“Yeah, he looks pretty good.” “I always took good care of him too. There's really nothing wrong with that.” I slowly walk around the car. I check the tires. My hand runs over the frame. After all, quality is important – the dog buggy has to be able to withstand a lot. A few years ago I wouldn't have thought I would do this – at least not for a dog.
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It's been quite a while since I first Dog buggies saw at a big exhibition. A neatly coiffed woman walked through the corridors in a costume and pushing a dog buggy in front of her. There were two small dogs sitting inside, looking curiously outside. “Now the poor creatures aren’t even allowed to walk alone,” I thought involuntarily. I classified the owner straight away: Typical small dog smokingwho likes to dress her dogs up in costumes and receive French kisses from them (“Give mom a kiss”) and would like to spare them the entire dog's life – including the use of their four little legs. I thought dog buggies were terrible.
A dog buggy is purchased
Suddenly everything is different. Now I was standing in front of a dog buggy that I wanted to buy. As life goes, sometimes you suddenly come to a point where you have your own Beliefs must be thrown overboard because they have been proven wrong. A small one has changed in our family's life Terrier mix smuggled. A great little young guy who was rescued from terrible circumstances. From his past he not only brings with him missing and certainly bad experiences – he also has two crippled forelegs. We don't know how it happened. The fact is that the dog is happy despite his disability and he can handle it very well.
He runs, plays, chases – he does everything that little terriers like to do. However, he cannot run as long as a healthy dog. One hour in a row is the absolute maximum, which is simply the possible Dog walks restricted. Going beyond the usual dog walking radius, trying out new routes, walking along hiking trails – none of this is possible. He hates being carried deep and, strictly speaking, he is a bit too big and too heavy for that. A Dog buggy could save him that. When he gets tired, he can come in there and be pushed. He no longer has to look longingly after me and my two dogs when we leave the house for a big walk – he can come with us.
When I saw him for the first time in the dog buggy Pushing through the small settlement was very nice to me uncomfortable. I fully understand how this affects other people. “The poor little dog – isn’t even allowed to walk himself”. “That's crazy – now they're putting dogs in strollers. They're dogs, not babies!” I can't tell everyone who comes towards me and looks at us in shock the entire story of their life and suffering and explain in detail why Dog now in a dog buggy sits. And to be honest: I don't want to either. It's none of strangers' business why I decided that this dog should sit in a dog buggy. It's just like that – I have my reasons for it. You don't have to know the reasons to accept and tolerate the result.
Why we have prejudices
We humans are very quick to prejudice ourselves. It is a consequence of the “Schemes” that we use to structure our environment. “Schemes” help us to quickly classify our world and react to it accordingly. If we are sitting in a restaurant and someone comes up to us with a notepad and asks us about our order, it doesn't make sense to think about what this person might mean and what they want from us. We know that it is a waiter to whom we tell our food wishes.
But these schemes don't just help us Adapt behavior quickly – they also protect us from dangers and unpleasant experiences. We are dependent on adapting our behavior to the environment quickly and effortlessly. Unfortunately, such mental processes don't just run when they're useful to us – they run permanent. In addition, people Everyday researcher are. We want ours Understand the environment. We also want to understand other people and why they act the way they do – even if we have relatively little information about them. That also helps us, our Adapt behavior to the other person – and that without learning his entire childhood story. Quick judgments can help – but they can also have negative effects. This is when we make prejudices that do not do justice to the other person and therefore to him Injustice do.
It makes sense to look at this again and again Conscious of prejudices to become and make it clear to ourselves that these don't have to be right. We dog owners are very quick at it, others Dog owner to condemn. Whether it's the dog with a coat, the dog on the flexi or even the small dog that is picked up when meeting other dogs – we quickly think we know why the other dog owner acts the way he does. Depending on how positive we are about the other person and what experiences we have had with them so far, we quickly come to a devastating judgment. But this is exactly what can be wrong.
Change of perspective
Even a large dog may need a coat. There are big dogs without undercoatwhich is simply fast freeze. Should these dog owners let their dogs freeze and get sick just because they don't want a coat? And dogs with undercoats can too sick and need a coat to protect against cold and wet. Not everyone who puts a coat on their dog does so because they like to treat their dog like a doll.
Of course, everyone knows these dog owners who walk their dog on the Flexi, use it as a substitute for training and endanger their environment in the process. But a Flexi can also absolutely practical be. Dogs that cannot be leashed or can only be led to a limited extent (for example because they are deaf or blind) can use a fairly large radius on a Flexi without getting tangled up in a long drag line and without getting messy fingers. In some federal states there are certain times Required to be on a leash. If you lead your dog on a flexi to protect the wild animals and not on a towing leash (which not everyone is comfortable with), there is nothing wrong with that.
And even the dog owner who holds his small dog in his arms Dog encounterswill have its reasons. The small dog may have been painfully run over by various large Tut mermaids several times, which the owner simply wants to prevent. He may have already had the terrible experience of his dog being seriously injured or even killed (the danger is simply much greater with small dogs than with a larger dog). If he would rather pick up his dog than leave him on the ground, he will have his reasons for it.
Tolerance and acceptance
We don't need to know about every dog. It is not necessary to learn every life and suffering story. Nobody has to justify actions that do no harm to anyone. Neither a coat, a flexi nor a dog stroller are harmful by virtue of their mere existence. Only using these things incorrectly can be harmful. But not everyone who uses these things does so in this way.
By the way, the family's little terrier mix really enjoyed his first hiking trip. He ran forward completely relaxed and happy, enjoying the strange smells and laughing from ear to ear. After his bad past, he has changed his mind happy disposition preserved and damn, he has the same thing Right to explore new environments, like my dogs. The Dog buggy enables him and can give him as much as possible long, pain-free life bestow. Abandoning a buggy just because it doesn't fit into your worldview would have been the real crime against this dog.
It would be good for us dog owners if we… tolerance and that Understandingthat we offer to dogs would also be offered to dog owners. You don't have to experience everything firsthand to practice tolerance. There is no need to waste a lot of energy getting upset if we don't even know the other person and they haven't done anything to us. It is supreme unfair to judge other people directly just because we are limited in our horizon of experience.
That doesn't mean that we don't have certain courses of action and tools critical can see. But we have to, with all our criticism, with our judgments cautious be. Our judgments are not always correct. Before we treat someone in a derogatory manner, we should first ask ourselves whether this is even justified. Let us meet other people with open hearts and open eyes. Criticism of others does not release us from it, including ourselves critical of yourself to be. This holds ours Open to new things and does it – just by the way Make the world a better place to live for other people too. A beautiful thing, right? Let's get to it.
Author: Nina Dany