How Having a Dog Will Make You Better at Dating
Single? Adopting a furry best friend could actually help your love life. (Photo: Getty Images)
Anyone who’s ever walked a dog through a park knows that dogs are man’s best wingman as well as his best friend. But while it may shock some men to hear this, owning a dog actually makes you a better-suited partner for any relationship. If you’ve been told a hundred times you’re a terrible boyfriend, maybe it is time to invest not only in yourself, but in a furry friend who will teach you how to care for something other than yourself.
It may sound insane, but having something incredibly cute force you to get up every morning so you can watch it poop will teach you of a humility you didn’t know you possessed. After you’ve had an extremely hard day at the office, a dog can teach you that they’ll love you no matter how much your boss yelled at you; and especially, it will teach you about leaving your work at work.
Whatever your situation may be, owning a dog teaches you an enormous amount about yourself. You’ll learn what you like and what you don’t like, and it will give you a sense of overwhelming responsibility that anyone who has been in a serious relationship will understand. Take my dating advice: Get a dog. It won’t be easy, and it won’t always be fun, but it’ll be worthwhile. Just like any relationship worth having.
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You Become More Patient
Puppies are difficult and anyone who has ever tried to housebreak one understands. Not only do you constantly need to be aware of what your puppy is doing, you need to be able to keep a level head during a crisis. Whether they’re having an accident on your new carpet or chewing your shoes, your patience will be tested. This will make you better in relationships, though, because anyone who has ever been in one knows that your significant other will test your buttons in ways you didn’t even know existed.
You Learn To Be Flexible
Although puppies need a schedule, you’re going to need to learn to let go if you want to stay sane. You’re going to need to be able to adjust your day in order to be an effective puppy parent. Similarly, when you’re dating you’re going to need to be able to break your schedule for another person. It may be something as simple as being flexible on what you watch on Netflix for the night or it could be as big as being flexible about which city you both move to. Either way, having a puppy will teach you that the world won’t end for not following your strict schedules.
Related: How Can I Convince Her To Let Me Get A Dog?
You Learn To Give Love
Small animals like a dog literally rely on you to survive. If you weren’t feeding them and walking them and holding them close at night they wouldn’t last. Much like a relationship you’ll learn to treat something carefully and with the type of attention something needs to thrive. You may not always have fun loving your puppy, but it will teach you that like relationships, things aren’t always enjoyable but you do it anyways because that is what love does to people.
You Learn To Receive Unselfish Love
There is something to say about the love from a puppy. They don’t care if your breath smells, or if you’ve been playing Fallout 4 the entire day. They solely love you for your warmth, your kindness, and especially your food. A puppy can help even the most stoney of men that they’re worth love and that they don’t need to give anything in exchange for it it other than themselves.
You Learn To Be Gentle
Puppies are like babies in the sense that you need to treat them like at any moment they can break. You need to help them navigate learning the world around them for the first time. Like in a relationship, you need to be gentle and especially kind when dealing with any sort of issue. Being gentle and kind to a puppy will teach you the type of sentimentality and softness that will make you a great person to date.
You Learn About Yourself
Ultimately, owning a dog is one of the best tools a smart man can use in his self-discovery. You will learn your likes, your dislikes, and most of all by parenting something else in your image you’ll learn your strengths and weaknesses. When you raise something from a baby to an adult, you begin to know how your existence can help something else thrive.
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By Shawn Binder
This story originally appeared on AskMen.
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