Dogs Know

   I am putting this post on the mental health blog, because I do not mean for it to be argumentative.  It is just something that I want to say about animals and people. And I am not just sharing an opinion, but speaking from years of experience as a person with depression and anxiety, and as a person who aspires to eventually do some pet therapy with my pet guinea pigs.

   A lot of people like to talk about how animals have an extra sense about things, and can sometimes perceive when something is wrong, or when there is a person who means harm.  Well it is true and family dogs save the day all the time, and service dogs defend their dog owners from bothersome encounters very often.

    But I think that healthy people who don't have a deep experience of chronic rejection and emotional pain may not realize that dogs do not know everything, and just because a dog barks at you doesn't mean that you are a bad person.  And telling everyone that this is the case may really hurt people.  Some people already feel like bad people when they aren't, and when some grumpy dog barks at them, that's all it is.  The dog has not discovered the true nature of anyone's character.  And there are mean dogs who attack children in neighborhoods every day.  And who is the bad person in that scenario?  Usually a bad neighbor who didn't give a flip about anyone else's safety, though of course sometimes there are genuine tragedies and accidents.

   Especially in my early years of depression, I found myself feeling a fear of being unliked by dogs many times, and feeling that based on other people's belief that dogs are the ultimate judge of character, and that if a dog growls at me then everyone has the right to conclude that I am really a bad person.  In reality, the dog might just sense my fear... of seeming like a bad person... because I am a good person who is taking a risk by being near an animal in a social situation.
   I am not making a big deal of it, but I have never heard anyone call people out on this whole gleeful suggestion that dogs make the final call on the state of people's hearts.  It is something that healthy people who aren't scared of having their feelings hurt by a dog take for granted, and it is something that no one understands until they have had social status so low that to be merely ignored by someone's dog can be the final proclamation of their guilt and worthlessness.