Dog Refuses To Leave Its Best Friend Behind

Do dogs really need to speak our language to tell us what they're thinking and feeling? Not always. Here's a case where this owner's best friend is making it clear in no uncertain terms that the other dog is her best friend.Show more

Here is an example of video work that successfully elicits our empathy, causing us to feel what the dog is feeling. Sometimes there are many ways of interpreting a situation, but often with right amount of context we can figure out what's really going on. The two dogs, separated by a metal gate, seem to be friends, maybe even besties.

The emotion is unequivocal: I'm not leaving him behind. The domestic dog's taxonomic name is canis fidelis, or "faithful dog", and nothing could justify that taxonomic appellation more than the faithfulness our little girl here has to her four legged colleague.

This is a moving video, and it's likely the person who took the video recognized something out of the ordinary was happening. It's not unusual for dogs to act like dogs, of course, and everybody recognizes a dog’s behavior. But the act of being a friend transcends species and instinct. It's almost a universal quality that all living things possess, perhaps even going so far as to guess that we might find it in the plant kingdom.

So strong is a sense of fellowship that it would even stop a dog from obeying the commands of her master. It could be that the dog on our side of the fence knows her limits, knows her master's tolerance, and degree of give and take. Nobody's yanking her leash, so it's probably an unspoken agreement that there are just times when you have to draw a line in the Sand and tell your owner "no".

The dog behind the gate is ready to go for a walk.

“What gives?” he asks. “Open the darned gate and let’s go. I’m ready already!”

But there’s some reason why the guy with the tan dog won’t take his dog’s buddy. Maybe his owner has a previous engagement. It’s all so very sad. It looks like a ritual that’s been interrupted. Do dogs feel cognitive dissonance, that sensation that something is missing from the normal regimen? It sure looks that way. Maybe these two guys have been going on walks together for so long, they can’t understand why there is a break in the routine.

At last they stand up against the gate to give each other a farewell. The other dog looks eager, as if this is all a big misunderstanding, and a meeting is imminent. The tan dog is not so sure, and senses all is not going as it should be.

“Seriously? This isn’t really happening, is it?” she asks.

Unfortunately, things are looking all too serious, and we mourn with the poor girl.

Such a loyal companion would surely never leave us when we really need her most; not without the best of reasons, anyway. Don’t worry, old girl, you’ll live to love another day.