treat my dog like a son. Is this wrong?

2 years ago
7

I treat my dog like a son. Is this wrong?
Starting the text with the answer, no, it is not wrong to treat your dog like a son. But it depends. Let's go to the justification: as long as you treat your dog like a son, to be independent, safe, confident, able to demonstrate natural behaviors, knowledgeable about social rules, while being loving, caring, friendly and companionable, that's fine.
In most cases, parents raise children to become socially educated, safe when alone, and confident in solving adverse situations. Is this what you do with your dog? If so, perfect!
On the other hand, if you treat your dog like a spoiled, dependent, insecure, authoritarian child, yes, it is a problem both for the dog and for those who live with him.
Common sense gives this relationship the name of 'humanization'. It is understood that to humanize animals is to treat them as if they were people, giving them human desires and aspirations. Certainly, projecting onto another species feelings inherent to ours does not bring positive effects to both.
The "humanization" of dogs has a one way street in which the human is always benefited and the dog, in the medium and long term, almost never. However, the correct word to describe this behavior should not be any related to 'humans', since the attitudes attributed to humanization have nothing to do with the relationship between healthy people.
Wouldn't it be strange for a person to give lunch in the mouth of another healthy adult person just because he believes that the latter is incapable? Furthermore, would it be sustainable not to leave the house because an adult child will not be left alone and, if this happens, screams and cries to the point that the landlord intervenes?
That's right. We don't treat healthy humans in this cartoonish way. But you can see people doing this to dogs. This is why I believe that the correct word should not be 'humanization' of dogs, because we don't treat healthy humans this way.
How about we give our canine friends the respectful treatment, giving them the possibility to express their natural behaviors, just like we like to, too? No more, no less: exactly friendly, loved, sociable, healthy dogs that are part of our family. Think about this and live happily with your dog!

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