Martin McKenna - Whats Your Dog Teaching You?

Dogs have taught me so much.

As a miserable, angry, mixed-up street kid in Garryowen, Ireland, I hated the world, but when I hooked up with a pack of the local stray dogs I suddenly found I had a family again even if it was a rather unusual, hairy one. Feeling safe and secure, I could finally put away the nightmare memories of alcohol and violence and bullying.

This pack of strays lived with me in an old hay barn for just over three years but it didnt take me long to realise that these street dogs were becoming my teachers in all sorts of ways.

They taught me the meaning of courage and responsibility and staunch loyalty. They taught me to give and get affection again. They taught me that I could trust others again and, more importantly, they showed me how to cautiously work out who I could trust. They brought out my curiosity and got me thinking laterally and showed me how to solve problems creatively. They taught me to care for someone other than myself. They taught me how to stand up to bullies. They gave me back my sense of self-worth. They taught me how to have a truly optimistic attitude.

Best of all, they taught me how to become a much better communicator.

This was so important because if you cant communicate properly with anyone else you soon find yourself locked in an invisible cage of profound loneliness. As I learned to communicate better first with these street dogs, then with people I began to hesitantly find my place in the world of humans again.

From being a skinny, lonely freak of a kid, I believe dogs helped me to grow up into the gregarious, calm, loving, optimistic man I am today. Sometimes I look back and cant believe what a long, rocky road Ive travelled. Just as amazingly over the years, Ive seen dogs profoundly transform the lives of many other people too. After all, who knows us better than our dog? They live with us in our homes sometimes sharing the couch and even the bed.

Their powers of observation are remarkable. Just think of how many hours this natural-born predator spends carefully watching us, studying every one of our movements, postures, gestures and facial expressions, trying to work out what well do next. Designed to be a pack animal thats highly sensitive to the politics within a small group, dogs are superbly aware of the shifting dynamics between every member of our household. Even more amazingly, dogs can smell exactly how were feeling, so we cant even get away with faking our emotions around our dog.

Yes, our dog knows us almost frighteningly well: all our foibles, our moods, our strengths and our weaknesses, what triggers us to lose our temper, and what calms us down when were upset. You could say our dog knows us inside out.

I believe a dog could be one of the most influential teachers a person can ever have. In this book are the true stories of dogs Ive known whove acted as profound teachers for their human owners. Sixty valuable life-lessons that dogs can teach us if only were willing to listen.