There's "Dog People" and then there's "People Who Own Dogs" [minirant]

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

They have a leash - she did end up bringing her over on a leash. But I think since they never use it she just bought it as a matter of rote when she got the dog.

The dog used to go outside tied to a decent dog-run thingy. But, she wasn’t happy and they wanted her to be able “just to go out” like their old dog, so that’s why the shock collar, to keep her in the half-acre yard. God forbid they get a fence or anything.

I can’t even imagine anyone in that family walking the dog on a leash. It’s not like they’re crack heads or losers (in general). They’re hard working middle class folks who seem fairly normal to me. They just do NOT get the whole “having a dog” thing.

22

I’ve got a story for you guys. I have this co-worker who is rumored to be nuts, but she was always nice to me, so… she was going to Venezuela for a month last summer and needed a pet sitter for her Pomeranian. She swore the dog was well-behaved, got along with cats, etc. She planned to pay me, so I said, OK, dependent upon her bringing the dog over and him getting along with my cats. She was supposed to bring the dog over for a visit, but kept delaying…

The DAY she was leaving, she brings the dog over. He is wearing a diaper because she says he pees in the house. No medical reason, he’s just not housebroken. He proceeds to bark at my cats, chase them, knock shit over, and cause chaos. I tell her this is not going to work out and she says, “But I have to go to Venezuela today.” This was right before the 4th of July weekend. She said if he was bad, I could put him outside.

Well, the diaper thing was not happening. He was fine to go to the bathroom outside, she just never taught him. He did bark incessantly, and putting him outside or in his crate did nothing to curb that. He couldn’t be in the house because he went after my cats. Total disaster.

I took the money she paid me for his care and put him in a nice kennel. Of course, what she gave me was not enough to cover it, but that was not my problem. His owner covered the balance when she returned from South America, and I bet he was actually housebroken after his time in the kennel, because the kennel owner laughed her ass off when I told her about the diaper on the perfectly healthy dog and said, “No way that’s happening.”

I felt so sorry for this dog, who was basically a sweet little guy, very affectionate, just wanted some love and good training. I think his owner loves him, but is not a dog person and also kind of a nutcase/moron. So I know what the OP means.

23

If it weren’t for you, they would most assuredly be coming home from their happy vacation to a decomposing puppy corpse in their garage. :rolleyes: I can’t believe some people.

24

Absolute nonsense.

(That is not to say reward for good behavior doesn’t fit the bill a majority of the time - but to say ‘always’ is… well, thats just naive. If you don’t believe it, just ask me).

25

DIAPERED DOGS?! Oh my lord.

26

I’m not even a “dog person” and I wouldn’t leave a puppy (or a dog or a cat) in the garage for that period of time. I might leave a pet in the garage overnight (with us home) IF we had done something like have the wood floors refinished or some such.

This woman sounds like a nut–I pity her new pet.

Why would she think a newish pup would be the same as her elderly dog? It sounds to me like she doesn’t get that each dog has a different personality or something. IOW, she sounds seriously stupid.

27

Good god, no. Not ever. Not any age dog, in any weather. Dogs are social animals, and I’d no sooner lock a dog anywhere alone than I would a person - they need companionship just like we do. Poor puppy.

28

Good for you – that’s a horrid thing to do to an animal, in ANY weather. Jesus!!!

Mind you, I’ve been TEMPTED to lock my dog away in a closet at times, but I’d never do so. She sleeps in her crate at night, but it’s all fixed up for her with her bed and her blanket, and our house is air-conditioned.

Poor thing. :frowning:

29

My stepdaughter who lives with us is a clueless pet owner. She has a history of getting animals because she thinks they’re cute, then ditching them when they get to be too much trouble.

When she moved in with us recently, she brought the world’s most unappealing dog with her. Since we have a dog already, it just sort of naturally happened that we’d walk it with ours and feed it with ours. (First time this dog has had anything approaching a schedule). Seventeen year old stepdaughter is so busy with work and friends (no school), that she just can’t help look after the dog. When she is asked to do it too often, she just throws up her hands and says, “Well, I’ll get rid of it then.”

It’s very frustrating because she claims to love it. She’ll cuddle him and squeal over him in passing, but…

My husband was out of town for a couple of days recently and she had promised to help with the dogs because they’re too much for me to handle alone. She called me at work one day to tell me she was going to a friend’s house after work, and I asked her if she had walked the dog. She said, “Ohhhhhhhhhhh…” in total surprise. It’s like she doesn’t realize it’s alive.

I am deeply frustrated about this and though I feel terrible pity for this creature, I don’t want to be stuck with him forever either. Lately she’s been talking about giving him to an ex-boyfriend. crosses fingers

30

Only “dog people” should have dogs.

31

Well, it depends on how you define “evil”.

For instance, there are dog people, non-dog people and then there are those who really aren’t dog people.

*"A Columbus firefighter admits that he took his two dogs to the basement, tied them up and blasted them with a rifle so he and a girlfriend could vacation without paying to board the animals.

“He said chunks of concrete were flying everywhere,” Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor Heather Robinson said.

“I think it was the thrill of the kill for him. He has shown no remorse for this.”*

Link. Eeesh.

32

:eek:

33

The lack of common sense in people never ceases to amaze me.

That dog would be gone by the time your neighbour got home. Likely living at my place :slight_smile:

34

Some people are really just awful people.

FWIW, there is absolutely no similarity between ‘my dog sleeps in his crate at night’ and ‘my dog stays in the garage’. A dog who sleeps on a bed/blankets in an indoor crate every night = happy dog who’s got the calm, safe, cozy ‘den’ he instinctively wants. My parents have a crate for their dog in a corner of the kitchen, and even if given the chance he won’t sleep anywhere else. On the other hand, a dog locked up alone in a garage for a week = lonely and neurotic abused dog.

35

Here’s the thread I was looking for…

There’s a puppy living down the street. REALLY cute puppy. Occassionally, I see him outside tied to the tree. Pretty big tree - lots of shade. He’s extremely friendly, and my dog loves him (which she rarely does, especially on leash). But…I see him out more and more often. I’m starting to think seeing him isn’t some happy coincidence or matter of timing, but a matter of inevitability. I ask a neighbor about it, and he says the puppy is “always” out there. Now it starts pissing me off…

I had a meeting yesterday near my house, and drove by to eat a quick lunch. I drive by the puppy house - and he’s outside. It was 87 degrees yesterday, and he was looking miserable. Fed up, I called Animal Control*. After the meeting (3:30), he’s still out there. I head back to the office, and head upstairs to the Mayor’s Action Center (which is where Animal Control calls go through), and follow up, and see if there’s anything I can do to expediate the process. I run into one of the Administrators, and tell him the issue, and he promises to send a few targeted e-mails.

Knowing that’s not going to have the best response time (regardless of the help), a coworker and I go straight there after work, ready to confront the “owner” - nothing offensive, but just to see if maybe he and his family don’t really want the dog (god, he’s so sweet), and we’d be happy to rehome him. Nobody was home, but at least the dog had been brought inside. We left some printouts from http://www.unchainyourdog.org/.

I went by this morning, and they had removed the leash from the tree. I’ll keep going back until something positive happens.

36

Oh, I know (when I said “poor thing”, I meant the dog in the OP – I probablby should have said so!)
Lexie – we just can’t trust her upstairs – she gets ahold of something and will NOT give it back. (At home by herself, fine. But if we’re all upstairs asleep, she’ll want to be up there too). I want to take a picture of her to show everyone, but she needs a bath.

Dogs are a lot of work. You need to be prepared to train them – unlike cats, you can’t just get a litterbox and plop it down in a corner. You have to have patience, and be prepared to deal with a lot of cleaning up.
Sometimes there are exceptions, at least to protect the dog from him or herself:
My cousins had to crate their dog, Guinness, when he was a puppy – a daschund – at Christmas when they went out, because he kept eating the tree.
UNFORTUNATELY, they couldn’t even leave him a pillow: he was still recovering from surgery, when he had to have a piece of a TOWEL removed from his stomach. Yes, Guinness managed to eat part of a towel. But this wasn’t in a garage, in the middle of a heat wave, or in the cold. Other than that, I’m told, he’s a spoiled little pup.

37

There is another option besides kennels and just leaving a dog. You can usually find a pet sitter, who will come once or twice a day to walk, feed, and play with a dog. My daughter worked for one in high school and when she was back from college. Some dogs did stay in the garage, but always with a doggie door into a fenced yard. I’m in California where the temperature is pretty good, though.

The never walking the dog is what gets me. Beside the exercise, dogs like to see new things also. I agree that this dog should get “stolen” - what do you expect leaving a dog in an unfenced yard.

38

We’ve left our dog alone in its kennel for a few days before. I think never as long as a week, but near enough. Plenty of food, lots of water. Sure, its not the most amazing time, he gets quite bored, but its only for a couple of days. The dog will certainly live.

Depending on the weather, the garage would probably be a bad idea, unless its cold out, and bored animals dig into stuff, so there will very likely be a mess(or worse… if they had chemicals of any sort within reach).

Leaving a dog alone for a week? A bit long, but not overly so. Definitely is better to leave it with someone though.

39

Nobody ever got heat stroke and died from a shock collar. Lots of pets and humans have gotten heat stroke and died from being locked in a non-climate-controlled space during the summer. Leaving your pet locked in a garage in July is just flat-out dangerous, even if the space was puppy-proofed and the dog wasn’t at risk to ingest something harmful.

The problem isn’t that there are dog people and then there are people who have dogs. The problem is that there are people who have dogs but aren’t dog people, and then there are absolute, utter morons who are apt to kill their dog.

40

Yeah, but why do it? Besides, this is a puppy.

My neighbors when I was younger used to leave their dogs alone when they went on vacation. In the house, not the garage, and they’d have someone come a couple times a day to walk and feed them. Even with the two of them, you could still hear them crying and whimpering because they got so lonely by themselves. It seemed a pretty inhuman thing to do.