Downside of dog ownership

[TheFastandTheCurious]

A colleague's husband wants a puppy, colleague doesn't, I've told her to not even consider getting one if they don't agree on it. She wants her husband to understand why she doesn't want one and the downsides of dog ownership, I have a dog and as much as I love her, I wouldn't get another. They both work full time. She wants me to get a list together to show the cons and so far I have cost - including food, insurance, vet bills etc., dog hair everywhere, giving up a lot of time to train, toilet training, not being able to leave the dog for long periods, what will they do when they want a holiday, who is going to train it, what will they do when at work.

He wants to just go and buy a Golden Retriever, I've said any reputable breeder would have a waiting list and he'd potentially be getting one from a BYB or farm.

What else am I forgetting?

Bottom line is that - in most cases - working full time is totally incompatible with having a puppy. It’s different if you can take the dog to work or can afford full time doggy day care or have someone else to care for the dog. Small puppies really shouldn’t be left alone for more than an hour or two right at the beginning.

Love my dog, but we've decided we won't have another.
Restricting on days out, visiting people etc. Either have to be home within how-ever-many-hours or pay for a dog walker.
If you work full time, dog walker or daycare is EXPENSIVE.
Ours is a complete mix-mash of breeds, so thought we'd be safe on illness etc. We have insurance - but the vet bills! Dog has been put under for 5 operations in 6 years, daily meds for allergies plus the general costs at the vet (flea worm vaccine) and the insurance excess goes up and up and she gets older.
Randomly vomiting on the carpet
Randomly pooping or pissing on the carpet
Trying to work out the above at the vets, to find out it was just random and paying for that privilege.
Fucking ticks.
Hair. Everywhere. (Short hair too)
Having to express her anal glands because I refuse to pay £19 + consultation 🤮
Mud.
Wet dog smell.
Dog farts.
Other than cost, our dog is a darling, she's not a chewer and is good on walks. But they are so much work, I actually think having a child is easier 😂 (I have one of those too)

However clean you keep a dog, it will always smell a bit, and so will your house.

We have an 8 month old puppy. If I didn't work from home (and for myself) there is no way we could do it due to the amount of time they take up.

My once lovely house is now always dirty. He is a rough collie and so hair gets everywhere and muddy paws are in and out at least ten times a day (he likes to sit on the front porch and keep watch).

Sick, poop, wee, decomposed dead things found in the garden are all regular features on my kitchen floor.

My kitchen kickboards are knackered due to the one day I thought it would be fine to leave him in the kitchen alone for four hours when he was about 5 months old. Now he always goes back into his pen if he's left alone. Even when he isn't alone though he sometimes finds new things to eat - like the time he went suspiciously quiet in the living room and I went in to find an extremely expensive indoor plant now just a twig. He also went through a phase for a couple of weeks where he liked to get his teeth into looped carpet and pull..... I now need new carpet in the living room.

He needs lots of exercise and despite being an intelligent breed don't underestimate the difficulties of dealing with "free will". He knows full well he isn't allowed to jump up at people we pass in the street but he just wants to

My main one - you have to go out when its cold and dark and wet. Every day.

I have 2 dogs. Husband doesn't work. Only downside for us is the kennel fees (think £1K) for 2 dogs for 4 weeks.

Apart from that, wouldn't be without them.

Puppies can also destroy your sleep initially. When we had one he would whimper and bark numerous times in the night waking us up. He needed almost 24/7 attention or he'd be after wires or destroying things. They need a lot of walks in the early days while toilet training. 3 walks a day is only as they get older. We had to be "on guard" to whisk him outside every time it looked as if he may need to go. I'd say it's harder than a baby (and I've had 2!) as at least babies don't chew up everything and they wear a nappy! A puppy when they both work full time is a terrible idea!

I often found my Lab woke me at night. Slept in basket not in bedroom but the sighing, pacing, shuffling are just another added thing to the rest of the list.

This. This is a con. Yesterday I had to put my senile old man rescue dog down. I'm laying in bed feeling numb and it's noticeably colder without him on the bed with me. My kids are sad, my youngest made this letter for him.

I think what stops me from going and rescuing a new old dog is that I'm starting to get my life back slowly, and whilst I've still got so much time at home, it's not 24/7 like it was, it's more like 18/7 or something and what made it work with my little old man was that I could watch him literally round the clock and work him out. I don't feel it would be fair on another dog for me to not have that same time to dedicate (though plenty of people do manage the work and home balance with sitters and walkers).

Our biggest issues were the cost, because as an older dog he came with a lot of health problems including a very expensive operation he needed due to neglect. He's been in and out of the vets almost monthly.

And we've been unable to go away without asking my mum if she's happy to stay here with him, we couldn't pop out for the day often because it's not fair to ask her to do that all the time and on top of everything else we couldn't afford daycare.

So there won't be another anytime soon.

Hope this helps. Also, sorry if I've brought the tone down.

I would honestly of had to leave my DP if he didn’t agree to a dog.

Constant vacuuming. Retrievers are like a fucking snow storm with all the hair.

Picking up shit; not being able to sleep in of a weekend because the dog is whining to go out for a shit; slicks of runny dog shite on the carpet when the dog has the squits.

Chair legs, the settee, the table, the door frame, the carpet, the walls, all chewed to fuck.

Having to take it for walks in the pissing down rain whether you like it or not.

Getting the bloody thing in the bath when it’s rolled in fox shit because it stinks to high heaven. You can never quite get rid of the smell of fox shit from a persistent roller.

Muddy paw prints, even after it’s just been out the back.

Doggy slobber after eating; a slick of slobbery water after it’s had a drink; dribbling while you’re eating.

I love dogs but they really are a huge commitment, even when you aren’t at work all day and can be with them. Also Retrievers are lovely but they’re big slobbery hairy bastards and they have a real willful streak.

I’d never Gav another pup, I’d only adopt older dogs. I love my dogs so much, but puppies are awful.

I don’t like all the things you’ve said: plus expense for a dog walker on the one day a week we both work all day. We could get car finance cheaper .

Also, a home boarder for them when we go on holiday is fortunes.

If we both worked the same long days no way would we inflict it on a dog.

I have a golden retriever and can confirm the dog hair is a big problem. When she's moulting it can be like tumbleweed blowing across the kitchen and I vacuum twice a day!

Also:
Cost - food, annual inoculations, insurance. My GR suffers from pancreatitis. Because we've made a few claims when she's had a flare up our insurance went through the roof at every renewal. You can't just shop around when it gets expensive either because new insurers will not cover an existing condition.
Training - GRs are easy to train if you have the time and patience to do it, and it's better if there's consistency of one person doing it
Puppy stage - don't under estimate this period. It's like having a naughty toddler in the house. Mine would reach for and chew up anything she could get hold of when left alone.
Socialisation - dogs shouldn't be left alone for long periods and if they're both working full time who will be minding the dog. Having someone pop in to let the dog out at lunchtime is not enough. Dogs (and GRs especially) like to be next to you and would struggle with isolation.
Exercise - who is going to do the daily walks, and when will they fit them in?
Body Clock - my DH has always had to get up very early for work (I work from home). He will be the one who feeds her as he's up first. Over time the dog has got used to someone being up early. If we try to have a lie in at weekends she barks because her routine has been disrupted.
If her DH is a bit OCD about his lawn (like mine is) then don't get a bitch. Our grass is constantly covered with brown patches where the dog wees.

I never thought I would spend a sunday evening trying to hold down a large excited puppy in the bath and making him sit down to soak off poop from his bum where he had a tummy upset. Even when soaked it needed teasing off by hand. Poo picking is not just for quick scoop of firm poops with a poo bag.

Oh and walking in shit weather or when you’re poorly is the absolute pits.

Also never having a lie in because of you do you’ll come down to pee and poo everywhere and it smells for ages.

I am struggling to see how they will care for a big dog like this ,when they are both working F/T ? Its not fair at all on a pet to be left for hours on end ,and so many end up in rescue when "cute pup" grows into a large energetic dog! Have they watched the guy on Ch 5 who has to sort out Doggy misbehaving ? !

It's unlikely that your colleague's husband will ever really understand why she does not want a dog, any more than she will ever really understand why he wants one, but she does need to say no clearly and consistently. Dog people are persistent and manipulative and raving bonkers.

My dog gets places I didn’t previously realise she could get to.

She’s been jumping on the kitchen counter (no idea how) and eating the food costing us some unexpected vet bills.

She’s a rescue dog and developed cancer. She’s covered for life with pet plan but as we think she’s about 7 now, her insurance costs is just going up and up and up.

We also had the dog before we had children so that was a worry to see what she’d be like. Luckily she’s been amazing 😍

Walking the dog as well. Especially when it’s cold and raining. Some days I really don’t want to go out there but have to some the dog can get her much needed exercise.

We were lucky in that we were allowed to adopt a dog from a rescue despite us working full time (I’m part time now) but she was an adult dog and came completely house trained. There’s no way I’d get a puppy if we worked full time.

To add - with the current wet/damp weather, our GR is always wet and muddy when she comes home from her walk so you have to factor in time to shower/dry them off. The 'wet dog' smell can be a pain, and you're forever washing towels (and then having to wipe out your washing machine so that other clothes don't get covered in the hair left behind).

Teeth - months of :

• Gnawing, nibbling furnishings, anything they can get hold of
• Hard mouthing, hands, feet

Toilet training weeks of:

• setting clear schedule and not missing one session
• puppy pads and near and not so near misses, cleaning it up
• Years of toilet walks at regular times

Sleep

• months of broken sleep for toilet training
• however many months years of it for anxiety, playfulness, etc

Damage

• things get gnawed, fabrc of the house included; fences, garden, clothing, funrinute, carpets, anything and everything can be fair game

Cost

• Food, vets, insurance, chip, collar, lead, harness and replacements as it grows, toys, squillions of them, food treats - you have to focus those teeth, boredom killers, or you get more damage;
• Crate or no crate - your choice, we have one, that's why we still have furniture and the dog is still alive. He has a safe space and we have an alternative to throwing his over excited self out into the freezing cold garden! He can calm down with a tasty treat in his safe space for a couple of minutes. Oh, and you can leave him without losing your Kitchen base boards
• Training. Believe me, sod the dog YOU will need it!

Time

• forget it. You'll have none to yourself
• Training, training, training
• Walking, walking, walking
• Socialisation, training, walking
• Just being there

- arranging all of it round the dog, ALL OF IT!!!

There is more but my terrierist is calling...

Having to walk it in all weathers and the wet clothes and dampness everywhere every day even when you don't feel like it. You don't have to walk a cat!
Picking up the poo!
Bigger the dog generally means a bigger expense.

Yes! Dirt

Dirty, smell, dog poo and poo bags
Washing, washing, washing
Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning

And food...

I had a puppy years ago and Unfortunately ended up rehoming her.. My reasons were:
She was aggressive and kept nipping my children/chasing the postman/snapping and growling at people when we were out on walks. I couldn’t leave her outside anywhere for even a minute as I was terrified she’d bite someone. She even used to growl at my sister who visits 3 times a week. So that was very stressful. I took her to puppy training and bought books etc and really tried to train her but i just couldn’t seem to do it right as nothing worked!
She would wake up barking at 4am every morning (this was after having her for months, not just as a new puppy) and it physically and mentally became a huge toll. I was in tears most days from getting up at 4am with her. If we let her into our bedrooms she would wee on the beds.
If I didn’t go to her she would bark and bark and bark, a loud high-pitched bark and wouldn’t stop - waking everyone up so it was a vicious circle.

Agree with loss of freedom being a BIG issue with dogs. We went away for a weekend and had to leave her with a dog siitter - which was expensive and also she then bloody escaped from the dog sitters garden! We had to turn around on the motorway to go back and look for her - luckily she was found but it ruined our first day of a supposed holiday.
The weeing in the house and mud/hair were a problem too but I could’ve dealt with that if I hadn’t been so exhausted from the other stuff.
I was lucky in that my auntie who is great with dogs decided to take her after her own dog had died. I had got to the point where I just couldn’t cope any more so I was so grateful and although I felt guilty it was such a relief when life got back to normal after she’d gone.
And she’s doing very well with my aunt luckily.
The only thing I enjoyed about her was taking her for walks - the rest was just bloody hard work.

£70.00 my two are costing me at the groomers today (every 6 weeks or so).

One's a poodle cross and the other a shih tzu, they may not moult but they get matted if they don't go regularly.

It's alive, sentient, deeply attached to you, and doesn't understand reason.

Tell him to imagine having a very hairy toddler, and explain to her how that would work around their 2 full time jobs and lifestyles.

Also - even though she was only young and we had pet insurance she had several health issues just in the time we had her. She had a problem with her eyes when the eyelid inverts on itself and also got an infection when she was neutered. She was from a breeder and I met both parents/spent time with them etc. but she still had problems. So that’s something to think about.