20 dogs sitting in a row with their leashes on the ground next to them

one paragraph on a perfect thing

I just wanted to tell you all that in various parks in Mexico City you can find lines of dogs sitting next to each other with their leashes on the ground next to them. This is a form of doggy daycare/school. The people who train and care for these dogs are as skilled at this as anyone is skilled at anything. What you see in this picture is not a moment. This goes on and on for hours and hours. Sometimes, one dog will start to get up and mostly the dog whisperer just sort of lifts their chin in that dog’s direction, shoots them a look, and the dog sits back down. I have spent lots of time observing, and I can tell you, it rarely goes beyond that. When it does, they calmly walk over and wordlessly lift the dog’s leash and it sits back down. Once, I saw a dog run off and expected the person to run after it, but he did not. Three or four other dogs got up and went and got the run away and brought it back. Then they all sat back down(!). I felt like I had just witnessed a miracle, but the person barely reacted. In Mexico, people have higher expectations of dogs. I think in the US, we set the dog bar too low and they trip over it. The order of best things in life is: love, art, food, sex, dogs, nature. OK bye.