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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

And so it begins (lockdown puppies)

310 replies

Sailawaysailaway · 06/03/2021 12:36

I’ve seen two posts this week on local Facebook/Nextdoor groups of

“Does anyone fancy walking my dog. Back to work for us etc etc”.

Quite obviously asking for someone to walk for them for free, not asking for a dog walker

I have been quite a defender on posts about lockdown dogs etc, hoping that the majority of people wouldn’t be so stupid as to get a dog with no forward planning at all - but I’m now seeing my hope was misplaced.

Not quite sure what my Aibu is - but seen yet another post today (by a teacher no less - so they were always going back to the “office”) and it’s pissed me off.

So I suppose Aibu to say - don’t get a dog if you have no plan on how to look after it when you go back to work.

OP posts:
CaptainMyCaptain · 06/03/2021 18:05

[quote Sailawaysailaway]@lightand fair enough - though as I say, one I saw today was a teacher (and prompted me to post).[/quote]
All teachers I know have been in school full time since the first lockdown ended. They haven't just gone back.

Rubyupbeat · 06/03/2021 18:06

But walking a dog is just part of it, the fact that the animal has been used to company all day and will now be left, only going out for a walk or two is bloody cruel. Dogs are so sociable, how anyone can leave one on its own is horrible.
Doggy daycare would be better.
My Nephew works in a well known dog rescue and the covid bought puppies have been steadily coming in for months, thats without the usual christmas puppies.

Claudia84 · 06/03/2021 18:06

To be honest I can’t even imagine my dog being okay with just a dog walker in the middle of the day and being alone either side. I know people do it and maybe I’m just soft but I think it would be such a limited life for such a social species to be on their own so much of the day.
I say that as someone who grew up with a dog who would be home alone all day and seemed perfectly content. It just doesn’t sit right with me any more.

I do know people do it and I’m sure anyone commenting on here clearly cares about making sure their dogs have the best life - so I’m really not looking to accuse anyone here of being bad dog guardians. I’m more talking about people like the OP has suggested who seemed to have got a dog because it might be nice to go for long walks at weekends but haven’t actually thought about anything else.

HarlequinOrka · 06/03/2021 18:07

@Claudia84 sensible not soft - dogs are social creatures.

PosyPinkPetal · 06/03/2021 18:07

Husband also always WFH. They are selling his office building, and bought him office furniture

CaptainMyCaptain · 06/03/2021 18:08

*"Last post I’m referring to is literally this (hope not MNetter!)

It’s literally this...
“Does anyone want to walk our lovely puppy (name). Maybe someone working from home who fancies getting out and about during the day, or someone retired. We are both teachers so back to work for us”.*

I've just seen this and don't think those people can really be teachers.

Theunamedcat · 06/03/2021 18:09

@sherrystrull

I don't get the problem with it being a teacher. If they've worked remotely since Christmas and are now going into school, what's the problem?
They bought a dog knowing they could not continue to work from home its a big part of the job description
MirandaMarple · 06/03/2021 18:14

YANBU.

My dogs require exercise every day (don't most dogs?) so answer me this. When it's raining, sleeting, dark, where are all the people and their dogs?

randomer · 06/03/2021 18:17

@sunflowersandbuttercups, its a dog and an animal. Its not a fur baby.

There has been a speedy growth is the infantalisation of so called due babies.

How have they survived without whole industries devoted to coats, treats, beds and so on?

oil0W0lio · 06/03/2021 18:20

Maybe someone working from home who fancies getting out and about during the day
what piss takers, if I want to get out and about the last thing I want is to be encumbered by someone's dog, acting as if they are doing people a favour by palming it off on other people!

OhDear2200 · 06/03/2021 18:20

Not read the thread.

Our neighbours got a puppy. She messaged me to ask for the details of our dog Walker. I sent it to her and said how good they are. She replied saying she was disappointed that none of the neighbours would take her dog out for her considering they are at home all the time.

FFS, if you get a dog you either have the lifestyle for it or you pay for dog walkers. Our boy goes out twice a week for socialising.

OhDear2200 · 06/03/2021 18:21

@MirandaMarple

YANBU.

My dogs require exercise every day (don't most dogs?) so answer me this. When it's raining, sleeting, dark, where are all the people and their dogs?

Best days to walk my dog, no other bugger about!!!
Ulelia · 06/03/2021 18:22

I also worry about the health of all these dogs after lockdown ends. At the moment a lot of new puppies will be getting walked a lot, as people have got the time to do it (and not much else to do). Once people return to normal daily life patterns, even if wfh, those walks are going to shrink dramatically: you're not walking the dog if you're in a pub all evening, going to the gym, seeing friends etc...
We've been looking after a dog for the last year for a charity and I love her, but we wouldn't keep her forever as it was so restricting socially when things did (briefly) reopen in the summer.

SimonJT · 06/03/2021 18:23

@MirandaMarple

YANBU.

My dogs require exercise every day (don't most dogs?) so answer me this. When it's raining, sleeting, dark, where are all the people and their dogs?

Try getting a Shiba Inu out in the rain 🤣
SciFiScream · 06/03/2021 18:24

It winds me up. I've been working from home since July 2019 and if I want I'll stay in this job for at least another 4 years. Meaning 6 years working from home.

I'd love a dog but I can't be certain that I'll be working from home for the life of a dog, so am waiting until I retire when I'll get a rescue that's matched to us.

Some people have considered life after a return to work. The majority have not.

You ANBU to make that post.

oil0W0lio · 06/03/2021 18:24

She replied saying she was disappointed that none of the neighbours would take her dog out for her considering they are at home all the time
🤣🤣🤣
does she think she's the queen and the neighbours are her footmen!

sunflowersandbuttercups · 06/03/2021 18:28

[quote randomer]@sunflowersandbuttercups, its a dog and an animal. Its not a fur baby.

There has been a speedy growth is the infantalisation of so called due babies.

How have they survived without whole industries devoted to coats, treats, beds and so on?[/quote]
Yes, we all know they're not babies. But animals still need to be cared for and looked after while their owners are working.

I mean, you might think it's acceptable to just shut a dog in a house all day, but thankfully most people know better and want to do what's best by their pet.

As to how they survived in the past - many dogs were just let out to roam, which is, thankfully, now illegal. Also, many households only had one working parent, so the dogs had company for most of the day.

Dogs deserve a lot more than what a lot of people give them. Personally I'm glad that daycares and walkers are now a "thing".

Claudia84 · 06/03/2021 18:32

@MirandaMarple

YANBU.

My dogs require exercise every day (don't most dogs?) so answer me this. When it's raining, sleeting, dark, where are all the people and their dogs?

You’re so right! My DH and I say this all the time when we take ours out. We live in a village FULL of dogs which we see all over the high street on a sunny Saturday but if it’s raining and particularly if we go ‘off road’ even when it’s not you don’t see a soul!
sunflowersandbuttercups · 06/03/2021 18:39

@MirandaMarple

YANBU.

My dogs require exercise every day (don't most dogs?) so answer me this. When it's raining, sleeting, dark, where are all the people and their dogs?

They're the best days Grin as a dog walker I LOVE how quiet it is in the rain, and the dogs love it.

That's the other problem with using someone who's not a professional dog walker - they won't want to walk someone else's dog when it's blowing 20mph and the rain is horizontal!

OverTheRainbow88 · 06/03/2021 18:40

I don’t think you can compare someone asking if anyone wants to walk their dog with arranging child care

SchadenfreudePersonified · 06/03/2021 18:40

My dogs require exercise every day (don't most dogs?) so answer me this. When it's raining, sleeting, dark, where are all the people and their dogs?

Best days to walk my dog, no other bugger about!!!

You're a woman after my own heart OhDear

Right anti-social bugger , I am!

One good thing to come from Covid as far as I'm concerned is that people I have met but barely know have stopped trying to hug me!

I'm not a hugger. Never have been a hugger. i hate hugging non-family. What is it with compulsive huggers?

randomer · 06/03/2021 18:49

I mean, you might think it's acceptable to just shut a dog in a house all day

No , never in a million years. Its an evil thing to do to an animal.
We care for a dog 3 days a week, on a friendly no cash basis. It suits everybody.
The thought of that poor spaniel ( previously mentioned) shut in for 10 hours is awful.

Donkeydonut · 06/03/2021 18:50

I always think that the sneering about ‘fur babies’ type are the less intelligent members of society who aren’t capable of providing the mental and physical stimulation that a pet needs. They say it to make themselves feel better about leaving a bored and depressed animal alone for eight hours a day.

SchadenfreudePersonified · 06/03/2021 18:50

Yes, we all know they're not babies. But animals still need to be cared for and looked after while their owners are working.

Well said, Sunflower. Having a dog is like having a perpetual toddler. That is about their level of understanding, and most of them are just as needly when it comes to their emotional lives. they need company, guidance and careful teaching, and you can't explain things to them - they just don't understand. but that doesn't mean they don't feel, because they do.

Many breeds are incredibly sensitive - a raised voice will have them cringing; many are desperate for company - being alone for hours is torture for them; many are off-the-scale intelligent - having nothing to do will literally drive them mad; many are all-day energetic - not getting a good couple of hours of off-leash play will make them physically ill.

Dogs are hard work. One of the great problems is that people have unrealistic expectations of them. Films like "Beethoven" and "Marley and Me" have led people to believe that dogs are just humans in a fur coat. They aren't!

Their needs and feelings are the same as ours, but their cognitive processes are different, and people need to realise that and learn how to appropriately treat them to socialise and train them.

WhoWants2Know · 06/03/2021 18:53

😁 I know a dog who looks so sad and sorry for herself if you take her out in the rain. She'll make big sad eyes at people to emphasise how she's being abused and made wet instead of lying on a cushion by the fire with never ending fusses and treats. The injustice of it all...