are not.
Good dog, I am sorry that it had to go thru that and grateful for the kind person that helped it.

[Willow]

We humans tend to project ourselves onto our pets viewing them as diffeently coated people.  They're not.  They animals.  We can be very fond of them but they don't have qualities such as love, loyalty, or generosity.  They do what they do for very logical reasons and greatly from instinct.

This particular dog returned to the place at which he had been cared for.  He stayed there because he was there fed and watered.

It is a good, a moving, story.  I'm glad they were reunited to their pet.

I know my viewpoint is not popularly held.  Sometimes it's lonely being right.  

[The emperor has no clothes]

We humans tend to project ourselves onto our pets viewing them as diffeently coated people.  They're not.  They animals.  We can be very fond of them but they don't have qualities such as love, loyalty, or generosity.  They do what they do for very logical reasons and greatly from instinct.

This particular dog returned to the place at which he had been cared for.  He stayed there because he was there fed and watered.

It is a good, a moving, story.  I'm glad they were reunited to their pet.

I know my viewpoint is not popularly held.  Sometimes it's lonely being right.  

Sometimes it’s also lonely being wrong. No doubt dogs are just animals doing what they do to survive. To say that they aren’t loyal is mistaken in my opinion. We as humans are loyal for many of the same reasons dogs are.

[Willow]

Sometimes it’s also lonely being wrong. No doubt dogs are just animals doing what they do to survive. To say that they aren’t loyal is mistaken in my opinion. We as humans are loyal for many of the same reasons dogs are.

Oh, Rob, it's not lonely being wrong.  Ask any liberal.   

[The emperor has no clothes]

Sometimes it’s also lonely being wrong. No doubt dogs are just animals doing what they do to survive. To say that they aren’t loyal is mistaken in my opinion. We as humans are loyal for many of the same reasons dogs are.

Oh, Rob, it's not lonely being wrong.  Ask any liberal.   

[shortleg]

   I would only like to add  the scene when a Vet comes home after being gone
for a long period of time.
    The joy that the animal seems to show has little to do with  food or being
cared for.
    I know they are dogs but there has to be something there.

[Pappy!]

Or the times dogs have been known to drag their humans out of harm's way.
Or the times dogs will lay their life down to protect their humans. Not the trained dogs, plain old domestic lovable dogs.

[Gavin_Sons]

There is more there than what Willow has stated in his "wrong" opinion. Yes much of what they do is because of instinct,  but other things they do is out of passion for their humans. I have had many dumb dogs and a few smart ones.  The smartest was our blue heeler mix, followed by out black lab that we still have. He is 10 now and very slow to do anything but is sharp as a tack. My bloodhound is a big goof ball and lazy and now our miniature bernedoodle is becoming smarter and more loveable by the day. The bernedoodle and bloodhound are best friends, they have a hard time being away from each other. Yeah our house sounds crazy and it is most of the time but we love our dogs. They take a lot of work but are part of the family. I have seen guys in the militart return home and their dogs go crazy when they see them. How can anyone say there is nothing there? I like dogs more than I like most people.

[Robert]

I think there is so much more than we know to the understanding of animals. How does my dog know to go to the back door and scratch when he wants to go out in the middle of the night. He only does it at night in the day he comes looks at me and stares at me to go out. I never taught him this behavior he started it one night on his own when he would have had an accident in the house.

Below is a story of a dog that would make anyone question the understanding of animals. Hachiko waited for his master for 9 years after he died. Even though the owners family took the dog out of the area, he came back and would not leave the spot he knew to meet his owner.

Hachiko, a golden brown Akita, was born on November 10, 1923 at a farm located in Ōdate, Akita Prefecture, Japan. In 1924, Hidesaburō Ueno, a professor in the agriculture department at the Tokyo Imperial University, took Hachikō as a pet and brought him to live in Shibuya, Tokyo. Ueno would commute daily to work, and Hachikō would leave the house to greet him at the end of each day at the nearby Shibuya Station. The pair continued the daily routine until May 21, 1925, when Ueno did not return. The professor had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, while he was giving a lecture, and died without ever returning to the train station in which Hachikō waited.

Each day, for the next nine years, nine months and fifteen days, Hachikō awaited Ueno's return, appearing precisely when the train was due at the station.

Dogs' Intelligence On Par With Two-year-old Human, Canine Researcher Says

Date:
    August 10, 2009
Source:
    American Psychological Association
Summary:
    Although you wouldn't want one to balance your checkbook, dogs can count. They can also understand more than 150 words, and intentionally deceive other dogs and people to get treats, according to a psychologist and leading canine researcher.

[..]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greyfriars_Bobby

[Jess from VA]

Speaking of Akita loyalty, I once had a house next door to an Akita owner.

We shared common lawn and the property border was not clear.  But if I mowed on the neighbors half (even one lawnmower width), the Akita walked over and insisted I get back on my own side of the lawn.  He never barked or even growled, he just looked at me .... very seriously.

I didn't have to be told twice.  (He could have been a surveyor.) (It was a rental, and the border was where he said it was.)



He was never on a leash (and there was no fence), and never put one foot off his property.  And it was best you never put one foot on his.

[Robert]

Have some tissues just in case  

Dogs Welcoming Soldiers Home Compilation (2013)

https://youtu.be/RKBcs9tNWg8

A LION CALLED CHRISTIAN: The Touching Reunion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co3N4-6B2pM

Jess your story of no leash reminded me of the deal my dog and I struck.

When he was young he hated the leash, we would put it on and he would bite it and fight it. Well one day while he was fighting it I bent down and said to him that if he minded me and did not stray off the usual path I would not put him on the leash. Well from that day forward he was not a problem, stayed on the sidewalk and walked in the painted lines. When we would go somewhere he would stay fairly close and we did have a couple of misunderstandings but all in all he never ran off or got out of bounds. He learned he could go onto the grass but could not go into the street and sometimes as if to be defiant he would walk on the edge of the grass closest to the street but never set a paw on the black top.

Today if my wife puts a leash on him he never complains and takes it like a gentleman. He has learned his programmed path at work and stays on it and goes as far as he feels comfortable and does his business and turns around and walks back to the business. He can take off on his own and being a small dog someone would more than likely take him but I have watched from a distance and he never strays off the path.

[Black Dog]

I may be 'wrong', but I'm guessing that Carl is not a dog owner 

Black Dog

[Gavin_Sons]

I may be 'wrong', but I'm guessing that Carl is not a dog owner 

Black Dog

i would assume the same thing or maybe if he is a dog owner his dog is just dumb. 

[Willow]

I may be 'wrong', but I'm guessing that Carl is not a dog owner 

Black Dog

i would assume the same thing or maybe if he is a dog owner his dog is just dumb. 

I have owned dogs in my youth and young adult life.  They were smart dogs.  I have more recently had cats as pets.  Two of those have been exceptionally smart.  I am very, very fond of my pets but I don't think I would give my life for any of them.  They are animals though and not people.

It's interesting that traits such as love, diligence and loyalty people associate with being smart.  They're not really related.

Believe what you need to believe.

[Gavin_Sons]

I may be 'wrong', but I'm guessing that Carl is not a dog owner 

Black Dog

i would assume the same thing or maybe if he is a dog owner his dog is just dumb. 

I have owned dogs in my youth and young adult life.  They were smart dogs.  I have more recently had cats as pets.  Two of those have been exceptionally smart.  I am very, very fond of my pets but I don't think I would give my life for any of them.  They are animals though and not people.

It's interesting that traits such as love, diligence and loyalty people associate with being smart.  They're not really related.

Believe what you need to believe.

That explains your opinion. The devil's pet has taken your soul.

[hubcapsc]

Willow's right... dog's aren't people. Heck, my dog
eats cat poop...

But it is silly to think they aren't able to be happy
or scared or that my dog doesn't like me more
than she likes... Willow  ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91zWaQuIqXM

-Mike "and she's sad when she sees us packing for a trip, though she gets the same amount of food when we're gone..."

[Leathel]

I have had always had dogs....my own ones since I was 18..... I picked one up while out on the bike, he came home in a backpack worn on the front (family dogs before that)

Some I class as loyal dogs......some just pot lickers

The black dog is my current dog, she is always one step behind me or at my feet just to be there, not wanting food etc, the little cross is a pot licker..... Good dog but she is not one to stop in her tracks and be at your side at a short peep on the whistle....about as loyal as a cat





This was my first Loyal dog, He was always there, I hopped into the Kayak to test if it leaked....Rascal had to join me

[Skinhead]

Sometimes it's lonely being right.   

How would you know?

[Jess from VA]

........about as loyal as a cat      

[The emperor has no clothes]

I have had always had dogs....my own ones since I was 18..... I picked one up while out on the bike, he came home in a backpack worn on the front (family dogs before that)

Some I class as loyal dogs......some just pot lickers

The black dog is my current dog, she is always one step behind me or at my feet just to be there, not wanting food etc, the little cross is a pot licker..... Good dog but she is not one to stop in her tracks and be at your side at a short peep on the whistle....about as loyal as a cat





This was my first Loyal dog, He was always there, I hopped into the Kayak to test if it leaked....Rascal had to join me

Love the pics  I've also always had a dog. Only my 4 Navy years without. I've had some that were dumb as hell. And I've had some smart as all get out. But all have been what I would consider loyal. Our current dog is a Cairn Terrier.

[Willow]

I have had always had dogs....my own ones since I was 18..... I picked one up while out on the bike, he came home in a backpack worn on the front (family dogs before that)

Some I class as loyal dogs......some just pot lickers

The black dog is my current dog, she is always one step behind me or at my feet just to be there, not wanting food etc, the little cross is a pot licker..... Good dog but she is not one to stop in her tracks and be at your side at a short peep on the whistle....about as loyal as a cat
...
This was my first Loyal dog, He was always there, I hopped into the Kayak to test if it leaked....Rascal had to join me
...

I may have overstated to imply that animals can't be loyal or generous.  They certainly can but not for the reasons that humans normally do.

My current male feline is quite attached to me.  I've had him since he was abandoned as a kitten.  He thinks I'm the alpha male.  He gets noticeably upset when he sees that we are packing bags to go away.

My favorite cat who died a dozen years ago would sit by my chair when I watched television or ate a meal.  At the table if he thought I was unaware of his presense he would stand up to stretch placing his right paw just abopve the arm of my chair.  Tiger started life as an outdoor cat, a stray.  In his early years he was not allowed inside but would occasionally slip in and run downstairs.  I told people Tiger could understand English.  One day he had slipped in and I went downstairs to fetch him.  I was carrying him to the back door with his chest in my left hand and his body stretched over my arm.  He wrapped his paws around my arm and I could feel the tips of his claws against me.  Without looking down or breaking stride I simply said softly, "If you put your claws into me it will be the worst experience of your life."  He immediately relaxed.  The last intentional thing he did in his life was to raise in his weakened, sickened state to his feet and rub himself against my leg, marking me as belonging to him.  He cried out in pain repeatedly and collapsed.  In less than a minute he was gone.  

My pets have shown attachment and I have been attached to them.  Is that loyalty?  I suppose it is a form of loyalty.  Is it love?  Maybe, but I don't think it's in the same form of which humans are capable.

We tend to project onto our animals the same feelings and reasons we experience.  My point is that's largely inaccurate.  There is a significant difference between humans and animals.

Oh, and, meathead, during your four Navy years you had plenty of animals around you.  

[The emperor has no clothes]

  yes I did

[Chrisj CMA]

I think its totally accurate to say that pets are capable of loving and being loyal to their owners.  Its also accurate to say their emotions are not always the same as human emotions although sometimes it seems really close.  As far as love, dogs I think surpass most humans in their ability do display unconditional love.

It takes a long time of significant abuse to make a dog that is loving toward its master to change and be not so loving.

Put your favorite dog and your wife in the trunk of the car for an hour and see which one is happy to see you when you finally open that trunk.  LOL  

[3fan4life]

I think its totally accurate to say that pets are capable of loving and being loyal to their owners.  Its also accurate to say their emotions are not always the same as human emotions although sometimes it seems really close.  As far as love, dogs I think surpass most humans in their ability do display unconditional love.

It takes a long time of significant abuse to make a dog that is loving toward its master to change and be not so loving.

Put your favorite dog and your wife in the trunk of the car for an hour and see which one is happy to see you when you finally open that trunk.  LOL  

If for some reason I was ever to be dumb enough to put my wife in the trunk of the car.

I am certainly NOT going to be dumb enough to ever open it up again, I might get Onstar to do it once I am safely on a different continent.

But, I ain't doing it. 

[Jess from VA]

Yeah Mark.  If I locked my wife in the trunk, I'd need to move away smartly, because bullets might come flying out of there at any minute.  How many in a Glock 17 mag?  Too many.   

And then she'd tell the police she was just trying to shoot the lock, and it was just an unfortunate accident I took one in the forehead, chest and nuts.   It was pitch dark in there after all and hard to see the lock.   

[The emperor has no clothes]

I think its totally accurate to say that pets are capable of loving and being loyal to their owners.  Its also accurate to say their emotions are not always the same as human emotions although sometimes it seems really close.  As far as love, dogs I think surpass most humans in their ability do display unconditional love.

It takes a long time of significant abuse to make a dog that is loving toward its master to change and be not so loving.

Put your favorite dog and your wife in the trunk of the car for an hour and see which one is happy to see you when you finally open that trunk.  LOL  

If for some reason I was ever to be dumb enough to put my wife in the trunk of the car.

I am certainly NOT going to be dumb enough to ever open it up again, I might get Onstar to do it once I am safely on a different continent.

But, I ain't doing it. 

maybe there is more to the story of Jeff's hand that was shot.

[Chrisj CMA]

I think its totally accurate to say that pets are capable of loving and being loyal to their owners.  Its also accurate to say their emotions are not always the same as human emotions although sometimes it seems really close.  As far as love, dogs I think surpass most humans in their ability do display unconditional love.

It takes a long time of significant abuse to make a dog that is loving toward its master to change and be not so loving.

Put your favorite dog and your wife in the trunk of the car for an hour and see which one is happy to see you when you finally open that trunk.  LOL  

If for some reason I was ever to be dumb enough to put my wife in the trunk of the car.

I am certainly NOT going to be dumb enough to ever open it up again, I might get Onstar to do it once I am safely on a different continent.

But, I ain't doing it. 

Lol me too.  I wouldn't ever either. Just making a point with hopefully a bit of humor.

[Robert]

I may have overstated to imply that animals can't be loyal or generous.  They certainly can but not for the reasons that humans normally do.

Like humans each has their own ability of understanding and internal strength or root to be able to have these qualities. Loyalty, honor, faithfulness, even friendship require some understanding, learning and personal growth and convictions. As a child is faithful to his mother or father is the range of most humans and animals. Its the ones that can be faithful when those around are faithless that really make their mark.

[Alpha Dog]

I am so on board with there being so much more to dogs ( and probably a whole host of the smarter animals on this planet than we know right now.  I have seen it and experienced it like others above have stated.  They all just have their own ways.  I have always told my step children and son, if you want a good dog treat it like one of the family.  It tares  me up when I see pets being mistreated.  Another thing  is they also go to the after life.  Yes the creator has a special place for them also.   Many a NDE the person got to see a loved pet there in the light.  Personally I had one come back and visit.  A golden retriever named Sabin in late January of 2014.  Someday I may tell the story as it also involved my stepson who had just passed after a life of Cystic Fibrosis illness.  I am sure others have had a similar experience.

[Leathel]

I have had always had dogs....my own ones since I was 18..... I picked one up while out on the bike, he came home in a backpack worn on the front (family dogs before that)

Some I class as loyal dogs......some just pot lickers

The black dog is my current dog, she is always one step behind me or at my feet just to be there, not wanting food etc, the little cross is a pot licker..... Good dog but she is not one to stop in her tracks and be at your side at a short peep on the whistle....about as loyal as a cat
...
 

My favorite cat .  Tiger started life as an outdoor cat, a stray.  


My pets have shown attachment and I have been attached to them.  Is that loyalty?  I suppose it is a form of loyalty.  Is it love?  Maybe, but I don't think it's in the same form of which humans are capable.

One of my favourite cats was Tiger too, recently passed and also a wild cat, Wild cats sure do have an attitude that is different from domestic stock, We have another wild one now...great pets and they bond better IMHO, 2 cats and 2 dogs at present

But I cannot say I would consider any cat I have had as loyal, love them and I am sure they love back..... But I guess I don't take the cats everywhere with me so not the same?

[Hooter]

I had 2 working dogs when I was still working. They are and can be dedicated and loyal. My dogs were highly trained, lived with me and protected me 24-7. They would not ever leave you hanging. They showed love and affection as well as discipline. Can't say that about people. My dogs put their lives on the line every day for myself and people they had never met.