Category Archives for "Featured Questions"

0 Am I good enough for my crush?

Cookie Vidal asks: What should I do if my friends always make fun of me because I have a huge crush on this guy I met at camp over the summer? Also they always call me fat and say that I have a longa (which is Spanish for huge stomach), and it hurts but I still take it as a joke. At the same time I don’t want to leave them, because if I leave one they’ll all go following her. I want to know how to tell them to stop making fun of me just because this guy pops up in my head everyday! I want to just move on (Oh, I forgot to mention that he is extremely HOT!).

Hi Cookie Vidal –

The issue of friends making fun of a friend is a tough one to comment on, because I don’t know a lot about it.  Is the group being really mean and insensitive, ganging up on one like a wild dog pack attacking an injured member?  Or is the person just highly sensitive, and not good at joking in the way they like to joke?  I’ve dealt with both in previous questions, so I’m going to send you both my Continue reading

2 How to build confidence after almost failing an exam

teejay 96 asks: Lately I’ve been feeling really down. I barely passed this important exam I took a few months back. I’m supposed to be preparing for the next exam in line, but I’m so demoralized. I tried so hard for the last exam and thought I would pass really well. But, that didn’t happen. I’ve lost interest in reading and I really don’t know what to do. Nobody understands and they all think I’m fine. HELP!

Hi teejay 96 –

This is a really fascinating situation!  I have to confess, we dogs have the exact opposite point of view.  If I walk outdoors and a squirrel is standing by me and I grab it, I don’t feel any particular pride.  But if I see a squirrel a hundred feet away, and I run after it and it runs fast and turns tight corners that I have to try really hard to take, and it runs up a tree and I leap and just barely grab it by the tail, and it falls off the tree but is able to run away from me and I chase it and just barely grab it before it gets under the fence…  I feel great!  That’s the most exciting part of my day, and I feel more confident of my abilities as a hunter than I did before.

You, on the other hand, seem to have been discouraged by having not passed that exam more easily.

And what’s worse, instead of the exam being so hard making you study harder for the next one, you’ve lost the spark that made you a Continue reading

0 How to get someone to trust you after you’ve lied to them

Destined962013 asks: Me and my boyfriend have been together for over seven months now. About four months ago, I lied to him about something very serious. I really had no reason to lie to him in the first place, but I did. The problem is that, since then, I have been completely truthful about everything, but he doesn’t believe me. I was wondering if you know any way for me to show him that I really am not lying to him now.

Hi Destined962013 –

Quick answer:  No.  There is no way to prove you’re not a liar.  There’s a rule in logic that says “One cannot prove a negative.”  What it means is, it’s impossible to prove that something is not the case.  You can only prove that something is the case.

For example, let’s say you go home, and you see that your cat was bitten by someone this morning.  Can I prove that I wasn’t the one who Continue reading

0 How old should one be before getting a dog?

danny asks: What is the appropriate age for keeping a dog?

Hi danny –

I assume you’re asking about the right age for a human to be, if they’re going to adopt a dog.  If I’m wrong, and you mean to ask what is the right age for a dog to be adopted, please get back to me on that.

I don’t think there’s an appropriate age for getting a dog.  What matters is the appropriate Continue reading

0 How to get your husband to defend you to his parents

Rushme asks: I have been married for two years. My husband works 200 kilometers away, and comes back here every weekend. We love each other very much. But his father doesn’t want me to move to where he works (in hopes that his son will move back here), and he is obedient to his father and so keeps me here. I’m very lonely, especially as my mother-in-law won’t converse with me (though my father-in-law is more normal). I want to stay with my HUSBAND, but this loneliness makes me sometimes want to leave all of them. What can I do?

Hi Rushme –

Every dog understands what it’s like to be absolutely crazy about a human who has to be away all the time for work.  I go through what you’re feeling every day, when Handsome leaves (and since dogs experience time as seven-times-human-time, a day for me is pretty equivalent to a week for you!).

For us dogs, there’s really nothing we can do to change this, though we try to get our humans to stay home by opening our eyes really widely and cocking our head and whining, so they feel as guilty as possible when they go!

But humans should have more Continue reading

0 Where is Shirelle from?

ananya asks: Where are you from?

Hi ananya –

I don’t remember much about the first few months of my life.  I was born as part of a litter, and wandered about with my mother and brothers and sisters, till one day I was picked up by a dog catcher and taken to a pound.  I spent about a week there, before a stranger bought me and took me to his home.  That home was the first place I ever began to develop a sense of “being from” somewhere.

As you probably know, that stranger was a man who kept me around, fed me, sheltered me, taught me a number of rules, and – most importantly to me – has Continue reading

0 What to do when you feel everyone hates you

bella asks: I hate my life! Everyone around me hates me! I don’t know how to respond to some questions, and so sometimes I answer in a rude way, even though I don’t mean to be rude.

Hi bella –

I know how you feel.

We dogs never hate our lives (even when we’re locked in cages, treated horribly, hurt, etc., we just love being alive; it’s part of being a dog), but I’ve seen so many humans who feel just the way you’re describing.  It’s really sad and unfair.  I’m sorry you feel that way.

I also know what it’s like to feel like everyone hates me, and that is based on experience.  Have you ever been put in a Continue reading

1 How to stop oneself playing computer games at bedtime.

Chicken asks: In the past few weeks I’ve been staying up late on my iPad and playing games when I’m supposed to sleep. I try to sleep but I can’t. I’ve been tired in the day, and if I tell my parents I will get in trouble. I can’t stop staying up late on my iPad. Please help!

Hi Chicken –

Okay, let’s start with the obvious here: the iPad is fun!  Of course you like staying up playing with it.  Also, computer games can get pretty addictive, and while you’re trying to master one, it’s awfully easy to lose track of time and suddenly find that hours have gone by.

Because of this, you are experiencing what some call a “teachable Continue reading

0 Is it a good idea to change your surname?

amber asks: I’m thinking about changing my surname to that of my mom’s side of the family, and wondering how my dad would feel about this. I want to change it because my current surname means nothing to me. My dad never spends time with me or ever rings. We have some contact, but last Christmas he made up an excuse so he wouldn’t have to visit (he only lives about an hour away from me). I just don’t understand why he doesn’t like spending time with me. Last time we actually spent time with each other was when I was six and now I’m fourteen. Last time he was down to visit it felt like I was talking to a stranger. It’s like I don’t know who he is. What should I do?

Hi amber –

There are two aspects to your question, and both are… well, huge!

First, you’re wondering about your father, and why he’s been so distant.  Oh my friend, I wish I were psychic and could tell you what’s going on in his mind, but, smart a pup as I am, I simply don’t know.  Maybe he just doesn’t know how to deal with you (perhaps because he feels guilty about not Continue reading

2 How to get your parents to treat you more fairly

jessanna11 asks: I’m 12 years old turning 13 in a few weeks . Everyone at school has the latest technology, whereas I don’t. I don’t want to sound like a spoilt brat because I’m not, but I just wish they weren’t so stubborn. I have a Nokia phone made in 1999, and it’s really embarrassing because my friends all have iPhone 5s. I begged and begged mum for an iPhone for my birthday (I have never gotten a present before – I just get money, except once I got my cat). I ask why I can’t have one and she says, “to teach you the value of money, so you know that nothing’s going to be handed to you in life.” Money is not the issue, but it just seems so unfair that I’m being brought up this way while other kids get luxuries. I am the eldest in the family, and I feel like my parents are tougher on me; I do have a laptop and iPod touch, but I bought those two things myself from doing work like cleaning, and saved up birthday money. Meanwhile my 7-year-old twin sisters have laptops, and my nine-year-old sister has a Android smartphone and laptop that my parents paid for. I didn’t get treated that way when I was young, so why do they? I’m a perfectly well-behaved child, I do soccer, I’m in the Navy cadets where we learn discipline, I am in extension classes at school for History, English, Maths and Science, and I work after school every night for two hours (earning about $8 every afternoon; I haven’t actually being paid yet but I’m to scared to ask). So how can I convince my stubborn parents to give me something for once in my life, other than the necessities, instead of just trying to teach me a lesson?

Hi jessanna11 –

I feel for you, but I think you’re asking the wrong question.  The issue here isn’t why you’re not getting a top-of-the-line phone, which is a super luxury, especially for someone your age.  Rather, it’s why you’re being treated unfairly, compared to the other kids at school, and even your own siblings.

I’m saying this to clarify the situation.  If your family was deeply impoverished, the idea of you getting a smartphone wouldn’t even come into anyone’s mind, but you’d care a lot about Continue reading