Why we don't train dogs to do dishes!

Just picture it! A dog washing dishes, doing laundry or using the toilet! Why can't we teach dogs to do these things with any proficiency? Well because............wait for it...........................................................

..............................................dogs are not human!!  I know this will come as a surprise to some reading this or at least it seems to many that our dogs think they are human. I think we can safely say that scientifically, dogs are a very different species than their human companions but there are many dog owners that simply don't want to face the fact that dogs have different dietary needs, instincts and interests. They are so devoted to us and we sometimes get so caught up in how they make us feel, we tend to forget that these little 'mini-me's' aren't human at all!

If I lived in a world where the dogs were in charge, I probably wouldn't like it if..........a dog tried to get me to go potty out in the yard..............develop canine hygiene techiques.........eat dog food or prey animals that hadn't been cooked........walk all day long looking for food to eat.............find a soft high place to sleep? Hey wait a minute, back up! I think we finally hit on something that we have in common, we both like to sleep on the bed. Ha! Well in reality we have quite a bit in common with our four-legged companions but there are some real similarities and differences that, if we pay close attention to, can make both their lives and ours much more pleasant.

First of all dogs, like humans, would hate being cooped up in a house all day long and never seeing the outside except out in a back yard for a few hours a day. Like humans they crave variety for their senses. They naturally want to explore the world around them. Their little, and sometimes big, noses are much more powerful than ours and they crave smells. That is how they percieve the world around them. We tend to use our eyes and our ears, even our sense of touch much more than our sense of smell. In fact, I live every day of my life with a condition called anosemia. This condition makes me unable to smell nearly all of the time. The people around me are hardly aware that I have this condition. Now a dog, if he had this condition would be considered severely handicapped by other dogs. In nature, if a dog was fending for himself he would starve to death without a sense of smell. This is just one way that dogs are very different than we are.

One way that dogs are the same is that we are is that they feel extremely nervous if they do not have someone telling them what the rules are. Imagine if we had to guess from day to day, what the rules of life were. Well we do to some degree but in a society where there are established rules such as traffic laws, there is order and a degree of safety. Our dogs are like that. They need to know what the rules are. If we didn't know the rules of our society we would be in trouble all the time. We would walk around breaking laws and ending up in jail. Gee, that's what happens with our dogs isn't it? When they break the laws of our household, neighborhood, city, we put them in a crate or a yard or in 'the other room'! Hmmm! This really doesn't seem fair. This is why, when we get a dog it is our responsibility to teach our dogs the rules of the house or where ever we take them or let them go.

Dogs will instinctively 'hunt'. If a dog is left unattended in a house and they haven't been taught about staying away from the trash can, not to counter surf in the kitchen or dig through the dirty laundry looking for food, how can he ignore his instincts? This is why it is absolutely necessary for us to be good teachers and not just policemen to our canine friends!

If you love your dog, honor his dogness and teach him to live in your world in safety and security by instructing him in the rules of life with you!

Now go do the dishes and let the dog worry about the badguys!

Mary