This “humanisation” of dogs has got ridiculous

[Houseplantmad]

Had lunch in a chain restaurant yesterday. Two couples came in with smallish dogs. No problem with that as the restaurant is dog friendly however, they insisted on having high chairs for the dogs when their meal came as they had been holding the dogs on their laps until then. The waitress refused but they went and got them anyway so we had these shoved next to our table with a restless dog breathing and being uncomfortable in the high chair very close to us.
Today I get on an intercity train and a woman boards with a medium size dog and puts it on the seat next to her across from me at a table. The person who had booked that seat then turned up and the woman said what was she supposed to do with the dog as it couldn’t go on the floor! It did but was clearly distressed and couldn’t settle, poor thing.
I think putting animals in these situations is so unfair on them and also on others but it seems to be very common these days for people to treat their animal as if it is a human.

Oh god, imagine telling everyone at school that your big sister had died.

When dd is upset about something she will often refer to being ‘the neglected middle child’. Have to remind her that dog is not a child and that she is the neglected youngest child

Well exactly, it's all just a side effect of "The customer is always right" people have demanded that the customer be allowed to behave exactly how they like, dismiss staff and business owners alike.
This is one of the results. I've asked people to control their dogs and been sneered at, ignored and on one memorable occasion, bitched about, by name, on social media. I've had the same when asking people to stop their children running around, take their feet off the seats or not block fire exits/means of access by dragging the furniture around to suit them.
Customer facing staff are pretty much ignored because they aren't in the slightest bit respected, some customers genuinely believe they have the God given right to go where they want and do what they want - it's a culture that most people back as long as it gets them their own way and they feel pandered to enough. They're always the ones to blame though for someone else's behaviour.
That couple were told no and did it anyway, because that's what people do and how they regard others. Still, let's not blame a 'customer' let's blame the establishment and the staff - and let the 'customer' feel that that is perfectly justified and they've done nothing wrong, that'll solve the problem.

Me and my 2dds adore our little dog - he does have a christmas jumper but he's never had a glass of pawsecco whilst strapped into a highchair in a restaurant, he's never been clothes shopping or sent me a birthday card.

dd1 showed me a tik tok of a small dog getting a pamper session, face mask, spa robe, massage etc - the dog just lay there seemingly blissed out but I told her it's probably been sedated for content and likes.

...very few people admit or recognise their dogs aren’t well behaved...

This x 1000 👆

Most serious , knowledgeable dog owners will agree with you.
Dogs thrive by being treated as dogs, that goes for tiny dogs too. They all need rules, discipline, boundaries, love and respect.

Sorry tagged the wrong person.

I have a small dog would never take him in a cafe,let alone sit in a high chair has the world gone mad, might sit outside in a beer garden in the summer, dog on a lead by my feet.

I found this an interesting take on the issue. Particularly the commoditising/accessorising of a sentient species. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/25/britain-dog-lovers-animals-neglect

This reminds me that when I was little in the 1960s I told my teacher that my hamster had died. Oh my goodness, the fuss and special treatment I got was incredible. They were mighty surprised when my dad came to collect me after school as they thought I'd said my father had died.

Funny, @Dapbag ! Although in this case, it wasn't a misunderstanding...the child actually referred to the dog as her sister.

@herewegoagainy but they know they work out of the house full time, they probably shouldn’t have gotten a dog 🤷‍♀️

Animals in general are treated like humans. And I’m a recent cat owner. I like my cat, she’s cute but I’m very aware she only sees me as a source of food and shelter.

I remember when my school friends had dogs. They were treated like pets. They weren’t allowed up on chairs. Not allowed in the bedrooms at all. Taken for walks, had a ball. But they were left in the house when they went to the pub or out for dinner. They were loved of course but not to the extend people love their animals now!

I’m on a train right now and there’s a dog sitting on the seat at the table next to me. Dogs are becoming so high up in hierarchy now, much higher than children! It’s a struggle to find cafe’s that aren’t dog friendly now, you have to accept they will walk alongside you in department stores and shopping centres. Personally I hate it but I think I’m in the minority.

I was trying to figure out what this reminded me of so strongly. It’s the Emperor’s New Clothes. Everyone can see the Emperor is being ridiculous as fuck but it takes a child in the crowd finally yelling, “But why is he NAKED?” for the dam to burst and everyone to admit the clothes aren’t real. It’s NOT socially acceptable or hygienic to have a dog in a supermarket; they’re NOT “fur babies.” Your DC is just having a giggle and pointing it out, and the “Emperor” is getting very pissy about it.

YANBU and I’m someone who takes my smallish dog all over the place. He’s not on sofas at home or when we are out.

There are SO many completely ill mannered dogs around at the moment, people are way too soft on them and don't realise they need training. I live near some woods and can't count the number of times dogs have come bounding up to me, jumping up at me, or gone completely nuts barking at me when I've walked past minding my own business. Never on a lead and always with dreadful recall.

If your dog doesn't have perfect recall, it needs to be on a lead.

If your dog is reactive, it needs to be on a lead.

Should be simple, apparently it isn't.

Love dogs, have one myself, but she’s treated like the dog she is. Would never take her shopping or out for lunch even though she is a small breed.

I think a huge part of the problem is due to WFH/Covid a lot of dogs can’t tolerate being left at all anymore which means the owners are having to bring them everywhere with them to avoid them destroying their home in their absence.

Mine is rarely left on her own but she can be left for a few hours (enough time to take the kids out to an activity/go shopping/go for dinner etc) and the house will be as I left it. Shes never destroyed sofas/shoes etc. She just curls up on the sofa on a blanket and sleeps.

I could leave her longer than we do but in that case I’d feel more comfortable asking my parents who live locally to nip over and let her out to the garden, but it’s rare that we’d be out for that long.

Even though I work part time and me and DP often work around each other (for childcare reasons, so she’s usually got someone with her as a result of that) we still made sure as a puppy we did get her used to us nipping out for a bit so this would never be a problem.

It’s foolish of the owners to clearly not have worked on these things and it’ll be a hard habit to correct now.

They put them in a HIGHCHAIR?! Wtf!!! That's got to be a joke!

I have two dogs and think both the examples you give are people being ridiculous. I like dog friendly places, favour them when I am out and about, but absolutely accept that some places have the right not to admit dogs. And have been known to take my dogs out if they are being disruptive. There are a lot of people out there who give dog owners a bad name.

😂

My dog is elderly and I've virtually given up walking him accept for close to home due to so many off lead dogs jumping all over him & knocking him down because he's quite wobbly. As well as my fear of bullies since a massive one was roaming off lead at a local family friendly beauty spot with the owner screaming at people to get their dogs away. It was truly terrifying

I agree. Last time I went to a particular forest in our local area (which was a long time ago for this reason, DD1 was not long walking at this point) a German Pointer bounded up to us and near knocked her over and completely covered me in mud by jumping up on me multiple times. Obviously the owner was out a jog and the dog was just running wild off lead. The guy could barely get the dog contained and while he did apologise I was absolutely fuming. No recall at all, was just lucky the dog was “friendly”.

Not worth going back to places like these with young kids. My kids are used to dogs but they’re used to a small dog who is trained not to jump up on them and to give them space. Not a big dog who runs roughshod over them.

It’s infuriating. Don’t even get me started on the piles of dog shit that are never cleaned up either…

*except

I don't know how to edit posts 😭