'The Patient Dog Eats the Fattest Bone'.

Do you believe that? The patient dog eats the fattest bone?

Most people have an opinion or two regarding this saying.

A friend I asked about this saying replied that indeed the patient dog eats the fattest bone, while the other early and quicker dogs have eaten the fattest meat!

Others insisted that the adage may have been true in the 1900's, 1800's and earlier, but in this century, day and age, the patient dog has no bone to eat at all.

Others say that the saying is never true. They hold on to this one that appears to contrast it, 'The early bird gets the worm'.

Before we move on, I'll ask, What is your opinion on either sayings? Let me assume that I'm your Professor in school and I ask you to Compare and Contrast these two sayings. Can you do that?

Seriously, give it a try. See what you can come up with.

OK. Time's up.

In analysing 'the patient dog' adage, the first thing you must do is to find how it originated.
If you find out in what context it was first used, then you can make an analysis based on the origin.

It turns out that the adage has been around for hundreds of years. It originated from ancient butchers in local abattoirs.

When these guys appear for work in the morning, they were almost certain of meeting lots of dogs waiting for them, and some others coming with them.

These dogs come to the slaughterhouse because they hope to get remnants of meats and bones as the butchers do their work and most times they do.

As time went on, the butchers noticed something rather remarkable.

When they begin slaughtering and dissecting an animal for its meat, bone particles start falling off and a lot of the dogs start picking them up and moving away with them to eat them.

However, some dogs seemed not to move a muscle. While other dogs kept scrambling for those 'early bones', these strange dogs just lay down as if they didn't care. As if they were waiting for something.

And it turned out that they were.

As an animal is being butchered, the bones that come out first are the thin and superficial bones.
Dogs that are impatient simply grab these and take off.

These other patient dogs wait till the butchering process had advanced. Till when the butchers had entered deep into the animal.
Why do they wait till this point?
Because that's when the fattest bones start coming out.

The fattest bones come out only when the butchering process reaches the late stages.
When these fat bones appear, then those dogs appear to come to life. They then easily grab these fat bones and walk away. It becomes easier for them to do so because all the other dogs have made off earlier on with the smaller and thinner bones.

That was the origin of the saying.

Fascinating, right?

JUDGING IN CONTEXT
You see, one challenge that most people encounter when using adages like 'the patient dog' adage, is that they are very likely to judge those sayings out of context.
The patient dog adage applies only in the cases that it fits.

BEING PATIENT
Let's take this analysis further one step.
Here's a simple question. What do you understand by being patient?

It's simple. The answer is, 'It depends on the context' .

Being patient in a particular situation may not mean the same thing as being patient in another situation.

Generally, patience involves having to wait or endure something.

Patience most times involves having to delay a treat or gratification available now, for a much larger one in the future.

HERE'S WHERE MOST PEOPLE MAKE THE MISTAKE
The mistake most people make in interpreting 'the patient dog' saying to their situations is that they erroneously think that it involves them just sitting down doing nothing 'patiently' waiting for what they desire to fall down on their laps.

The thing is this. If those desires are already on their way falling, then, of course, patience involves getting into position, sitting still and waiting for them to fall right into your laps.

Just like the dogs knew that all they needed to do to get the fattest bones was to simply wait for the butchers to get to the deeper parts of the animal, by all means, if what you desire will come to you by simply waiting for events to unfold, then that will suffice.

In most cases, however, that interpretation does not hold.

Unfortunately, that appears to be the only interpretation most guys give 'the patient dog' adage.

PATIENCE INVOLVES MORE THAN WAITING
In most cases, being patient involves more than just waiting and doing nothing.

Let's give an example. You've been working in a company for quite a while now, and you know that with your qualifications and experience and how much value you give to the company, you deserve a good raise.

If you sit down there waiting 'patiently' for your boss to realize that and give you the raise, you might wait forever.

In this case, patience involves planning on when and how to professionally inform your boss that you deserve a raise, and doing it at just the right time and using just the right words to maximize your chances of getting one.

Another example is this. Let's say you started a business or an enterprise. Of course, like all entrepreneurs, you expect your enterprise to be a million or even a billion dollar enterprise.
If you sit down and do not find out and actually implement the steps in expanding your company, then 'the patient dog' adage won't workout for you.

IT ALL BOILS DOWN TO THIS
With the information you now have. Make analysis of whatever situation presents itself. Try to apply this saying to your case making sure that everything fits.

ACTION is the name of the game. Without action, nothing gets done.

Even if for example, you're being patient with an annoying or alcoholic spouse, you can't just sit down there and wait for things to get better.

Without deliberate action, nothing gets better.
You have to engage in dialogue. You have to convince your spouse to come with you to see a therapist, etc. You have to give him/her time to see if there would be any improvement, while still patiently engaging in dialogue and therapy.
What if the spouse is uncooperative?

Then no matter how patient you get, you're not likely to get any positive results. In which case, you're not being patient, you're simply suffering.

Now, to contrast the two adages we gave while we started above (the patient dog adage and the early bird adage), they are not actually opposite sayings as most guys will like to argue.

You can be early and patient; you can be late and impatient; you can be early and impatient; you can be late and patient.

Know the difference and act accordingly.

Hope you've learned a thing or two?

Cheers.

Source: http://toochukwuleonard..is/2015/11/the-patient-dog-actually-eats-fattest.html?m=1