{"id":2363,"date":"2008-11-18T16:47:40","date_gmt":"2008-11-18T20:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifewithhappiness.com\/?p=298"},"modified":"2018-10-02T13:36:58","modified_gmt":"2018-10-02T17:36:58","slug":"happiness-is-a-wet-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theexecutivehappinesscoach.com\/2008\/11\/happiness-is-a-wet-dog\/","title":{"rendered":"Happiness is a wet dog"},"content":{"rendered":"

So, my wife and I are dogsitting for our “grand dog,” while my daughter and son-in-law are on a vacation in New York City. We see the dog (Heidi, a miniature black schnauzer) regularly, since we drop by their house every evening and take Heidi with us on our daily walk.\u00a0 She’s a sweet, well-behaved, and incredibly well-trained dog.
\nLiving with a dog, however, is very different from visiting with one.
\nWith Heidi living at our house for the past few days, I am reminded of the many reasons why we no longer own a dog ourselves:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Dogs demand attention.<\/strong> Every 30 minutes or so she removes herself from her blanket and makes it quite clear that it is “time to give the dog a backrub.\u00a0 NOW!”\u00a0 It’s been interesting the past two workdays, as she comes out to my office, lays her head on my lap, and stares up at me.\u00a0 Shooing her away does not work.\u00a0 Only after I give her several minutes of attention will she shake herself off, look at me with satisfaction, and head back for a (yet another) nap.<\/li>\n
  2. Dogs watch everything you do.\u00a0 Everything.<\/strong> It’s sort of creepy when she just sits and stares at me.\u00a0 While I eat: staring.\u00a0 When I brush my teeth: staring.\u00a0 While I grade papers, write, or read the newspaper: staring.\u00a0 It’s sort of like having a stalker, only smaller.<\/li>\n
  3. Dogs have their own agendas. <\/strong>Like, “I want to go out and smell stuff at 3AM” or “I love to snuffle around in decomposing leaves — you don’t mind if I bring them inside, do you?”<\/li>\n
  4. Dogs don’t wear boots outdoors. <\/strong> So when it’s raining, they bring mud samples inside.\u00a0 And when it’s snowing, they like to collect several pounds of ice and bring it in to melt it on the linoleum floor, right where I stand in my socks.\u00a0 Brrr!<\/li>\n
  5. Dogs don’t use toilets. <\/strong>This means we cannot leave the house for longer than 7 hours.\u00a0 Well, this is not too much of a hardship for a few days, but I feel very restricted by that timeframe.\u00a0 Our goldfish can go up to two days without us — much more convenient.<\/li>\n
  6. Dogs can’t open doors. <\/strong>So, you were thinking weekend, and sleeping in?\u00a0 NOT!\u00a0 This dog wants to head outside and then be fed — and let outside again — at 6AM, 7 days a week.\u00a0 Bummer.<\/li>\n
  7. Wet dogs smell. <\/strong> Yep.\u00a0 No matter how cute, a dog that’s been out in the rain exudes an odor like… well, a wet dog!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Maybe I’m being a bit harsh.\u00a0 Heidi truly is a joy.\u00a0 She’s small enough to sit on my lap, and is overall a very well-behaved dog.\u00a0 While she may demand back rubs a bit often, her show of gratitude always warms my heart (dogs are great at being Happy!).\u00a0 Plus — and this is a mystery — this dog almost never barks.\u00a0 Truly!\u00a0 Her orginal owner trained her well.\u00a0 So she’s never disruptive while I’m on the phone, even when she’s trying to crawl up onto my chair while I’m typing.
    \nPlus, I’m realizing that this training may serve me well for when we eventually have grandchildren.\u00a0 Can you see the parallels? Grandchildren: demand attention, watch everything you do, have their own agendas, track in dirt, don’t use toilets, can’t open doors (we hope!), and when they’re wet… they smell.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    So, my wife and I are dogsitting for our “grand dog,” while my daughter and son-in-law are on a vacation in New York City. We see the dog (Heidi, a miniature black schnauzer) regularly, since we drop by their house every evening and take Heidi with us on our daily walk.\u00a0 She’s a sweet, well-behaved, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5789,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,79,47,50],"tags":[111,112,38],"yoast_head":"\nHappiness is a wet dog - The Executive Happiness Coach\u00ae<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theexecutivehappinesscoach.com\/2008\/11\/happiness-is-a-wet-dog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Happiness is a wet dog - The Executive Happiness Coach\u00ae\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"So, my wife and I are dogsitting for our “grand dog,” while my daughter and son-in-law are on a vacation in New York City. We see the dog (Heidi, a miniature black schnauzer) regularly, since we drop by their house every evening and take Heidi with us on our daily walk.\u00a0 She’s a sweet, well-behaved, ... Read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theexecutivehappinesscoach.com\/2008\/11\/happiness-is-a-wet-dog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Executive Happiness Coach\u00ae\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/facebook.com\/theexecutivehappinesscoach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-11-18T20:47:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-10-02T17:36:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theexecutivehappinesscoach.com\/files\/2018\/05\/tehc-banner-logo-800w.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"212\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim Smith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@JimSmithOnline\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@JimSmithOnline\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim Smith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theexecutivehappinesscoach.com\/2008\/11\/happiness-is-a-wet-dog\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theexecutivehappinesscoach.com\/2008\/11\/happiness-is-a-wet-dog\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim Smith\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theexecutivehappinesscoach.com\/#\/schema\/person\/5e03b070ca3a1220ca3f43ce292f66e9\"},\"headline\":\"Happiness is a wet dog\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-11-18T20:47:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-10-02T17:36:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theexecutivehappinesscoach.com\/2008\/11\/happiness-is-a-wet-dog\/\"},\"wordCount\":566,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theexecutivehappinesscoach.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"grandchildren\",\"Happiness is a wet dog\",\"Happiness is...\"],\"articleSection\":[\"About Happiness\",\"Communication\",\"Pleasure\",\"Relationships\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/theexecutivehappinesscoach.com\/2008\/11\/happiness-is-a-wet-dog\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/theexecutivehappinesscoach.com\/2008\/11\/happiness-is-a-wet-dog\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/theexecutivehappinesscoach.com\/2008\/11\/happiness-is-a-wet-dog\/\",\"name\":\"Happiness is a wet dog - 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