Never play hide and seek with your dog

I’m not a cat person or a dog person. I think they’re cute when you see them on social media chasing balls and doing other cute things but, to me, up close is a different matter. And I think for good reason. In my opinion, animals can never replace human interaction despite what dog and cat owners say. Yes dogs and cats have feelings but they do not have that cognitive ability that humans have in order to be able to interact with us. Dogs can’t respond in the way you need them to and I am positive your loneliness won’t go away just because you have a dog or cat.

But that being said, there’s no harm in having a canine or feline as a pet as long as you know where the boundaries should be with respect to interacting with them. Remember, they are animals who lick anything and walk around outside bear-pawed. They then come into your house, climb on top of kitchen counters, your bed and your baby’s cot. They even lick your faces, especially the mouth area, and even that of the baby’s mouth. What germs and worms that flourish in a dog’s saliva are being passed on to you or your new-born baby whose immunity is absolutely zero? There are so many videos on Instagram and Facebook where a newborn is brought home to be introduced to his or her new ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ and these are in inverted commas because dogs and cats are not your offspring or the child’s brother or sister.

With all this said, I must address the safety aspect of having dogs in the house. Yes they can make great guard dogs and scare away would-be burglars with their loud barking but there should be limits to how much they are involved with the family. Just 5 days ago in England, a couple decided to play hide and seek with their two small children but in their infinite wisdom they also decided to include the dog. Now we all know, being humans with a thinking capacity, that hide and seek is a harmless game of looking for someone who is hiding. Do you think a dog would understand that it’s just a game? Well, what happened next will clearly tell every dog owner that having a dog in the house is all well and good but it’s important to keep a certain distance from them and learn how to handle them. That dog thought he was under threat when the family began jumping out and shouting, ‘gotcha!’ Obviously the dog didn’t understand that it was a game so its defence mechanism kicked in and it attacked the wife. When the husband tried to save her, the dog then attacked him.

When he managed to prise himself away from the dog, the canine then attacked the children. There was loud screaming coming from the house, which the neighbours heard and so called the police. The dog was taken away to be humanely put down and two members of the family ended up in hospital with severe injuries.

It is unclear what the breed of the dog was but I suspect that it was either a pit-bull or Rottweiler, both renowned for their aggression. Now this isn’t the first time a dog has turned on its owner. Back in the 1980s in England, there was a whole spate of reports of seemingly docile dogs suddenly attacking their owner for no apparent reason. Dog and owner would be sitting by the heater toasting themselves in the evening and suddenly the dog turned. In some cultures, dogs are never brought into the house. They are considered unclean because of where they might have been and their unclean habits. Dogs were usually kept outside the house in a doghouse which was situated in the back garden away from people. Every cartoon shows the dog living outside in a doghouse because that’s how it was. When they suddenly became a member of the family, I don’t know, and why, I fail to understand. I especially don’t understand the trend of showing dogs licking babies and vice versa. It’s not only unhygienic but dangerous too.