Networking or Bonding?

Three of my pals (Sebastian, Miles and Lacy) came over the other day. We are all pumped up because it’s time to go play with all our other four-legged friends in the neighborhood. It’s a dog-day party. Think of it as a private doggie daycare event held in a big field behind our neighborhood homes. The humans fence off the area with this flimsy wire that we pretend will hold us in the area and let us run loose for a few hours. It’s great fun.

The humans sit around, sip on wine, laugh and tell stories. My pals and I go crazy. We fetch, jump in a mini plastic pool, tug on toys, and smell stuff. When we get too tired, we rest, drink water and then start all over. It’s the life of riley (even if your name is spot.) We like it even more than traditional doggie daycare (see video below) because we all know each other and it’s outside.



After four hours of this zaniness we all go home. After our most recent doggie day out party, Mom and her friend Cindy were talking about how much they enjoyed the evening except for one thing they found frustrating. It turns out that one neighbor brought a guest to the get-together who couldn’t stop ‘working’ the crowd. Jet, my foster mom, says he was networking instead of bonding. I was a bit confused by the terms so she provided details for me.

Jet said that some humans get fixated (word of the day) with mingling with other humans for the sole purpose of doing business with them or getting customer leads from them. Why is that so bad? Jet says that ‘work’ is in the word network for a reason. Networking is a form of socially being on the job, talking shop (company stuff) to build business. Bonding is socially interacting through storytelling and personal sharing to build relationships.

So, here’s my lesson of the day… People should know, just like a dog, that there is a time to bond (play, visit) and a time to work (network). Both are essential, like a well-balanced diet, to live fully and happily.

Okay, here’s the question of the day from Rex who asked: Is the remote box my dad is always clinging to the same as remote monitoring me?

Rex:
Human men are not much different from human baby boys. They cling to a pacifier when they are young; they cling to TV remotes when they’re older. (Okay, that’s supposed to be funny but if you don’t understand humans you may not get it.) To answer your question, there are services your humans can install in their cell phones in order to watch you at home when they are at work. That’s remote monitoring. It’s a great idea for humans that are anxious about leaving you alone all day because they miss you or because they are afraid you might eat the couch.

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