Today I’m turning my blog over to Dino Dogan, the titular Unmarried Dog Trainer.

I first met Dino on Twitter a few months ago, when he started retweeting my tweets so often that I couldn’t fail to pay attention to him.  He then wrote a post on seven bloggers he admired, and included yours truly, which naturally led me to read his blog.

So I knew Dino knew his social media stuff (a.k.a. had chutzpah), and was smart, funny, quirky, and loved dogs. I didn’t know he was a Sensitive Guy.

Now I do. And so will you.

Update: The audio version of this post is now available over at my pal Roxanne’s blog, Champion of My Heart — with a lot more musings about the approachability that dogs convey, as well about love and marriage and a new book. Check it out. If you doubt that audio would add much to the experience, you’d be wrong. I got a distinctly different impression of Dino from the “voice” of the text versus the physical voice. Do you agree?

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Why Girls With Dogs Make Better Wives

I’ve read somewhere that there was this ginormous study done on thousands of married couples asking them one simple question.

What is the most important quality that you love and appreciate in your partner?

Do you want to take a guess which quality came out on top?

I’ll tell you later, but for now, let me make my case for girls with dogs.

Humans go through significant hormonal changes throughout their life. Think puberty on one end of the scale and ordinary, subtle yet powerful chemical reactions that we barely notice on the other end of that same scale.

Perhaps the most powerful hormonal change is during the pregnancy and after the birth of the child.

Sure. Everyone knows that women go through significant, seismic hormonal changes during pregnancy.

But so do men.

Males will see a significant decrease in their production of testosterone after the birth of the child.

This is the Evolution’s attempt at making sure the male of the species sticks around (and doesn’t “roam”) and ensure that the female and the offspring are protected and cared for.

While saliva and blood test were used to confirm this theory, we don’t need any fancy test to see it in action

Observe any human –male or female- interact with a child.

The interaction usually begins with “awh….so cute…whosh a goot bay-bee”.

Our brain releases a chemical that makes us “melt” to ensure our young survives into adulthood.

If there wasn’t for this “love, care and compassion” chemical, we might end up eating our own young like the finches do.

What’s really interesting is that tests show that the same chemical is released when humans interact with dogs.

This is not surprising to me.

Humans have “grown up” (as a species) with dogs and we share many characteristics.

Side note: Dogs and humans have coexisted for over 200 thousand years. (Not 10-15 thousand years as previously thought). Coincidentally, homo sapiens is approximately 200 thousand years old. (tho some studies show we might be even older). In either case, it’s likely that early dogs have walked along side homo erectus.

Let’s just say we have a history together.

Observe any human –male or female- interact with a dog (especially a puppy).

The interaction usually begins with “awh…so cute…whosh a goot bay-bee” or in this case “dawg-gee”.

Why?

Both puppies and babies cause the same chemical release in our brains that makes us want to protect and care for them. Tricky little buggers, aren’t they?

Back to the massive study done on couples.

What is the most important quality that we humans love and appreciate in our partners?

The answer that beat all others by a long shot?

Kindness.

It’s obvious that we humans tend to anthropomorphize (assign “human” characteristics) to everything. Hell, we even assign “human” emotions to inanimate objects and weather events. “Moody” clouds comes to mind.

Besides, how many times have you heard a human say this when referring to her/his dog?

“Oh…that’s my baby”.

My point here is that humans tend to relate to dogs the same way they relate to other humans.

So. We may not know this. We may not be able to see it because we all tend to be little emotionally screwed up. But the best quality you might find in your partner (if you are lucky) is kindness. And who has kindness in spades?

Why girls who own dogs of course.

Dogs will test your patience. They will test the depth of your kindness for sure.

Imagine having a big toothed four-legged baby who poops all over the place and expects YOU to pick it up.

Yup…dogs will test your kindness.

I find that any furry animal, especially the human male, requires kindness.

Wives ought to be forgiving, understanding, patient, kind, and caring.

Wives MUST be forgiving, understanding, patient, kind, and caring because the husband-animal is as likely to have as much sense as the big toothed four-legged baby who poops all over the place and expects YOU to pick it up.

Without kindness, the marriage is likely to fail.

And who’s got kindness in spades?

Why girls who own dogs, of course.

Bio: Dino is a blogger, writer, motorcyclist, dog trainer, singer/songwriter, Martial Artist. He is currently working on Human-Dog Problem Tree; a thesis in human-dog relationship. You can find Dino on Twitter http://twitter.com/dino_dogan or visit him at his DogandDog blog.

29 thoughts on “Why Girls Who Own Dogs Make Better Wives: Marriage Advice From an Unmarried Dog Trainer”

  1. thnx for having me Edie….I had fun writing this article. I loved your preamble into the post…very cool…thnx 🙂

    1. Hey Pup Fan, I try to comment on your Dogs in Space post but couldn’t manage it — this has happened before on other Blogger blogs; it’s not you, it’s me — so here’s the comment I was going to put there:

      Fun post! And though it has (just a little) sad stuff about Laika, here’s a post I did a while back about dogs in space that has a (very fun) video of Frankie in space:
      https://willmydoghateme.com/dog-travel/dogs-in-space

  2. That was fun….Here’s another angle. You know what? I don’t need no stinkin’ dating service to pick out the right guy for me (not that I need one, I’ve been married for umpteen years). My dating service, if I needed one, would have four furry legs, wet eyes, and a happy tail. Is my prospect a dog magnet? Do the dogs I know and love gravitate to him like iron filings to the poles of a magnet? Does he reciprocate the dog’s affections? The dog’s nose knows 🙂 BTW dogs LOVE Ira.

  3. On the other side of the marriage divide–sometimes my husband appears to be jealous of the dog. Maybe the kindness sucks them in but….

  4. Dino, how do you characterize a man who won’t allow a 25-lb dog on the bed? I’m not talking about during passion, and I’m not talking about his side of the bed. I’ve found myself having to sneak Archie onto the bed while the man is passed out snoring. I hasten to say that I’m not involved now, so this question is purely theoretical and won’t harm any current relationship.

    1. Hi Clare….its hard to answer that question without actually seeing it happen in front of me, and even then, all I can do is take a best guess. But…I think it all comes down to intention. WHY does he not allow dog on the bed?

      btw…my dog doesnt go on furniture either. Its purely practical, he sheds …A LOT…so its best if he says his ass on the floor lol

      I dont know if that helps, but thats best I can do right now :=-)

  5. Great post, Dino! I was one of those women who had no interest in holding babies… then my husband agreed to dogs and I have a whole new appreciation for HUMAN babies! WHO KNEW?! I don’t know what that is about… but I know I’m a kick ass wife so it probably has something to do with the dogs 😉

    Enjoyed this 🙂

  6. Aww. I just love this post — go, Dino! And in fact, one of the main reasons I decided my husband would probably be a good husband was that he was kind to his mom, and kind to his two cats. And yep, I was right!

    1. Hey Mary-Alice ..Im so glad you liked it 🙂 I love your blog…I found it a while back then lost it…now I found it again thnx to this comment so Im very happy you decided to “say something” 🙂

      Your blog is very unique and I think it ads so much flavor to the dog-blog world ….so thnx 🙂

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