Saturday, August 28, 2010

Saturday Ranty McRant.





Awwwww, isn't that sweet?






Ain't that just the cutest??





All together now for the basket full of adorable - AAAWWWWWWWWW


So what is the rant, where there is so much cute in da house?

Bloody people. People annoy me at the best of times but ones that decide to get a puppy annoy me more than most.

Someone decides to get a dog. They have a young family and think it would be great for the kids. Something to play with - help teach them responsibility and all....

What kind of a puppy should I get? What would be good with the kids? they ask.

Do you work I ask? Are you at home all day? Why don't you get TWO puppies? Do you have the time to spend on an extra child? Huh?, they say.


Well how much time DO YOU HAVE?


Because I am sick to death of talking to people about dogs (I'm not even a dog person for fucks sake) about the realities of owning a dog then have their eyes glaze over whilst they rave on about the cute factor, and the so called 'family factor'.

Because I am sick to death of these same people asking within a year if they should give the dog up.

It cries to be let in.
It jumps on the children.
It rips the washing off the line.
It eats the childrens toys.
It shits in the backyard and the kids can't play.

These complaints are all in the same tone - it's the DOG'S fault. All I hear is "I don't have enough time and I expect the dog to train itself and clean up it's own shit". "I have spent a good 3 MONTHS playing with my dog and doing all the fun stuff now it's annoying because it STILL wants attention".

I'm sick of these complaints because these people can't even see these issues are THEIRS as a dog owner.

Dogs want to play with you and be part of the family. Do you leave any of your kids in the backyard for long periods of time? (ok ok, I actually do that but I do let the kids sleep inside).
Do you only talk/play/pay attention to your kids when it suits you? Thought not.
If your child gets too rowdy, too needy, too much trouble do you return them or dump them on someone else because you can't be arsed meeting their needs?


NO? So why do people think this ok for pets?

Put the time in. Put the time in long term and you will get what everyone wants from a dog/new family member.

If you STILL want a dog after all that ranting, don't DARE go to a breeder. Don't DARE go to a pet shop.

Head to the local animal adoption service and talk to them first. It's TERRIBLE fallacy that the dogs available there are dangerous because they are abused. You have 10x the chances of getting a perfect (and probably already toilet trained) dog from these people because -

They have a screening process.
They are dedicated to homing these animals suitably....because they love them, don't care about profit and don't want to see the animals back on the street and surrendered again.
YOU will be scrutinised, your family, your situation and the time you have to give will be looked at and that can only be a good thing.
You will potentially save an animal from lethal injection.


And maybe instead of asking what a dog can do for you - why not first ask what YOU can do for the dog....



rant over...I need a bex and a lie down.

cheers xoxoxo

P.S I have no idea why the text is orange in this post.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think your text is orange as it is all a link.

Anyway - you are very right and I am saying that as a failed dog owner here! They are hard work and I was stupid enough to get a puppy whilst I still had a baby. Don't ever do it with a young baby or with a partner that thinks that the dog has bonded with you, so is therefore all your work! No, the dog belongs to the whole family and is the whole family's job to help with training, cleaning, playing etc.

Lulu said...

Fixed it! Better learn not to ignore html warnings....

All this ranting complimented by the neighbour bitching to me today about her 2 puppies. Beautiful little cavaliers that have never been walked and no training I can see because they don't respond to their names.

She wants to get rid of them because they poop in the yard and she has to clean it.

According to the Batchelor this will be the 3 lot of dogs they have gotten rid of in 4 years. Cos they lost the cute factor obviously.

GRRRRRR

Anonymous said...

That is not good. I was smart enough after we lost the first dog to say that I did not want another, but hubby had other ideas. He wanted the second dog, but left me with the work, I did the best I could, but the little bugger worked out all the weak spots in the fencing. Thankfully he has agreed after losing the second that there will be no more dogs.

Dansta said...

its not just about dogs, its the same for cats too.

my sister (sadly) was one of them who bought the cat for the "cute factor" and its now calulateing bugger who can rip up a speaker quicker then a stanlyknife on speed.

And i whole heartly agree that getting pets from animal shelters is the best idea. we got our female cat from there and she's been wonderful!

Diminishing Lucy said...

I just printed this off and gave it to Olivia to read.

We have a dog. He is 15. He is the love of my life.

He is a "perfect dog" (because we trained him. It took a few years of effort. Before kids.)

So of course the kids think that another dog will be as easy, but even cuter.

Yes, it would, little 6,5 and 4 year olds, if YOU spend the next 3 years TRAINING him. Cos YOU will have to do it, not me. I have ENOUGH things to be responsible for.

No more.

Rant over.

Sorry.

Being Me said...

I feel bad for ranting the other day about our psycho foster-cat. We've taken her on (we are her 4th owners, she is just 6... and I have to say, I kinda get why) but we wouldn't give her away to yet another set of owners or a shelter. Thought makes me go cold, the poor thing. She is in the family now, in it she will stay.

As for dogs, that makes me so mad. We bought a puppy 6 yrs ago (she still acts like a puppy) and have a 17yo dog. Both have been our "babies" while we've waited for the babies to come along. They came first, any annoyance factor or hard work they represent now that we have said baby is not their fault. I would no sooner have given any animal I own up for re-adoption than I would fly to the moon.

I think perhaps, you have to have that sort of mentality that they are expendable (is my point) to even consider it??? But I cannot fathom thinking that way :(

Lulu said...

Ahh, don't feel bad. I had a huge bitch about my silly Emo cat pissing on my dog a few weeks ago lol!

They can be hard work - in fact my favourite dog in the world (a staffy of course) was HEAPS of work cos he thought he was people. But jeeeze did he make us laugh. We lost him earlier this year. I posted about him under whatever I called the pet section of here...