In this week's A Man About A Dog column, Peter Singh explains why our four legged friends have a lot to teach us.

The world at the moment seems to be filled with much negative energy. War, fighting, killing, anger, greed, stress, I could go on and on.

Many individuals are also suffering from some form of mental illness, mainly depression. In 2010/11 alone, 43.4 million prescriptions were given to people for antidepressants in the UK.

With all these negative things happening, many people search for a new meaning to life. Many people read different self help books to try to find out how they can improve their outlook on life and how to live in the moment and stop worrying.

With this in mind, most of the people who are suffering from some form of depression or are searching for the meaning of life are ignoring the greatest teachers on earth. Dogs!

Dogs have so many valuable lessons to teach humans. But to learn from dogs we need to stop and heed these teachings they have to share with us. Rather than humans taking dogs to training, in reality they should be training us.

Dogs don’t have egos, most of us do.

Dogs are forgiving, most of us are not.

Dogs live in the moment, most of us don’t.

Dogs live calm lives, most of us don’t.

Ego is the worst offender in human beings. Ego makes you believe you are right. If you are right, then someone has to be wrong. Because we feel we are in the right, it then makes us not want to forgive. Because of that it stops us living in the moment, and we then spend most of our time worrying about the situation or talking to other people about it, or worse still, acting on our grievance, which is as far away from calm as you can get!

Hopefully by now you are beginning to agree that dogs should be showing us the way, rather than the other way around. If we start to follow the teachings our dogs have for us, we will all be more balanced human beings, rather than the social chaos we witness in many situations.

I work with aggressive dogs mostly. That is the number one reason most clients ask me to visit their homes. Interestingly you will find that no other life form in the universe knows negativity, only humans.

The only animals that will show anything close to negativity are those living in close contact with humans, i.e. Dogs!

Humans pass on their insecure emotions and negativity to their dogs, which is then where you begin to see problems with our four legged friends. If dogs were left alone, there wouldn’t be any unbalanced dogs.

When I work with my clients who have aggressive dogs, I know that I have to help the human, before I can help the dog. Once the human starts showing calm, balanced behaviour, along with meeting the dogs needs, the problems then dissolve.

So a dog never displays negative behaviour of their own accord. It is always because of something humankind did to them.

Once I teach my clients how to eradicate the negativity in their lives and to live more towards the dogs network of teachings, i.e. no ego, forgiveness, living in the moment, and being calm, magic happens. All because they have simply learnt what their dog was trying to teach them all along.

What astonishes me is that the UK’s rescue centres are absolutely full to the brim of these wonderful four legged teachers, all waiting to teach you valuable lessons of life. Go and rescue one and connect with your new dog in the way nature intended. I sincerely promise you that it will be the most rewarding thing you have ever done in your life.

This was how I was taught. My teacher has big brown eyes and two big ears that stick up. He is covered in beige and black fur and is a German shepherd by the name of Billy.

He is my Guardian Angel and there are many for you to choose from in all of the UK’s rescue centres. Who needs counsellors, therapists or doctors when you have your dog by your side?

Next week I will write about how to start your relationship with your new rescue dog.

Peter is a Dog Behaviourist based in Farnborough. He applies calm to the lives of dogs and dog owners in the UK and Spain. He also writes for English and Spanish newspapers, as well as working on TKO FM radio in Spain.

For more information, visit thedogyouneed.com or email peter@thedogyouneed.com