Everyone has encountered this saying, generally attributed to author J.W. Stephens and viewable on countless t-shirts and on more than a few web forums. Preachers have even made sermons from it. It's basically supposed to mean your dog doesn't know how cruddy you really are because that's how dogs are, and that this gives you an encouragment, if not a yardstick, by which to improve. Okay. As far as it goes. Which unfortunately isn't really very far. It's a nice sentiment though and what has me thinking about it is how trusting dogs are. That is, unless abused, how uncomplicatingly accepting, transparent, and affectionate. No doubt there are wolfpack psychologies and alpha theories and all of that waiting to be plumbed here, but I want to avoid that. And of course the idea itself could very well be grossly anthropomorphic, but I'll stand by it for one reason -- simplistic acceptance from others is what everyone craves. Everyone. Each of us wants to be accepted as they are, no strings, no reservations, no drama. And the dog is the acknowledged poster child for that concept. Man's best friend, indeed, because no other man (human) can be as sincere.
Dogs and I go way back. I like them. A lot. But I also am kind of wary of them, because I have never been a simple, transparent individual, but rather one with a lot of baggage. I have I think made a lot of progress toward sincerity and transparency in my later years. But I believe dogs invariably sense in me a latent inability to be uncomplicated and thus I seem to always find them at arm's length.
Maybe this is true of all of us and not just myself. Either way, the reminder to "be the person your dog thinks you are," whatever its validity or meaning, hits home with me. I get it.
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