As I’ve disclosed here before, once my sister’s cat started going on the floor she was exiled to the garage, where apparently nobody ever went out to pet her (every time I came over I made it a point to do so-poor thing was so starved for attention). They let her fur acquire these huge mats, never bothered to groom her or anything, litter box always full of crap. I wish they had let me take her-but my nephew wanted to keep the cat (even tho he never appeared to pay her the slightest bit of bother). She mercifully died a few months back, age 20.
Reading this, I gave my dog a couple of extra pats and belly rubs. He’s always hanging out at my side. If I’m at the computer desk, he puts a paw on my leg and sits up. When I go to bed, he follows me into my room. I can’t imagine leaving a dog in the yard and not letting him inside to socialize with his family. My dogs have always been house-trained and treated like members of the family with full access to any part of the house they want to go.
Right. Don’t confuse a “warehoused” dog with a working dog. One way you can tell warehoused from working is if the dogs bark a warning but nobody comes to deal with whatever it is. The dogs aren’t working to alert the pack if the pack leader never shows up in response; they’re just bored.
The missus and I have a black lab that came from a household that supposedly “loved” her, but their idea of love was to chain a dog to a tree year round. They interacted with her exactly once a day. Feeding time each morning. For the rest of the time they ignored her just like she was just another yard decoration.
Finally they agreed to let someone else take her off their hands, and we did. She is mostly over her ordeal now, but still has some lingering issues. We should have named her Velcro, because she is attached, I mean attached to my side wherever I go in the house. To say she has separation anxiety is analogous to saying that New York has a lot of cabs.
She is an amazingly sweet affectionate dog. How someone could have chained her to a tree and ignored/abused her is beyond me. This was a family, btw, with a good standard of living, and “good Christian values” they are so proud of.
I never got this either. Just get a big stuffed animal if that’s what you’re going to do with a pet.
I happen to use people’s attitude toward their pets as an indicator of whether or not someone is REALLY a good person - it shows you how they treat somebody who is truly powerless. A friend is using pets as ornaments and generally abusing them? Avoid him like the plague - he is worthless.
Neigbours of my parents had a dog like this, a German Shepard: they kept it chained in the back yard, and sometimes, for variety, kept it chained in the front yard. I never saw it taken for a walk.
It is only in looking back on it that I feel sorry for that dog. When I was a kid, I simply hated and feared it. It was a savage creature, and took any opportunity to lunge at me (and, really, anyone else who went near it). The chain was long enough that, if you were doing yard-work in our yards, it could get you if you weren’t careful - I always made sure I was careful. It would pretend to be asleep or ignoring you, then suddenly make a run at you.
The owners were as savage as the animal if not moreso, and I never saw them give it any sort of affection. On the contrary, it was treated with the utmost callousness - left out in the cold, ignored, yelled at.
This was almost 40 years ago when I was a kid, these days I suppose people would be less accepting, and report then to animal services or the cops. Back then, it was just acknowledged in the neighbourhood that these people were best left to their own devices; the dog must have bit people, but as far as I know, they never had any trouble as a result.
I’d type a more detailed post in response to what I think of people who chain up a dog and ignore it, but it’s hard to type with Clover nestled in my arms.
Oh, Christ, I wish I hadn’t read that.
God damn people.
Clover just got extra cuddles.
I’ll say I’m guilty, 2 pups, sisters, they were outdoor dogs, by choice. They had the DogMajal dog house. At night they had a choice, crate or outside and they always took outside. They could only stand me for a bit when I came home, an hour or 2, then they would want to come in a bit before bed time to hang out and then they wanted to go back outside.
Then one got sick, kidney’s. They spent more time inside, but when they were both feeling good, outside, and then one died. Been almost 2 years now and I’ve got a leech, I even got her a buddy, which helped a lot.
Those 2 go with me pretty much everywhere. The dog that didn’t even want to be inside with me years ago, now can’t go outside unless I’m on the porch watching her.
At night they are both in, they go to work with me every day (self employed), I had to rearrange the whole bedroom so the damn dog could have “her chair” next to the bed, she’s too damn big to fit her and 2 people in the bed, and even though it is actually big enough, she’s a cover hog, she sleeps in her chair/recliner, under threat of no bones. The new little buddy is still crate bound, right next to the bed.
I just don’t get it, the dogs are part of the family, I can drop anything on the kitchen floor and they will clean it up for me. A dog chained to a tree out back can’t do that for me. If I take a dump on the floor, I can’t blame that on a dog chained up out back. <— sarcasm… I could still blame it on the cat :rolleyes:.
Much better than kids, they are house trained by a few months old, kids are still crapping in their pants for a few more years. They eat out of the same bowl everyday. A 13 year old dog isn’t going to steal your beer. If you get caught spanking one out by your dog, you don’t have to explain it, they understand, they are licking it all the time.
I love my critters, even the cats (except one, though I sort of like him, he’s such a prick) they are family, even though 1/2 are the girlfriends, and they are all her’s when they are behaving bad.
I just couldn’t do it, they’re stupid, they lick their butt, they eat the clumps out of the kitty litter, puppy farts are literally blinding, they don’t have thumbs, but… they’re still family. You chose them, they didn’t choose you.
I agree. I consider dog ownership to be more of a responsibility than a pleasure. I’ve been babysitting my girlfriend’s dog for a few months and I feel guilty for not spending more time with it.
My dog is a crazy escape artist (seriously this weekend he figured out how to open a sliding glass door so he could hope a 6’ fence) and I’ve been thinking about getting him a friend to help keep him at home but I don’t think I could give two dogs the attention they deserve so he’s staying a solo for now. My dog keeps me company while I’m home, I can’t imagine what to point of a dog that isn’t near you is.
I’ve worked at prisons where they train guide dogs. Same deal - they’re being trained for work. It’s not absolute. The dogs are trained that when they’re wearing the guide harness they’re working - and you’re not supposed to distract them by petting them or playing with them. When the harness is off, they’re off-duty and you can treat them like pets.
Your dog may be good but this dog is the real escape artist. I’m pretty sure that right after this video he hot wired the family car and drove to Mexico.
Our dog is family too, and I can’t imagine keeping a dog under such lonely conditions.
A cat, on the other hand, may just be an artistic statement.
Well, you can be reasonably sure that no one in the neighborhood is going to try and break in to their house…
But, not much point other than that, that I can see. Of course, that might be the entire point.
There was a break-in in my neighborhood, recently. Strong suspicion points to a couple known bad seeds in the neighborhood - In any case, whomever did it was either immensely lucky, or intimately familiar with the tight-knit and very gossipy neighborhood, as they managed to avoid the eyes every single busybody in the area and strike in a very narrow window of opportunity. The result has been, effectively, that large dogs are popping up in people’s houses like so many furry mushrooms. BIG, unfriendly dogs everywhere I turn.
It’s not been very quiet, but I bet people are still sleeping better at night.