If there’s one thing I’m super good at, no wait, super duper great at, it’s cheering up my friend. I do have a lot of jobs around the home, like vacuuming food spills, barking at things that shouldn’t be there, and otherwise keeping things fairly disorganized just to make things interesting, but my most important job perhaps is just being around when my friend needs a hug.
So I look for the important signs that she needs a hug or something. Usually if I do a thing and my friend watches me, she’ll feel better, as long as it’s not using the rug for a toilet again. Probably the most common thing someone will do when they need a hug is call you. Pretty simple, and a good tailwag and a wetnose will suffice. But that’s easily taken care of because it’s easy to detect. It’s those curve balls that can sneak past you.
Then there’s the one where your pal is just frustrated with all the things. This takes special care and you gotta be quick to cheer them up because if you start getting in the way, you might be the one they’re frustrated with. In my case, usually if she’s huffing around and sort of acting like me when I can’t find the ball, be quick to help them find the thing. I know that whenever I find what I’m looking for, I always feel better. I just start bringing her stuff until whatever it was gets found or forgotten.
Now if you don’t really know what to do, but you suspect something is up, and being a dog you’re probably pretty good at this sort of thing, doing something is better than nothing. If you find yourself stuck in this type of situation, the dance is probably the best cheer’em up move you can do in just about any situation. My dance is probably different than yours, but it’s special to your friend. I’ve never not gotten a big grin when I do this, so if it works for me, I bet it’ll work for you.
But perhaps the most urgent of all emergencies is the crying and pouting which is a definite sign I got to do something right now. Whenever I see this even begin to start, I know my friend needs a hug. And I’m quick to do so. Frankly, I’m confident my hugs are the best too, because they always do the trick.
The conclusion of the matter is that when your friend needs a hug or a furry head to pet, you’ve got what it takes to cheer them right back up. And I don’t know about you pups out there, but simply putting a smile on my friend’s face is as good as my favorite treat.
