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What can you learn from the narrator's experiences that you can apply to your relationships? 

I think one of the messages of story that can be applied to everyday life is to learn to accept people for who they are, not who we would like them to be. Brother seemed very noble when he taught Doodle, but his motivation was to make Doodle like everyone else. He never accepted his brother for the unique person he was. In the end, he ends up pushing Doodle too hard and loses him. We can learn a lot from people who have disabilities and those struggle to stay alive.

I think that the greatest lesson that one can learn and apply to relationships is having a good opinion of others.Making presuppostions about people's abilities and potentials lead to missing many great aspects that can't be known unless one get close to those people. There is always a significant aspect in everyone's personality.

In reply to #1:

Doodle's brother was very self-centered. He thought only of himself and his own feelings. He didn't feel bad for Doodle because the little boy had so many problems. He felt sorry for himself to have such a brother. Doodle embarrassed him. When he taught Doodle to walk, he was thrilled and happy--not for Doodle, but for himself that he was such a "good" teacher. He sees Doodle's progress as his own great success, not Doodle's. Having good relationships with others requires thinking about their needs and feelings, also, not just our own.