Just curious.
I’ve got these black out curtains in my bedroom. I just noticed today that somehow, pet hair has managed to make it all the way up to the top of my curtains. Then I looked down at my bedspread and see it’s covered in pet hair as well.
As I’m tearing off my bed spread to wash it, I couldn’t help thinking to myself ‘If I were a non pet owner, this would be pretty gross.’
I keep my animals outside, where they belong. I personally can’t stand pet fur and dander flying all over the place, on my clothes, etc. If a pet owner cleans up after their pets that are in the house properly you might not be able to know that an animal lives in the house at all. I have one friend that is meticulous about this, but she is the exception, I have found. Most people I know with pets living in the house deal with lots of damage beyond fur and dander. Urine and feces stains, clawing and biting on woodwork and furniture, etc.
Most homes with a pet living inside will suffer tens of thousands of dollars in lost value to the home. But for a lot of pet owners that’s okay with them.
I think tens of thousands of dollars in lost value rarely happens, if ever. It usually takes nothing more than a good cleaning to get rid of the signs of a pet. If there’s some scratched molding maybe a couple of hundred dollars at most. Maybe some more to have hardwood floors refinished. Even in the case I know of a very destructive Husky who chewed through a wall and wrecked several doors it wouldn’t amount to tens of thousands of dollars.
Ever taken a close look at what accumulates in and around your shower and sink drains?
Sometimes I wonder why my black Labrador is so affectionate in the mornings when I’m wearing light-colored clothing (there’s a good reason why I don’t own any white Panama suits).
I think that’s just plain not true. I have two dogs that have no formal training at all. They rarely chew on anything that isn’t theirs, they’ve never destroyed furniture or clawed at baseboards or flooring and they don’t shed so they only place you can find their (black) fur is on my (white) sheets. They spend about half the time at my ex’s house and when they’re gone, if I just move their food bowls, you wouldn’t even know that I have them. In the 8 or 9 years that I’ve had them, I’ve bet they’ve ruined less then $100 worth of stuff that wasn’t bought specifically for them.
Sometimes. Like when I hear stories about how “my cat/dog/ferret has been peeing everywhere all over the house, what do I do”? I just know their house has to be stinky. How can it not be? And I wouldn’t accept a pet peeing all over my house.
Pet hair doesn’t bother me as much, as long as it’s (mostly) clear of the food and dishes. I mean, my own hair gets everywhere but I keep it out of food.
And you can definitely always tell a house that has a pet in it. This is not to say it’s always a horrible thing. Some people really take care of their pets and clean up after them all the time, and you can just smell…like the doggie smell, but it’s not a bad one. And then some houses you walk into, and all you can smell is cat urine and you’re like “I am never coming here again.”
I especially have a problem with cats because I’m pretty allergic and I watch them walk on the counters and on the dishes and people are just like “WHOOPSIE”.
(I also found out that there’s a reason why cats go to people who don’t like them. Cats hate eye contact, so if you’re staring at them trying to get their attention they will ignore you. But if you look everywhere but the kitty invariably the kitty is going to come over and crawl into your lap. Cue the sneezing, stuffy nose, red eyes. 
)
This is true. I don’t own any pets, and sometimes I’m a little grossed out when visiting friends who do. It definitely depends on the animal and the owner, but some places there seems to be fur almost everywhere.
But also I have long hair that seems to cover the floor sometimes, and I’m glad I live alone so people don’t see that. I try to clean it up before I have people over, but I know I don’t get it all. I try not to judge, unless someone’s place was actually unsanitary because of the pets, and I don’t ever remember any of my friends’ places being like that.
As a rule, no. But when there is hair everywhere, poop or urine on the floor or those pad things, or the owner lets the dog lick them all over their face it grosses me out.
The place in the living room where our dog usually sleeps has a musty smell that I can sometimes pick up from my place on the sofa. Yes, it’s kinda gross. Visitors must pick it up sometimes too and for that I am embarrassed. We are going to get the carpet cleaned real soon. The hair is on the floor in every room - carpet cleaning should take care of that too.
Fortunately, in the rare cases where he needs to go in the house, like if he is sick, he knows to do it in the basement on the linoleum so it’s easy to clean.
Even as a pet owner, I think it’s gross when cats get on counter tops or dogs get on furniture.
One friend apparently used to lock their dog in the guest bathroom during the day. The walls have holes, the cabinets and doors are torn up and the whole place smells of dog. I only use the bathroom at their house if I really, really have to.
Depends on the owner.
My youngest sister has a cat and you’d never know it. The house is spotless.
The older sister has 2 dogs; They’re out of control and they do nothing to rectify the situation; their neighbors hate them because the dogs have finished destroying her yard and are starting on theirs, they try to either bite or fuck every other dog in the neighborhood.
Good owners are responsible and not at all gross; poor owners are a friggin’ nightmare.
On the whole, I don’t think most pet owners are gross. It squicks me out a bit when I see, for example, people who pet the animal and handle food without washing their hands–or who feed the dog and then their guests, again without washing their hands in between. I’ll admit that it even grosses me out a little when I see pet owners who dump the dog/cat bowl in the kitchen sink before refilling it. Pet hair? Not so bad unless cleaning has been really neglected.
A house that skinks of pet urine will not get favorable responses from buyers and the owner sometimes get to the point they really don’t notice the smell. The smell of embedded pet urine is very, very difficult to remove. It will more often cost you sale a period vs a particular amount of dollars.
Are pet owners gross? Not necessarily. But their homes certainly are.
I am a firm believer that animals do not belong in the home. For one thing, they make the home stink. When I walk through the front door of a home, I can instantly tell if they have an indoor dog or cat, simply by the smell. And then there are the problems with animal piss soaked in to the carpet & floors, destroyed furniture, and fur everywhere. Ugh, no thanks.
A buddy of mine has two indoor dogs and three indoor cats. When I go over to his house, I stay outside as much as possible, as I come close to gagging if I step inside. The air quality inside his house is beyond any description. I feel sorry for his kids.
We have two cats. Outdoor only. They will never set foot inside our home.
I don’t believe any of these claims about lowered sale prices for a home. If the carpets stink they need to be replaced. Otherwise you can clean and then mask any residual odors.
Just for the record, not every dog stinks and not every pet owner has urine or feces stains in their homes! Some do, I won’t deny it, but some people seem to be under the impression that if you have a pet it probably goes inside and is never washed. Not true! We also are not likely to be infested with fleas.
Yikes!
But yes, we all have mounds of pet hair everywhere (ok not all of us. Not the daily cleaners or the non-shedding pet owners)
We have two cattle dogs and sometimes the amount of dog hair around the house is staggering. However, we recently started a strict weekly bath & brush routine that has reduced it significantly.
I don’t have any sense of smell, but when a dog farts her own self out of the room I guess it can’t be good.
There are no dogs allowed in the pond where I swim. But all summer people have been bringing their dawgs. I would be more sympathetic if there were no where else to go to cool off but a river runs through town and there is a brand new dog park near the river, as well.
if the dogs are well-behaved it’s not so bad. I like animals. But so many people get a dog without a clue of the particular nature of the animal they’ve chosen.
The other day I watched two thirty-somethings trying to get their bassett hound to swim. The poor dog was so anxious and upset and trying hard to please. And of course then I have to listen to all the “Good boy. Keep trying.” over and over. Not very relaxing.
Another dog, a young pit bull, ran right into the water and pooped. Then there’s all this raucous laughter and a loooong discussion of whether poop in the water would be harmful. Then, who was going to fish it out. “I didn’t know dogs pooped in water.”
Then there are the dogs who have fights with other dogs and the ones who get wet and tromp all over the towels, books, beach bags with their sandy feet trying to find at least one dry person they can stand next to to shake and get wet.
All the meaningless apologies from the owners who insist, “He’s really a good dog,” and then in a few minutes it happens again.
It’s not the dawgs - it’s the thoughtless owners who don’t know how to train their pets.
Is pet hair gross? Only if there are fleas in it. It’s to be expected.
Thank you! X10
Yeesh! Do non-pet owners think it’s a normal matter to have pets peeing and pooping in the house, and that we all just think it’s dandy to have urine soaked carpets? UGH! We have this thing called “house-training” we do, and pets either go outside, or in their litter box if they’re a cat (litter boxes which get scooped or dumped regularly and properly). Not all dogs have that doggie smell, either.
Tens of thousands of dollars of damage? Please, a pet would have to chew through several walls, short out appliances, wreck every piece of furniture to even come close. And pets that would do anything approaching that sort of damage? It’s not that it’s a pet, it’s that the owner is stupid and clueless.
Not everyone selling their house can afford to do these things. If the buyer takes it on themselves to do they will reduce the asking price by the estimated amount to get this done and usually they will add an additional PITA penalty on top of that. Either out of pocket, or as a reduced price it’s costing the pet owner substantial money. Thousands in most cases.
As I mentioned previously, however, the main loss is lost sales opportunities as a home full of pet stink is either avoided by real estate agents or refused by potential buyers. If it sits long enough the seller will have to reduce the price to get it sold and this can easily amount to “tens of thousands of dollars” in the end.