This is not advice about pet care. This is about relationship advice you can get from a pet.

Have you ever asked a dog what time it is? When I ask a dog what time it is I always get the same answer –– “Now!” And I usually get a bemused look, like “Why would you even need to ask that question?” or “This is a rhetorical question, right?”

It seems there is no past or future of importance to a dog. The only questions in a dog’s life are, “What is happening now?” or “What are we going to do now?” (Or, is it time to eat?) From a dog’s perspective to ask what time it is is just a waste of time, “Come on, let’s do something!”

While “now-is-all-there-is” is an often-ignored truism for humans (“Yeah right! So What?”) dogs understand intuitively that they live in the now all of the time.

That is why I love them. They are always ready to make themselves available to me. They don’t care about the past. They don’t hold a grudge. They aren’t worried about the future. They just want to do something, anything, now.

If I don’t have time, and they aren’t sniffing or chasing or staring at something, they will rest near me and wait for me to show up in their ever-present now. Dogs are always available to do . . . anything . . . 24/7 –– and it feels like love to me.

Dogs have “now” focus that I can’t begin to duplicate. Those few times I do remember to be available right “now”, 100%, to someone I love, they light up like it’s a holiday. I don’t have to do it often to create a lot of love. But if I don’t do it at all I am cheating myself; and I am cheating them.

Woof!