To not understand the appeal of dogs as pets?

[Gardentiger]

I just don't get it and would love to understand! As much as I like certain dogs I meet and think they are cute, the list of downsides is massive

• they smell and make your house and car and clothes smell bad

-they can't be left alone for a length of a working day -behavioural problems and agression -if you get a barky one it can ruin your relationship with neighbours -the amount of time you have to spend training them -some seem to need constant supervision -chewing things and generally wrecking the housr -having to pick up warm freshly baked turds

I walked a friend of mines dog the other day and it was awful! He pulled on the lead the entire way, and kept trying to pee on people's doorsteps / flowerpots.

So what is the appeal!? I say this as an animal lover who has had pet rabbits, cats and hamsters in the past.

[quote FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop]@ForeverAintEnough3 why are you still yammering on? I can post whenever I like thank you, OP didn't invite opinions from just dog owners - and even if she did that wouldn't be her call.

Please leave me alone now, you're constant rambling replies are making me cringe[/quote]
@FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop I’m entitled to post here just as you are. Personally I find your nasty posts on all threads related to dogs (this and one yesterday) embarrassing. If you don’t like dogs that’s fine but there’s something odd about seeking out dog threads to go on a tirade about them!

@Comedycook

I have a neighbor with a barking dog...pisses me off no end that I can no longer have a lie in because it wakes me up ..why is their dog now my fucking problem?

We’ve got a neighbour who likes to sleep with the windows open and has complained about other neighbours having their supermarket deliveries too early (7 am) because it wakes her.

That very same neighbour has a very yappy dog that wakes everyone else day and night but the van delivery door opening and closing is the big issue haha.

@2bazookas I think you’re onto something. We had my dog for a couple of years before she met my sister (sister lives abroad). My sister was visiting and we were due to meet for a walk, dog was off lead, spotted my sister and sprinted over to great her like a long lost best friend - they’d never met!

I don't understand people who don't like dogs and am always a bit suspicious of them.

@30degreesandmeltinghere

Ime a ddog can see your soul!! It's as simple as that to me!!

That’s must’ve been terrifying for Harold Shipman and Jeffrey Dahmer’s dogs. Probably what killed them.

Not too many goldfish/hamsters/cats have been trained to detect cancer and Covid etc, lead blind people and make judgement calls, sniff out landmines, find missing people or bring down criminals.

[quote FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop]@Sloaneslone my friend got a dog and made me promise to tell her if her house started to smell and I just can't bring myself to say it 😬 crap I know but she never asks and I don't like saying "sorry you're house just STINKS" 🤣[/quote]
I think she would appreciate it.

I know my friends would tell me. When we have had a Foster dog in. They told me. Though I was aware, because the health of the dog, it did indeed stink 🤣

@ForeverAintEnough3 like I said leave me alone, your prodding at me is getting annoying.

I'll post on as many dog threads as I like, just as I'm sure you will. If you don't like other people's opinions maybe the internet isn't for you.

@HandsSpaceArse

Not too many goldfish/hamsters/cats have been trained to detect cancer and Covid etc, lead blind people and make judgement calls, sniff out landmines, find missing people or bring down criminals.

This.

Also it's a bit creepy that you seem to be following me around MN

A couple of days after my Father passed away I called over to my Mum's to see her, along with my ddog. My mother is not really a dog person. He ran straight into the house, through 3 rooms looking for my mum. She was sitting on the couch and he ran up to her, sat down beside her, put his head on her lap and let her stroke him for as long as she wanted. He just sat there, motionless and let her cry and pet him. It was a beautiful, heart warming moment in an otherwise awful time for us all. Dogs just "know."

I don't even need to read any further than the title to say YABU.

‘Not really. We domesticated dogs 15,000 years ago, but their prevalence (especially outside the hunting/farming sphere as working dogs) was historically lower in every day society compared to day, when dog ownership in the UK is increasingly common.’

But hunting and farming were the ordinary social spheres in the past. Dogs owned by individual people has increased in the West but community dogs that roam about remains the norm in much of the developing world.

@HandsSpaceArse

Not too many goldfish/hamsters/cats have been trained to detect cancer and Covid etc, lead blind people and make judgement calls, sniff out landmines, find missing people or bring down criminals.

TBH this doesn't bring me much comfort when dogs are jumping up at my terrified children, or eating my picnic, or posing on my doorstep.

Yes I know it's mostly the owners fault in those cases. But assuming those dogs weren't just magically born with those skills you mention, it tells us one important thing - humans are the driving factor behind the best dogs.

*pissing on my doorstep. It would cheer me up if a dog started posing on my doorstep

@HandsSpaceArse

I don't understand people who don't like dogs and am always a bit suspicious of them.

I’d consider a new method of judging how trustworthy humans are. Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, Dennis Nilsson, Adolph Hitler, Ed Gein, Jeffry Dahmer, Harold Shipman were all devoted dog lovers and owners.

@HandsSpaceArse

I don't understand people who don't like dogs and am always a bit suspicious of them.

Well, yes. Dogs have been hanging out with people for tens of thousands of years, helping us along the way (because helping us resulted in food and increased odds of survival). They have guarded our camps, herded our livestock, hauled our possessions and and (probably most importantly over the longest period of time) helped us hunt. They used to live unconfined lives wandering around the camp or the village (loose dogs were common in English villages into the 1970s) so a) all the humans knew how to deal with dogs, as well as being aware of how incredibly useful they were and b) ill-mannered and aggressive dogs didn't last long. Understanding the importance of dogs, liking dogs and being good with dogs may well have conferred a survival advantage - I don't know for sure, but it doesn't seem impossible.

That said, people are quite within their rights to not like dogs. They track in mud, they pick up ticks, they do make the house smell a bit, they are a massive commitment. But I wouldn't be without mine. I enjoy exercising and training them, and find something intensely rewarding about the cross-species communication we sometimes manage.

Speaking of which, the downpour has stopped, the sun is out - walkies!

Yabu, even though I’m a ‘cat’ person, but dogs make lovely, loyal companions. I’ve had them in the past but now I’m in a flat without garden so have discovered my love of cat companions 😂

@FMSucks

A couple of days after my Father passed away I called over to my Mum's to see her, along with my ddog. My mother is not really a dog person. He ran straight into the house, through 3 rooms looking for my mum. She was sitting on the couch and he ran up to her, sat down beside her, put his head on her lap and let her stroke him for as long as she wanted. He just sat there, motionless and let her cry and pet him. It was a beautiful, heart warming moment in an otherwise awful time for us all. Dogs just "know."

My mum's dog sat next to where my dad used to sit for months looking for him.

my dog doesn't smell, well house trained, doesn't pull on his lead. Gets excited to see me and all the love and cuddles given! Keeps me company if home alone, is like my little baby.
Does not chew or trash the house, just leaves his dog hair which a hoover can suck up!
DOGS ARE AMAZING!

Me neither OP. I really don't see many positives. I grew up with dogs too. For me the worst thing is they are so tying. Can't just go on holiday without either taking them with you, or paying kennel fees, or dumping them on someone. And too many people get a dog and then can't be faffed looking after it properly

I also don’t know how people have so many negative dog experiences.

I walk my dog so am in constant contact with other dogs but have only had the following negative dog experiences in nearly fifty years -

Dog weeing on my flip flip, dog biting my dog, dog jumping up at me, dog jumping in my child’s pushchair. Four incidents in fifty years.

On here there seem to be people who are constantly persecuted by gangs of marauding dogs every time they leave the house.

As follows:

• they smell and make your house and car and clothes smell bad - Not in my house, yes i have to hover nearly every day and wash the floors but i hear of my friends who have children having to do this too, plus its my choice. Believe me if my mother came into my house and thought it was smelly she was tell me with a look

-they can't be left alone for a length of a working day - some dogs can -behavioral problems and aggression, yes with badly treated or trained dogs, currently have a rescue that was a very snappy dog, have him 4 weeks and the difference in those weeks with our hard work is unreal -if you get a barky one it can ruin your relationship with neighbours - they bark when people come into my drive so good security, they sometimes bark at ghosts in the yard but then i my garden is on acre so not worried about annoying the neighbours, plus my JR bark is more of a smokers cough wouldn't call it a bark -the amount of time you have to spend training them- again depends on the dog, our dog we found on the road was house trained and let us know when she wanted to go out, so is our rescue and any training we have had to do with them has been very rewarding -some seem to need constant supervision, nope one is asleep under my bed down the hall and the other is in her bed in the loving room. The male JR spent an hour this morning running about with his ( very torn) football -chewing things and generally wrecking the house- again no, the dogs have their onw box of toys and beds, they go over to the toy box and pull out their toys when they want them, my own stuff has never been chewed with these dogs, -having to pick up warm freshly baked turds - am lucky don't have to do this too often (himself does it) but do my bit especially when we on beach etc - no different to changing kids nappies or wiping their bums etc The rewards are what makes having dogs in my life worthwhile, the reception you get when you come home, the excitement when you say want go for a walk, or how excited they get when they know were on the way to the beach ( they get more excited as they smell the sea) their moodiness and contrariness, they are like humans sometime, they sulk, get tired etc. Seeing a once downtrodden very frightened dog bloom into a happy dog with all the work you have done and the knowing you have saved him from a terrible life, really makes me feel good. When your sick or tired and they curl up beside you is very comforting . But that's me i love them, and would give them my world. i lost a dog at xmas that i had for 10 years and was devastated when he was put to sleep. literally felt like shite for ages after, But am not a lover of children, wouldn't choose to spend a lot of time with them. Sometimes feel that they are let get away with murder and run riot with no manners and do all the tings you listed in your opening . That is life though we all have likes and dislikes and sometime don't see the point of things that other people love to do or have. That is the joy of the world we live in or else it would be a very boring world wouldn't it

@FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop

Also it's a bit creepy that you seem to be following me around MN

It’s a bit hard to miss the person ranting and raving about awful dogs in multiple posts on every recent threads about dogs @FrangipaniDeLaSqueegeeMop

There you go again below. How many posts giving out are now on this thread alone? Apparently on top of every dog you see jumping on top of your terrified ‘dog magnet’ (okkaay) child, dogs also actively seek out your doorstep to poo on. Seems legit 😂

@GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman I enjoy exercising and training them, and find something intensely rewarding about the cross-species communication we sometimes manage. That is the joy, isn't it, to realise you can speak dog!