Overnight nervous diarrhea? In your home? Tons of effort to keep that from happening, and to have a pet that doesn’t destroy your home?
I really don’t understand dog ownership.
I really don’t understand dog ownership.
It's their home too.
OP's situation was a rescue dog from a likely abusive previous home. There are often pets available for people who are not able to handle that situation; My dog peed on the rug occasionally for about 3 weeks, and pooped indoors twice, and it's not happened again in 3 years. To pull the "children" card, children make huge messes, cannot be unattended or unsupervised for years, destroy homes, and yet that's not seen as "burdensome"
I think what parent was really asking is "why bother having a dog at all"?
That said, maybe that’s fun for you; everyone has their own preferences.
It looks like the concept of dog ownership is making you worried or puzzled? In the past I also didn’t get dog ownership and now it makes sense to me, if that helps. I’m not saying that it should make sense to you (see also my earlier comment [1]).
You could easily be describing the dog owners here who were just confronted with the fact that their emotional codependency with a dirty animal — and tendency to replace healthy human relationships, foisting their pet onto others in public, at restaurants, on trails, et al — is not, in fact, a behavior subject to universal acclaim.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human–canine_bond#Benefits
I have had _far_ more issues with people bringing their ill behaved friends/children/parents places than I have with pets. If you go out to a café for lunch, it's acceptable to leave children run around because that's what kids do, but dogs are almost always kept quietly under the table out of the way. It's common for people to blast crappy music on the beach that everyone else around them has to listen to, or for them to leave rubbish behind them, yet it's expected (rightly so) that I pick up after my dog and keep her out of the way of other people on the beach.
I agree about ill-behaving pets; a lot of people should take better care of their dogs. E.g. invest more in socialising, avoid places where the dog is uncomfortable, etc.
It’s not. You’re choosing to allow a very dirty animal to inhabit your home. There’s a difference.
> To pull the "children" card …
Children are seen as burdensome, but they are also seen as human, and eventually, will be human adults.
They also tend to not do things like eat your furniture, can be more regularly bathed, and smell a lot better, too.
Oh, and they’re humans. Did I mention that already? If a non-human animal is slotting itself into our biological drive to parent, that’s a parasite.
It is.
> Children are seen as burdensome
Children are burdensome full stop. They eat my money, which hurts me more than if they chewed on the furniture.
> Oh, and they’re humans.
Yes, they are. The waste of resources and pollution they imply is massive compared to dogs. But why caring about the environment, there's a lot of everything for everyone laying around, isn't it.
> non-human animal is slotting itself
He hasn't. He roams around freely.
> You’re choosing to allow a very dirty animal
Yes it's my choice and it gets as dirty as my kid does. Guess what, they're animals. Did you notice already? They're animals like you.
My home with a dog is much cleaner than most of my friends with toddlers. My dog keeps herself _mostly_ clean and groomed, my friends kids do _not_.
> They also tend to not do things like eat your furniture, can be more regularly bathed, and smell a lot better, too.
Not all dogs chew destructively, and most that do tend to have other behavioural issues. Are you really claiming that children _aren't_ destructive to your home? My parents tell the story of the time I decided that the TV character was thirsty so I poured a soda into the VCR over the CRT TV and destroyed both of them. Dogs don't sweat, so they dont' _need_ to be bathed as regularly. Sure she rolls around in crap in the park every few days and gets hosed down in the bath, but that's about the extent of it really.
> Oh, and they’re humans. Did I mention that already?
Children being human doesn't mean that dogs don't deserve to coexist with us.
The Norwegian Animal Welfare Law of 2010 §9, 2nd paragraph reads “Det skal ikke gjøres operative inngrep eller fjernes kroppsdeler på dyr uten at det foreligger forsvarlig grunn ut fra hensynet til dyrets helse.” - “No surgery or removal of body parts of animals can be done except when there is a proper reason considering the animal’s health”.
That means no tail dockings, no ear cropping, and no castrations.
So, a female cat in nature can either endure being in heat with no relief about a quarter of her life, or give birth about three times a year (wrecking her body). I'm not convinced neutering her was a less humane choice (neutered female cats also have the longest lifespan on average).
He leads a safer, happier life now because we made that choice. It has certain downsides, like some loss of muscle tone and a greater tendency to put on fat, but it's totally manageable. It doesn't completely cut testosterone production, it just reduces it by 90% or so, as some is still made in the adrenal glands.
This is an "interesting" mentality I see a lot. Ever dog I ever had was a stray and could leave if they wanted to. I don't really get people who think this way, but it seems really prevalent.
You seem to disagree with the entire concept of domestication, which means you disagree with mountains of scientific facts along with billions of people's personal experiences with pets.
My point is - an animal that sticks around is not necessarily a companion. It could just see you as a reliable source of food.
I hope I shouldn't be expected to starve her to test this theory!
Dogs are pack animals, they are wired to integrate into the social fabric they find themselves in.
The two species have been co-developing together for 50,000 years, you might not get it, but others do.
Now, the reality is, the modern pathological, codependent, indoor dog ownership model did not exist in any significant prevalence until the past twenty years.
They all would/would have defended me with their lives. I once had to charge a deer with a fawn that was stomping on my current (12 pound) dog, so you could say I’ve at least somewhat approached the same.
For what it’s worth I’m sure all of the dogs could have survived on their own, at least in the summer.
This can be seen as an instance of manipulation and deprivation of free will on a species level, as dogs have been deliberately bred by humans to have these traits.
Though, then again one could question whether animals (or humans, for that matter) have free will to begin with, even if they're not bred to have traits that are desirable to humans.
As a personal anecdote, at a previous place where I lived (a large property), one day a cat showed up off the street. Plenty of cats would come and go relatively often, and they'd bolt if you got too close. This one was okay with being around humans. It looked hungry, so I gave it some food, and saw it again soon after. It wasn't long before it was living on the property full-time, outside. I fed it, and took it to the vet. It turned out she was pregnant, likely from before she arrived, and she ended up having the litter there.
Did I own that cat? If so, at what point did that ownership begin?
To compare dog ownership to say, slavery or the like, is ludicrous. It's definite survival for the dog, and all too often survival for the human as well in the form of companionship, emotional support, and of course typical working dog duties.
I guess I understand your take from a logical, outside view. But not from someone who has ever lived with a dog.
History tells us some people also had strong relationships with slaves as well. It doesn’t change the fundamental nature of the relationship being a massive power imbalance with no autonomy on one side. (I say this as a super happy dog owner)
Dogs don’t just survive, they thrive. In Romania the government resorted to mass killing of dogs because they bred so successfully. Also in poor countries and remote places where you wouldn’t expect there to be excess food for strays.
Dog ownership is very often slavery. The nature of the slavery is very explicit - the dog’s work is to sniff drugs all their life, or retrieve dead game, or guide people. In other cases you can read in this thread, a past owner has had a captive dog and abused them for who knows what reason.
she didn't want to poop uncontrollably, and knew it was 'bad', but she couldn't help it until she could get her own fear and anxiety under control. human babies poop uncontrollably too, for much longer even. eventually i learned to put pee pads everywhere in her (initial) sleeping area, and just threw out the ones that were soiled in the morning. it wasn't that big of a deal, and certainly didn't "destroy" anything.
If an animal evolves to exploit the parenting drive of a host species, that’s called a parasite.
There’s a reason why during/post-pregnant women have a strong (but not universal) tendency to reject the family dog(s).
My vet saw me on day 3 with my rescue and he warned me it would be months to years to correct. He advised me as a first time owner to return the dog and I did.
Glad OP was a better person and had the time, patience and love to share.
If you pay close attention, you'll realize that's exactly what humans are, too.
Dogs are wonderful.
What I don't understand is letting them into your home. Disgusting. Some people even let them on their beds, which is truly bonkers. Why anyone would let naked dog butt, complete with poopy fur, onto their bed, is beyond understanding.
Where are you from that dogs are not seen as family members?
Also what about children? They are not exactly known to be clean either.
Where did you get that idea? My dogs absolutely are members of the family. They don't get to live in my house though, just like the dozens of other relatives I have who don't share my roof.
> Also what about children? They are not exactly known to be clean either.
Children don't enter the house with dirty feet. They don't lie in the dirt outside and then come and nap on the couch.
They wipe their butts and shower twice a day.
Most dogs live free, out in the open. I'd bet only a small proportion of the worlds dogs are kept indoors.
and as with caretaking humans, i do clean my dog's (and very rarely, my cat's) butt with wet wipes if she happens to get some poop on her fur, but that doesn't happen too often since she doesn't like it either and positions herself to avoid it.
dogs need social interaction, especially with their humans and with their dog friends, to avoid (specific) behavioral problems. if you have only one dog, it's often easiest to fulfill that need by allowing it indoors to be with its human(s).
Then of course you wouldn't do it, and nobody is saying you should. But other people who have their dogs in their homes understand it just fine. Live and let live.
I personally don’t understand people that get breeds that shed like crazy as indoor dogs, or people that get large dogs and keep them cooped up all day.