“Canine Columnist”: Please Don’t Say That People Are “Acting Like Dogs” When They Misbehave

By Santino Corleone Berkwitt

Bella and I often discuss her experiences on the streets of Muskogee before she came to live with Mom and Dad. She told me about a time that two dogs, a Chihuahua and a Shih Tzu, were arguing over scraps. The Chihuahua was being bossy and territorial, but there was a reason. She was hungry and afraid. She did not normally act like this but being in a desperate situation lead her to believe that she didn’t have any other options. Eventually, a Schnauzer barked some sense into the two of them and they shared the scraps. They realized that cooperation was the key to their collective survival. They all grew to be good friends.

Now that we are living with people, we hear much more about the way they interact with one another. We see people fight about the color of their smooth fur or feeling that other people are attacking their rights or intruding on their space. There are reports of people attacking one another because they have a different viewpoint or political ideology than a neighbor. There are countless news reports of people threatening, hitting, biting, or spitting on others in order to vent their frustration.

As a pup, I was always told that people are the more intelligent species. They are smart enough to build houses with inside plumbing and electricity. They have developed the means to cook or heat food within a few minutes, all from the comforts of their homes. They have developed technology that enables them to talk with people who are thousands of miles away from their homes, seeing one another as they talk. They can share their words and thoughts on something that they call the internet and other people who may not even speak the same language that they do can understand what they are saying because they have the technology to translate their words into other languages. They can even send other people and equipment to the moon. With all the knowledge and advancements that humans have made, why haven’t they learned to live together in peace and harmony?

Don’t get me wrong, I am in no way excusing the behavior of the two dogs that Bella observed fighting. The one difference that I see is that the dogs were fighting for survival, while humans are fighting for dominance over one another. When we are cared for and are shown love, in most instances, we reciprocate. Humans aren’t always like this.

So when I read stories of people who attack others for being asked to wear a mask or people who refer to other people with racial slurs because they exercise their constitutional rights, I am resentful when I hear them say that the other is “acting like a dog”. Dogs don’t hate one another because of the color of their fur, neither do dogs purposely spit on one another because they’re asked to wear a mask. Please don’t insult us by calling other people dogs. Dogs would never do the things that people do to one another. People need to do better.

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