It’s not that your recommendations are bad or that those aren’t all good things to do if you get a dog. It just seems like the prerequisites are overstated to the point of being unnecessarily off-putting.
Like it’s convenient to have a fenced yard, but not at all essential. You can have a dog in an apartment, provided you walk it. It’s better than just turning it out by itself and thinking somehow that’s enough exercise anyway. Fencing is really expensive, let alone unclimbable fencing with buried mesh. Why make it sound like someone without hundreds or thousands of dollars to spend on this should not get a dog?
Obedience books and classes are fun, in my opinion, but again, not necessary. If you don’t want your dog to drag you around on the leash, every time it surges ahead, turn around and go the other direction. Or adopt a dog that is already good on a leash, not hard to find at all.
When you already have and love the dog, doing what it needs is worth the work, so you do it. When the dog does not yet exist in your life, making it sound like dog ownership is going to be a massive pile of essential work and expense just makes it seem insane to get one.
Meanwhile, your dog-to-be is waiting for you to pick him up at the shelter and you never show.
Dogs do best when they’re a part of your family. If you leave them outside, alone, all the time, whether in a fenced run or on a chain, you’re excluding them from your environment and your company. That’s punishing to a social animal.
Even if you’re not home, if the dog is welcome to share your space, that means something.
And, AnaMen, I wrote out my list because people who haven’t had dogs before don’t know this stuff, and maybe haven’t had to think about it before. It’s a list of my personal recommendations, not requirements. Dog ownership IS a huge commitment, it’s full of these ideas that you do need to at least consider and think about, if not fully invest in.
No. In some locales it might even be illegal.
A prefab cyclone-fencing dog run might be less onerous than fencing an entire large yard. They’re often found on craigslist for relatively cheap.
In your case I would consider getting two smallish slow-moving mature dogs who already like each other (this isn’t an unusual find, lots of pound dogs came in as pairs). Advantages: If you don’t know much of anything about dog training and have very little time for a dog, a small slow dog is easiest to control, and easiest to exercise. They will keep each other company during the day when you are gone, but won’t be vigorous enough to think up twice the mischief, the way two active dogs might.
Smaller slow-moving dog breeds are generally slow because they can’t breathe well due to their deformed skulls – pugs, boston terriers, french bulldogs, pekingese, etc.
On the other hand, you could consider a cat, which would be much more in sync with your lifestyle than the typical social, active dog.
Please don’t get a malamute puppy.
But your list makes it sound like a dog is only appropriate for someone with oodles of time and money to spare, and that is not the case. There are wonderful housebroken adult dogs that are already used to spending the day alone and already walk nicely on a leash just waiting for a home. Kibble in a bowl, water, three walks a day and some love is nothing you need a second mortgage or night school to provide.
Owning a dog myself, I thought the list was quite reasonable. I think too many people go into getting a dog blind and end up returning the dog or neglecting it. It’s better for someone to realize dogs do need attention and care by reading a modest list of ideas than thinking it’s nothing to have a dog. A list like that may encourage someone to get that mature dog rather than getting a puppy!
If you didn’t own a dog, the list would look different.
I do things for my dog that would seem crazy if I didn’t have him. I’m doing them for this particular dog, not some hypothetical dog I don’t even have yet.
The guy is 60 years old and we have no reason to believe he is dirt poor or infirm. I’m sure he can handle a dog and the responsibility it entails. This list is like stuff you tell a kid to scare him away from biting off more than he can chew.
I guess opinions differ then, because there was nothing I saw on the list that was so scary.
Fencing is thousands of dollars, for one thing.
The OP asked about keeping his dog on a long leash in lieu of fencing the yard. Given that, recommending fencing the yard is more than reasonable. Someone who is seriously thinking of keeping his dog on a lead instead needs someone to suggest not doing that. If he doesn’t want to spend $1000s of dollars on a fence, he needs to rethink his plan.
Well the long leash idea is a definite no-go, but how about just walking the dog?
It’s okay to live in a yardless apartment and have dogs, provided you take them on walks and to the park.
Yes, so that’s why I said if he doesn’t want to get a fence he’ll to address the issue. But given the lead comment, it was a prudent suggestion, since the OP specifically mentioned his yard was unfenced. There may be other ideas, but it doesn’t mean suggesting a fence is “scary” or “excruciating”.
Let’s agree to disagree. Really don’t feel like debating this line by line.
For an older owner, walking a dog three times a day may be more of a hardship. Having access to a safely fenced yard will reduce the number of walks per day required.
He’s 60, not 100! And he wants exercise. Reducing the number of walks is not a great goal. A dog is not usually going to gallup around a yard alone and exercise itself.
Jeez, I was trying to be delicate. The dog can shit in the yard.
Saying he needs a fence implies that leaving a dog at home inside while you are at work is not a decent option. For a puppy, it is not, but for an adult dog, with a decent walk before work and one after, it’s reasonable. Alternately, a dog walker could be hired to come once a day. You’ll get a lot of dog walking days for the price of a fence.
I’m sorry if you feel that I have compelled you to “debate” anything. Having a dog is the greatest thing ever and there are plenty in need of homes. I don’t like to see people talked out of making dogs’ dreams come true.
OP, what’s your thinking now? Has anyone’s information put you off dog ownership?
Thank you! Christ.
Well, and the rest of us don’t like to see people adopt dogs, not meet their needs because they couldn’t be arsed to think about stuff like that, and then return the poor things to the shelter or give them away on Craigslist (often to someone else who hasn’t thought it through) because having a dog isn’t what they thought it would be. It would be doing the OP’s hypothetical dog a grave disservice to not bring these issues up, because they’re exactly the sort of issues that tend to lead to people getting rid of dogs.
And yeah, mobility issues are worth thinking about if you’re 60 and considering getting a puppy. Many breeds live 10-15 years, and it’s not at all unusual for humans to have some pretty significant health changes between 60 and 70 or 75. And no matter what’s going on with your health, the dog is still gonna need to eat and shit and stretch its legs.
Leaving a dog tied out in the yard all day is unacceptable, as is leaving it outside in a fenced yard all day. When we are out, the dogs stay in their kennels inside the house. I don’t see how telling someone that having a fence is preferable implies that the dog can’t stay inside during the day.
When I first moved into our house with my 2 dogs we didn’t have a fence. I moved from an apartment and was used to walking them. While that is all well and good, it can tell you that I very much prefer having a fenced backyard so I don’t have to be dressed in the morning before going out, or having to leash up every single time they need to go out (like 50 times a night it seems sometimes).
I like for them to have a bit of freedom to roam around and I don’t have to keep my eye trained on them every single second. They enjoy hanging out in the yard while I am gardening. I recommend a fenced yard for convenience and safety, not for 24/7 containment.
If you don’t have a fenced yard I recommend taking the dog to a dedicated dog park for off leash time.
I have neighbors who leave their dog for extended periods of time out in their fenced yard and he barks and whines the whole time. I have other neighbors that stick their two dogs out in dog crates that are not sheltered from rain or sun at all, outside the back door because they don’t have a fence. Those dogs are miserable when they do that and they whine and bark the whole time. Luckily neither of these neighbors do this on a regular basis, but it seems only when they have company over. Dogs are pack animals and need to be with their people as part of the family.
Having a fence isn’t a requirement for dog ownership, but you must be willing and able to take the dog out for walks on a leash several times a day. Tossing him outside unsupervised isn’t cool.
Puppies are in short supply and much more demanding than most people expect. Getting a puppy and rejecting it after you and the passage of time have turned it into another unhousebroken out-of-control young adult dog is terrible. I absolutely do not think getting a puppy and leaving it alone for more than 4 hours at a time is a good idea.
Adopting an adult dog is different. For one thing, you can get one that already would be a good fit. For another, if you adopt it and things don’t work out, it has barely depreciated in terms of how much the next person might want it. The number of people who would take an eight-week-old puppy greatly exceeds those that would take a twelve-week-old puppy, but who cares if a dog is five or five plus a month? I’m not saying grab a dog on a whim with nary a thought because you can always return it, but at least it had a chance.
Although obviously any of us could become incapacitated at any moment, I hardly think a 60 year old should assume that he will be too decrepit to walk his dog any time soon or that he is not aware that dogs need to eat, shit, and walk. Plus he is married, so that’s two possible people to care for the dog. If he’s so old, I guess he should hurry up and get his dog soon so it can learn to drag him around in time for next year when his legs fall off.