why do you have a pet....

[BlaqueKatt]

if you're not going to take care of it?

My boyfriend's mother has two dogs, got them because "they're cute".

Neither one is trained. I've been trying to work with them in my limited time(I work 12 hour days and have two cats that need attention, the dogs are not mine), and everything I do gets undone.

I'm trying to teach them not to jump on people, she calls them up, encourages the jumping and uses the excuse "he's just a puppy and doesn't know any better" if any of us object to being clawed. (the dogs are 6 and 1, old enough to know better)

Boyfriend payed over $600 to have the carpet cleaned*, she lets them out for at most 5 minutes every 8 hours, screaming at them to "hurry up because it's cold
(at 65 degrees)" , which means they soil the carpet, which she doesn't clean up.

Mind you she doesn't work, just plays facebook games all day, while BF and I are working, then we come home and have to clean up dog mess. And she can't understand why the other 3 people that live here(it's me, bf, bf's mom, and bf's sister-bf and I pay all the bills, we're the only ones workking) can't stand the dogs and don't leave our rooms.

*I threatened to move because I REFUSE to live in filth, looks like I may be looking for an apartment soon.

Just venting because while the animals can't help it, I can't stand sheer lazyness being used to excuse bad behaviour, and lack of training.

[Andara Bledin]

Ugh.

Fellow cat owner living with someone with dogs who doesn't take care of them properly.

Thankfully, in my case, the owner is just kind of lazy, not completely lazy. They don't jump (much) and have stopped chewing on things (mostly) and they're outside most of the time, so there's no messes.

[BlaqueKatt]

they could be outside, the yard is fenced, but she's "afraid someone will take her babies"

They'd probably take better care of them. I feel awful for them being 100% neglected like they are. And she brags because one was going to be destroyed, but she "saved" him. Some life it has, be ignored until it gets yelled at.

What's even worse is I've explained that I've watched them when they come in from outside, go right to the corner to poop, I opened the door and they go back outside, but she just lets them out, yells the entire time, brings them in and goes back to her computer. Leaving them to soil the carpet. One actually walked in between myself and bf's sister while we were talking, and lifted his leg on the coffee table leg. I was too stunned to do anything as I've NEVER seen that behaviour in any dog.

[telecom_goddess]

oh god that's just horrible. And how ANYONE can just leave a carpet soiled like that, and not clean it up IMMEDIATELY is beyond me.

[MadMike]

And how ANYONE can just leave a carpet soiled like that, and not clean it up IMMEDIATELY is beyond me.

Ask my ex. I don't know how many times I'd come home from work, while she was sitting on her ass all day, and she'd tell me, "The cat shit on the floor!"

Stupid me, I took that to mean, "The cat shit on the floor but I cleaned it up." Wrong, she left it there for me to clean up. Just one of many reasons I'm glad to be rid of her worthless ass.

[smileyeagle1021]

This is one of my big pet peeves... not just the people who aren't willing to take care of pets, but the ones who think that "oh, I've budgeted for food, so I can afford a pet"
Umm... no.
You need to worry about vaccines, you need to worry about having money set aside for the potential of serious problems, you have to worry about a lot of financial considerations other than food.
Yeah, this is a big one for me right now... one of my cats just had to have surgery (she has pancreatitis, which has caused her to stop eating, which has caused her to lose weight at an unhealthy rate, which has caused what is hopefully temporary liver damage, so we had a feeding tube put in so we can force feed her to get her weight up while we treat the pancreatitis)... the full cost of everything (the surgery to have it put in, the one we'll eventually need to have it taken out, the special food, and the medication) is going to be around $1000.
I have a coworker was horrified, "how can you possibly afford that? are you going to give her back to the humane society?"
Umm, no, I have money saved up for emergencies... I have at least $500 in savings that I can use and I've kept my credit pristine so that if I can't work out payments with the vet for the rest of the balance, I can get a loan for the remainder with good terms. It's called being prepared. And she has kids...

[blas87]

The girly man across the street has two really expensive rat dogs. Except, after he and his friends trashed the old house and they rebuilt the new one, he decided he just couldn't have his new house be destroyed by his purse dogs, so they live outside all year long. Even in this (and I'm sure you remember WI winters, Katt!)

When he does let them out of their cage, they run all over the damn place. It's amazing they haven't been hit by the train or a car yet.

But then again, this is the guy that, his idea of mowing lawn, is to prance around the yard shirtless if he knows anyone is watching, then mow approximately 5 feet of grass, then go back inside because that's just too hard to do.

He also has about three or four girlfriends that rotate coming over to his house.

[BlaqueKatt]

and just found one of my birkenstocks chewed up. they were in my room and the dogs are not supposed to be unsupervised!

I don't have the $200 to replace them, BF has offered but he shouldn't have to it's not his fault, and not his dog.

[insertNameHere]

This is why I don't have animals, I can't see spending $10K to get a hip replacement on an old dog. I also now work offshore doing 14 days on, 14 days off where I wouldn't be around to take care of them. I laugh at my friends who give me crap for not knowing the love of a dog but can barely afford to feed themselves and think it wise to invest in a dog which they put as center of attention for a few months and then start complaining how it doesn't listen and is destroying everything because they neglect the animal.

[Andara Bledin]

I don't even want the love of a dog. Too needy.

I have lots of friends and family who have dogs and they're fine in short doses, but I'm far too self-involved to want to take care of anything more labor-intensive than cats.

Not unrelated; this is why I don't have and have never wanted kids.

[BlaqueKatt]

I'm far too self-involved to want to take care of anything more labor-intensive than cats.

cats are a weird, reclusive roommate who poops in a box, I like that. If I'm busy the cats will gladly wait for snuggles quietly, maybe napping, not so with dogs. I also have issues with the blind loyalty dogs have, it's not natural, and that bothers me.

[Andara Bledin]

I also have issues with the blind loyalty dogs have, it's not natural, and that bothers me.

It's not actually blind; it's a pack relationship thing. Most rotten dogs are like that because their owners failed to establish their pack properly.

[Seshat]

Vi - our dog - is a member of our Pack. Our duty as humans is to remember that - that she's not Family (family is a human thing), she's Pack (a domesticated-wolf-thing).

She's intelligent enough and domesticated enough that we can use human signals that signify that we're pack leaders and we have situations under control; we don't have to go all Cesar Milan and try to be fake-wolves.

But her few misbehaviours are always failures of the humans; basically, we either haven't told her what we, as Pack Leaders, expect of her. Or we've screwed up in making it possible for her to behave properly.
(EG, if we lock her inside the house without clean piddle pads to pee on, she pees on the tile floor beside the piddle pads. Looking at that from a dog's pov .. she's doing a logical 'next best thing'.)



Dogs want to please their pack; it's part of their wolf heritage, and part of the whole canine survival system.
Domesticated canines (not tamed, but domesticated - they're different things) have been bred such that humans have become the default pack leader.

If the dog's humans don't take on the pack leader role, the dogs will do it. Because SOMEONE has to be pack leader! Otherwise the pack's wellbeing is in doubt.

But reassure your dog that you're pack leader, and The Situation Is Under Control, and a dog can keep their head during all kinds of crazy situations. This is how dogs can be police dogs, fire dogs, rescue dogs, emergency dogs, even combat dogs!

Anyway...

I probably wouldn't drop 10K on a hip replacement for an elderly dog; I would consult with the vet, and try to come up with the best balance between the dog's pain and suffering level during the surgery and recovery, and the dog's expected lifespan and quality of life afterwards.
A young dog would benefit from a surgery and recovery: their expected lifespan and quality of life improvement would be worth it. An elderly dog would just suffer too much for too little benefit.

[Panacea]

It's not actually blind; it's a pack relationship thing. Most rotten dogs are like that because their owners failed to establish their pack properly.

Agreed. Most humans who adopt dogs really don't understand how a dog's mind works, or that it works at all. They just set expectations without bothering with discipline and training and then wonder why dogs are so "hard." They're not hard; they're easy. But time consuming.

(EG, if we lock her inside the house without clean piddle pads to pee on, she pees on the tile floor beside the piddle pads. Looking at that from a dog's pov .. she's doing a logical 'next best thing'.)

Interesting behavior.

If the dog's humans don't take on the pack leader role, the dogs will do it. Because SOMEONE has to be pack leader! Otherwise the pack's wellbeing is in doubt.

Darn skippy. Copper (EE's new dog) is submissive by nature, but he will try to act dominant if the humans don't take the Alpha role. We've worked with him a lot, and he's a lot better.

I probably wouldn't drop 10K on a hip replacement for an elderly dog; I would consult with the vet, and try to come up with the best balance between the dog's pain and suffering level during the surgery and recovery, and the dog's expected lifespan and quality of life afterwards.
A young dog would benefit from a surgery and recovery: their expected lifespan and quality of life improvement would be worth it. An elderly dog would just suffer too much for too little benefit.

I wouldn't, either and I might not for a younger dog either. I can't afford that kind of medical care for myself, much less an animal. It would really hurt me to put down a pet, but I simply could not do it.

When Goldie was hit by a car, she needed an external fixation of the femur and six months of crate rest. EE paid for the surgery and the Evil Princess slept downstairs with Goldie for the whole six months. We had to carry her outside to pee and poo.

EE considers every penny well spent; Goldie is the sweetest, most loving, best behaved dog I've ever known.

Everyone has their own priorities.

[tabbyblack13]

I currently have three cats and a mother and daughter I am fostering. Right now one of my cats has IBD and food allergies. Because of this I have to give him prescription food. To make it easier I feed it to all of my cats so I don't have to worry about one of them getting into something he isn't suppose to eat. It's expensive food but it's worth it to not have to give steroids to a cat everyday. I was warned that if he is on steroids too long that they may become ineffective and his own body may stop producing the hormones he needs to live.

What I find funny is that the foster cat and kitten like the taste of the prescription diet and will ignore their own food. Oh well.

I have had animals since I was a child and I can't see my life without at least one. Right now I'm looking into getting my yard fenced in to get a dog. I miss having a dog and I would love to be able to adopt one to have an exercise partner.