This time of the year is when many think it is a good time to give a pet as a gift, please do your homework first.
This video is about the exact reality of owning a pet, and it is our responsibility to take ownership and be responsible pet parents.
Pet ownership is not just about taking home an animal for a quick fun moment in your life. Pet ownership is exactly the same commitment than it is to any other member of your family. They feel our emotions and connect with us on the deepest form of love, no human could ever comprehend to understand. We think we do, we try to understand, we hope we understand, but really getting it is what is what many new pet owners fail to comprehend.
Dogs don’t have a running narrative
We form deep emotional bonds with our pets, so we naturally try to predict how our actions might make them feel. Unfortunately, this means that we often impose very human ideas and emotions on our four-legged companions.
Those human concepts reflect the way we remember things. Our lives are a running narrative, and we experience events with one foot in the past and the other in the future. As a result, we can fixate on missing things, people, and pets that aren’t with us now.
Dogs don’t experience the present moment in the same way. Your dog lives in the moment, and it’s the only moment that matters to them. Because of how a dog’s brain works, their memory doesn’t put together a story.
By ‘story,’ we mean concurrent moments where one event follows the next. Therefore, most of what they feel depends on their working or short-term memory. At best, dogs have a working memory of about 2 minutes.
What happens when a dog feels abandoned?Abandonment exposes dogs and cats to an uncertain fate, once on the streets they must fend for themselves and may suffer from hunger, thirst, injuries and diseases. As well as feeling distressed and confused because they have been left on their own in an unfamiliar place by their owner.
Do dogs feel abandoned when rehomed?
Leaving our dogs behind on vacation can be heartbreaking. After all, what if they think we aren’t coming back? That can be a source of guilt when they can’t join us on vacation. In some cases, dogs can be so attached to us that we may even call off our vacation plans altogether! But will your dog really think you abandoned them when you go on vacation?