Look over at your furry little friend. Is he wagging his tail just because you looked at him? I thought so. Dogs are so simple. They are so happy and they love their owners so much. They are just so much better at life than we are. Why can’t we be like them? We are supposed to be their superior. The alpha. But right now I feel like my dog has life figured out way better than I do. And I’m 23. I should have some stuff together, right? Here are 5 reasons why I think my dog is better at life than I am.

1. He’s happy. Like all the time.

I mean all the time. People have all these issues. Like depression, moodiness, anger, etc. Dogs don’t have any of that. They have one emotion: happy. And they show it all the time. I wish I could be that happy. It takes one sad movie for my night to be completely ruined.

2. He doesn’t hold grudges.

Let me make something known: my dog is about 8 pounds. He’s very small. He gets under my feet and sometimes I step on him. Not on purpose, I swear, and I feel just as bad each time I accidentally put my foot on his teeny tiny paw. Does he care? Not even in the slightest. He lets out a small whimper when it happens, but when I show him attention, he immediately forgets about it and we’re cool again. When a friend makes a rude comment about my outfit, I’m mad about it for days.

3. He makes friends with everyone.

When I take him to the dog park, it’s like insta-friend central. He goes up to each and every dog and they immediately start playing. I mean, what is that?! I can barely come across as cool and collected to my actual friends, let alone go up to a complete stranger and strike up a conversation.

4. He doesn’t sweat the small stuff.

My dog had a splinter in his paw. I called my vet immediately because I didn’t know what to do. I was freaking out. What was my dog doing? Playing with his toy. The vet said that this is incredibly painful for dogs. Like really bad. But did he show it? Nope. He went about his business without even so much as letting out a whimper. Only when I touched his paw would he let out a small whine. That’s it. I’ll stub my toe and I’ll cry so hard, you’d think I cut off my whole foot.

5. He doesn’t care how long I’ve been gone.

Whether I’ve been on a vacation for a week or I just went out to the store for a jar of peanut butter, my dog is the same amount of happy whenever I come back. It’s like I made his whole day just by walking through the door. I don’t know about you, but I don’t treat anybody like that. I see my sister and I’m like, “Yo.” That’s about the extent of me being happy to see someone. I guess I’m more of a cat in that sense. I don’t really show emotion like my dog does. Maybe I should take a page from his book to be a little bit better at life.

About the author: Carly is a blogger for Smith Monitoring, a provider of Houston home security systems. She loves dogs and will make it show anyone and everyone a picture of her pup.