When walking your dog, do you pay attention to what your dog is doing, or are you busy with your smartphone?
Every day, I see people walking their dogs. There is nothing special about it. Dogs need to go out.
What is funny about it, and tragic for the dogs, is that the dogs owners, sometimes, seem to be oblivious of their dogs. They take the dogs out for some specific purposes, but they seem to forget these purposes when they go out with their dogs.
Things Dogs Do Outside
I see people walking their dogs completely immersed in the screen of their smartphone and oblivious of their dog’s behavior.
The dog needs to pee, but often, the person walking the dog keeps walking with his or her eyes glued to the screen, and the poor dogs can hardly finish to pee.
One of the things dogs love to do is to sniff and smell signposts, walls and shrubs. However, sometimes, the people walking their dog continue walking, oblivious of what the dog is doing.
Instead of paying attention to the dog, they pay attention to their smartphone.
They continue walking, dragging their dogs, and not allowing their dogs enjoy what they enjoy doing.
There is another thing I would like to mention. Many dog owners go with a leash that can be extended. Often, the dog runs to other side of the sidewalk and the leash obstructs the way for the pedestrians.
I see this often happening, and I have to find a way to go around, so as not stumble on the leash.
It looks like the dog’s owner wants to keep watching the screen of the smartphone, read and text, and taking the dog out is just a pretext to go out of home for a while.
Often, I see people with dogs and without dogs oblivious of what is happening around them, and even bump, or almost bump into signposts or electricity poles.
Just to make it clear, I don’t own a dog, and what I have written is just from observation.
Look at the World, not just at the Screen of Your Smartphone
A Few Suggestions
1. Try to be more aware of the dog needs and what it is doing, when taking it for a walk. You would lose nothing if you put your smartphone in your pocket for a few minutes.
2. Enjoy the time when you are out to look around you. Look at the people, the trees and the cars. See at the sky, the clouds and at the buildings tops.
There is a whole beautiful world around you, which you miss when you glue your eyes to the small screen.
This advice is suitable not only for dog owners, but for everyone.
3. These few minutes that you go can help you see the real world, not just the virtual world of the Internet. This will develop more empathy, observation, and awareness of your surroundings, which would help you in all areas of your life.
