The Joys of Owning a Dog

I've always contended throughout my life that I'm not a dog person: My parents never had a dog, I get scared of dogs barking, I can barely take care of myself much less another animal, dogs are pretty messy. For various reasons I've always thought I would never get a dog, but recent experiences with a friend's dog changed my outlook and at least made me see the bright side of owning dogs (call it the maturation process of Robert Yan:


1) get plenty of attention from others- there are a LOT of dog lovers in the United States and the world, especially if the dog is cute and approachable. "What kind of dog is she?" and "She's adorable" comes up much more often than people asking "What kind of person are you?" or "You're handsome!" so I guess I'd be able to live vicariously through a dog. 
2) feel others' love- Make the world a better place! Bring more love into this world! 
3) loyalty- nothing like knowing there's someone always waiting for you. Many people like dealing with dogs over humans and I can see why: no worries about backstabbing, deception, conflicting emotions, etc., etc. All the companionship with none of the complications. 
4) knowing that another creature in the world needs you- fulls the need of feeling important, accepting a role. 
5) make plenty of "squirrel" jokes from Up- great movie and pretty true: dogs will get excited by anything that pops up on the side of the road. 
6) training to make the move up to having a child- a true barometer of whether one is ready for a human being is an almost-human being, a dog. 
7) get plenty of exercise. I'm not a terribly outdoors person, but having a dog seems to require one to go outside just from walking the dog, might be more depending on the activity of the breed. 
8) easy conversation topic to have- How to meet women/ men 101 says "get a dog and meet other dogowners" 
9) rattlesnake watch ( some are trained to avoid rattlesnakes)
10) initiate a conversation- there's a reason they're called chick magnets. Requires that the dog gets along with most people, other dogs, etc.
11) eye candy- the majestic waves of a German shepherd, to the cute gait of a pug.
12.) They're just fun. They make humans laugh, they play around, they do things that animals do. There's a reason they're called "pets"- you get to "pet" them.

Fantasize on,

Robert Yan