An Accolade to Four-legged Soulmates

“Everything I know I learned from dogs" - Nora Roberts

Isn’t Roberts accurate about it?. From unconditional love to living in the moment, peculiarly we do learn a lot from them. We can’t agree more about that.

Humans and dogs share a special bond of friendship and mutual support for a very long time.  On this special month of August for dogs, we opted to talk about our bosom friends and tribute their unconditional love and loyalty, as the national dog day is marked on August 26.

But what is the actual relationship we share with dogs? What is a dog to you?

A pet? Yeah, it is, but is that it?

As we live in the animals' world, our lives are indeed entangled with numerous species, in that sense we often end up interacting with them in our day-to-day life. But have you ever noticed that things are totally different when it comes to dogs?

Dogs have always been hailed as human's best friend since the neolithic period. In fact, dogs have been considered as the species that formed the closest bonds with humans. In spite of not having a common tongue, we both tend to easily understand each other’s mood whether we're sad or happy or tired or scared or mad just by the body language, which is not a regular thing to observe among the other species.

That, by itself, says something about the bond humans and dogs share. Tracing back the history, both our worlds swirled as dogs assisted us in hunting, herding livestock and guarding while we kept them fed and warm. Although this may sound more like a symbiotic – transactional give and take – relationship, unlike the others, humans and dogs' relationship is deeply rooted by love.

Would you believe that archaeological evidence claims that humans even went to the extent of burying themselves beside their four-legged friends? I can't imagine how much adoration could have made us desire so.

Despite the fact that now we don’t need the help of dogs in filling our stomachs, the long-established bond between us is still running-on the same, if not better. Apart from the instant pleasure we get while playing with them, having dogs as pets help us in the betterment of our physical and mental health as well. They can reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, ease loneliness, encourage exercise and playfulness, and even improve your cardiovascular health, which results in our well-being at an immense level.

Not only being best-friends, but also dogs are well-known for being our unpaid guardians. Very often we come across headlines about the heroic acts of dogs to save their masters, or how they stopped a burglary and many more such things even at the risk of their own lives. Nothing can match the safe-feel we get when our mate's bark reverberates around us.

Thus, adding immeasurable values to our lives like no other species, our tail-wagger friends have exemplified the role of strange bedfellows. What began as a mutual service has now been cherished into an ineradicable bond.

It goes without saying that it's obligatory to commemorate a day to express respect, honour and love towards our old-fellas. But things go south. Do you know what is the root cause behind the national dog day? By worse luck, it turns out to be a damp squib.

Stay tuned for the next article to find out why!