Not A"'FurBaby"

  So at the risk of upsetting some of you I decided to go a head and post this blog because I believe the message is important... VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED!!!!!

   I am going to come out and say it!!  I dislike the term "FUR BABY"  in reference to our dogs.  There I said it.  Now don't get me wrong. I understand why people use it.  It is a term of endearment.  You want the world to know how much you love your dog. Trust me I get it. I  get it because  love my dogs too!  But recently while doing my Seminar entitled It's Not About The Dog!: A Better Understanding of Your Dog's Behaviour, I had someone question my relationship with my dogs.  The question came up because not all of my dogs sleep every night in my house.  They don't all sleep in my room, or on my bed. Most spend their evenings in our facility.  Now my dogs are often rotated in the house to keep up with their "in house " manners. But for the most part, they spend their time in the facility.  Now this is not a punishment in my dogs eyes.  The facility means play groups and pack walks, and fun filled days doing dog things. There is still lots of hands on human attention out there because who's kidding who, I spend more time in the facility than I do my own house.  But for some reason the thought of the dogs spending their evenings in a facility makes people sad.  I usually get a "awe" and the sad face from people when I tell them. And then I get questions like: "Don't you want them in your house with you?"  "Aren't they part of your family?"  and of course "how can you do that to your furbabies?"

    Now this is just my opinion so you can take it or leave it.  The reason these kinds of questions and that term furbaby gets to me is because it humanizes the dog.   And for me, I believe to humanize the dog is a HUGE step down for the dog.

I love and respect my dogs... AS DOGS. Not furry little people. DOGS.
Dogs are brilliant and wonderful.  And everything we love about them: their unconditional love, their loyalty,  their joy, their bliss, their play, their unique ability to live in the now, to not be motivated by complex human emotions like greed and jealousy, hatred or racism,  their truth and honesty. Everything that we love about them is because we struggle to find those qualities in people. And even in ourselves.  So no, I don't think of them a my furbabies.  I respect them, and love them as they are.  Because we as humans are FLAWED.  They are not.  
My love comes out of a place of honour.   I am truly honoured and humbled every day by their presence.  Humbled that they allow me into their world,  not only be a part of their pack, but that  they trust me to be their guide through Humansville.  I don't want to humanize them, in fact  I strive to be more like them.

Now all that being said, does that mean I never have dogs in our house, or on the couch or in my bed???

Of course I do.  After all we are a pack.  

 So I encourage you to  honour your dog. Embrace your pack. Live in the now.