They help with mental and physical health. They can help reduce depression, anxiety, and stress. But they can also help with lowering your blood-pressure lowering the risk of a heart attack or stroke.But what is the best pet to have? Cat? Fish? Rock? Lizard? Well the answer to that question is indeed a dog. Not only are they cuter than any other animal but they will protect owners understand feelings and so, so much more. They are truly man’s best friend.
First to understand how they became such great pets we need to understand how they became dogs. We all know that the dogs’ ancestor is the wolf that is no question, however, what we are not sure of is where the dog was first domesticated. Some people say it was East Asia, others say it was Europe, the Middle East. and so many other places. Some people said we domesticated them twice in two different places. All we know for sure is that the dog was domesticated around fifteen thousand years ago. But how did they domesticate these wolves to turn into dogs? Did a hunter find an injured wolf in the woods? No, nothing helps support that claim. The best theory is that humans would capture and steal wolf pups and bring them back to domesticate them like that. There are so many breeds in the world the American Kennel Club only recognizes 178 out of the 400 plus. “How did we get these breeds?” you may ask. Well, we got them early on we started with some of the “basic” ones when we first started to manage them. We had some for breeding some for hunting and etc. As life got on and we started to breed more and more dogs and we came up with more and more dogs. That’s how we got so many breeds.
Dogs have evolved so much from when they were first domesticated. Dogs have lost their crazy behavior and become more loving and caring and will help with anything. Dogs have learned human expressions and can comfort them when they need it. Not only that but dogs will protect their owners from other people who they think are a threat, unlike cats who will run away from danger or lizards who will sit in their tank and watch. But, along with evolving with us and knowing that we humans will always be there for them and protecting them and helping them survive made them lose some of their true animal instincts. They still are very territorial and like other dogs to know that their home is their home and no other dogs. But, they wouldn’t be able to survive on their own. They don’t know how to hunt and chase, they do it all the time but always fail. They chase deer, rabbit, birds, heck sometimes cats but they rarely, if ever, win. However, that’s okay because we don’t need them to. We enjoy who they are today and because they are less fierce and more loving is all we need for us to fall in love with them.
Dogs today are so important. They have so many responsibilities, sometimes more than some humans do. Dogs can do so many things like herd sheep, pull sleds, race, and do so many more physically gifted things, but that’s not all they are used for. Using their protective instincts they also protect their owners from other dogs or humans or anything really. We also use them for the police. We use their amazing noses to sniff out drugs and other illegal things to help keep the world clean as much as we can. But, one of the most helpful things I personally think a dog can do in today’s society is be a comfort dog and help people who need it. Like I mentioned earlier dogs can help people with depression, anxiety, lower stress, and can lower blood pressure which can reduce a heart attack. Another thing dogs can do is help PTSD. Dogs don’t cure it completely but they do reduce it. They provide companionship to the people who need it and help people forget they event or events that happened.
Another thing that is important for having a dog that it’s a lot of responsibility and it will help teach kids that responsibility. Getting a dog for a young child could be very helpful for said child. Getting that dog will help teach that kid the responsibility needed. For example, Say you give your six year old a puppy that she’s always wanted she needs to learn that she just can’t play with it all the time even though it will need to play and exercise a lot, but they also need to feed it, water it, train it, and of course play with it. You could say you have to do that with a lot of other animals and I would agree. “Cats you need to do the same thing” some would say, well how do you exactly play with a cat? You really can’t I mean yeah you can shake a fake mouse around or give it a yarn ball but that’s not really any fun. With a dog you can play fetch chase it around, have it chase you around, petting it is usually a blast for most dogs, and a lot. Now not all cats are like that and sometimes they’ll play fetch and what not but you can count on almost every dog that they would. Now there are some responsibilities other pets need taken care of that dogs don’t for example, you don’t need to clean a dog’s tank. But, you do need to clean up his mess when he goes to the bathroom on your carpet.
So you see dogs have so, so many pros in owning one and just in general for them to be around. They have been with us since, well the beginning if you think about it. So that’s why dogs are the best pet ever. Period.
- https://www.buffalorising.com/2009/08/role-of-pets-in-modern-society/
- www.theatlantic.com
- www.smithsonianmag.com
- Gizmodo.com
- discovermagazine.com
