To the assholes I see on a regular basis, be it on the streets of Halifax or the parks and green spaces, please extract your ignorant, abusive heads from your asses and realize that when you yank as hard as you can on your dogs leash, and therefore neck, you are being abusive as hell. If you can’t take the time and patience it requires to train your dog, you shouldn’t have one. At the very least, you should get a proper harness to control them (and not those annoying little ropes that go around their nose). Why do you have one? I sincerely hope and pray, that in your next life, you come back as a dog and you have an owner just like you. An owner who drags you past the lovely smells that you want to spend a minute or two taking in, an owner who yanks your neck off when you don’t move as fast as they would like, or pull with excitement in an effort to forge ahead. An owner who threatens you, yells at you, and scares you for being who you are, a dog. The loyal dog that loves them despite all the terrible treatment.
You’re not training them, you are abusing them. You’re not animal lovers, you are assholes and you will get what’s coming to you in your next life, whether you believe in karma or not.
And to my neighbor who walks her dog 10 feet across the street to the shitty little park every morning and then leaves him alone all day long. GIVE HIM AWAY TO SOMEONE WHO WILL TAKE CARE OF HIM. He is a sweet dog and deserves more than to serve the one purpose which is ensuring you don’t have to sleep in your apartment alone. —SO Tired of shitty dog owners
This article appears in Jul 25-31, 2013.
really wish i hadn’t read this, i hate everyone
Ugh. I feel guilty leaving the pooch home alone. Luckily I can work from home a couple of days a week and afford doggy day care/dog walkers. Canine companionship is a two-way street.
OP, maybe you can offer to take her dog out. I know it’s not your responsibility but maybe you’d enjoy it.
Add to that the people who leave their dog crated all day during work and at night. What a life that must be.
I’ve heard many crate debates at work. Those that do it claim the dog is safe and happy in their little “cave” and would prefer the crate opposed to an empty house. However that starts a heated argument from non-dog owners about how cruel it is. I have a friend whose dogs went willingly into a crate when we left his place, but I wouldn’t say they looked happy.
I think crates are fine for puppies or while working through separation anxiety, but it shouldn’t be a permanent storage container for dogs whose humans are too lazy to teach them how to behave properly while home alone. I think the whole crate/cave is a myth perpetuated by the pet retailer/service industry to encourage apartment/condo/urban dwellers to rescue/buy bigger dogs and buy expensive crates, among other things.
I think crates should be unlockable, if they are truly for the dog’s sake, to be used as his own personal den when he wants to be left alone. crating while someone works is nasty, and not to the dog’s benefit. what dog in nature is forced to stay curled up in a small den for most of his day?
for puppy training, OK, but not in some out of the way part of the house, leaving him to cry his little heart out all night while the rest of the family sleep far away.
90% of the people who have dogs, shouldn’t.
some greyhounds prefer their crates because they feel safe but with the door left open. ours didn’t like his so that was that
We crate our 10 month old puppy while we’re at work all day, but that’s because she can’t be trusted alone yet and we likely won’t be able to give her any daytime freedom until she’s at least 2 years old. Our older guy is kept in the kitchen with a bed beside the puppy’s crate for company. While we’re home they have total run of the house and are up on the couch during the day and sometimes even sleep in bed with us. It breaks my heart to hear that people leave their pets outside all day/night. These are members of your family; they deserve to be treated as such.
OB, I agree with your bitch and always cringe when I see this happening. Some people are just not meant to own pets, much like some people aren’t meant to be parents. Scary to think about. 🙁
we used a baby gate to keep him in certain areas of the house, when we first adopted him. worked great, he wasn’t a jumper^^
those “annoying ropes around the nose” are the most HUMANE and EFFECTIVE method to leash train a strong dog and control lunging, jumping, etc. They dramatically improve on safety concerns if a dog has any inclination to run into traffic, bite, etcetera.
Harnesses ENCOURAGE pulling. It is in a dog’s nature to pull against a harness. This is a really well-known fact and based on canine biology and genetics.
Gentle Leader harnesses with the hook at the front are only effective if the dog is small or medium. A big dog’s chest is incredibly strong and that harness won’t do much.
With this said, AGREED on all other counts
PG, are greyhounds not an exception in part because of how much time they spent in crates as race dogs?
they are used to being crated when they are not racing, some find great comfort in them and use them for their adopted lives. ours was huge and didn’t seem to like it, tho it’s hard to know everything that happened to them during their racing lives
Anyone looking to get a dog has to realize that it is a ten to fifteen year commitment with a fair bit of work and responsibility. They’re social animals so they need supervision most of the time. In essence they’re furry toddlers.
If work keeps you away most of the day and you’re too tired to walk afterward, do yourself and your prospective dog a favour, stay your separate ways. You’re not ready for one.
I’ll walk you dogs.
I’ll take them to the middle of nowhere, no traffic, no houses, no people, just the great outdoors.
They can swim in a big lake, and run in the woods where there’s lots of squirrels and bambies to chase.
They’ll come home dirty, wet, smelly, tired and happy.
paingirl endorses this message
a filthy wet dog is a happy dog. my car is broken so dogs have been getting yard time only in the mornings. i am riddled with guilt.
Merci beaucoup pg 🙂
Wanted to say more, but that would be against the rules.
GdM, have you tried telling the Bus Driver that they’re your “Service Dogs”?
Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring–it was peace. ― Milan Kundera
no bus service out here hugo! I walked the 3 of them up the hill to the quarry this morning.
pg, I really really wish I hadn’t seen that twitter pic of the dogs being boiled alive in south korea. trying to climb out of the vat, screaming. fucking nuke the bastards.
we do not deserve this planet or the life on it. we are vermin, stinking, bickering, greedy self centred vermin. beneath cockroaches or anything that slithers, bites, crawls or flies.
you’re welcome hugo, sorry good dog
sad poem but lovely just the same http://www.petloss.com/poems/maingrp/house…
HARNESSES
RSVP
: Justicecrusader (07/30, 4:46PM)
“Harnesses ENCOURAGE pulling, It is in a dog’s nature to pull against a harness. This is a really well-known fact and based on canine biology and genetics.”
Wrong! Wynnie the whippet has been wearing a harness for a few days. She used to baulk, twisting and turning to get away, when encountering other dogs as we – Wynnie, Lily and myself – walked along the pathway next to Lac St. Louis. The other day she managed to twist right out of her collar – a regulation whippet collar – as we approached a couple of men and their dogs who were blocking our path. They kept on yakking as she took off across a green space separating the pathway from Boulevard St. Joseph, a minor but ordinarily a fairly busy highway. Fortunately, this was last Sunday so traffic was light.
I ran after her after she crossed St. Joseph, squatting down and calling her name, but she paid no attention. We turned up a less frequented avenue running off St. Joseph and, after a few turns around some front yards, she settled down and trotted along ahead of Lily and me for about a mile as we made our way home which required three different turns. Fortunately she knew the way perfectly and, still trotting freely, made it back without missing a turn. We determined a harness was required.
She now wears a light harness with the hook on the back. We keep her collar on so that she thinks she’s still wearing one but it has no leash, just her tags. No problem at all. She walks like a perfect lady. In fact, we’re thinking of getting Lily one too. Not because she needs one but for the sake of symmetry. A pair of whippets must be matched!
So much for canine biology and genetics.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
very frightening to have the dog slip a collar! so glad she was ok MM! I have to use a harness on little jack, he is an independent little cuss, having lived on his own since birth.
dog personalities – both noofer and molly will do a perfect heel off leash, but pull like balto when leashed. now use a front hook harness for noofer, but only when he is out on his own in a traffic type situation. in the pack, like this morning when the 3 of them hauled my ass up the hill, they just hauled ass.
when the hound escaped he always trotted to the left, track experience
my car is back! heading for rocky paradise in the morning. quote by one repair place of 900+. but my local guy in the woods did it for 60 bucks and a case of beer. and I am legal and safe.
astounding how the dollar signs light up when two old women bring in a broken car.