To think we need to find a way to infiltrate the dog cult?

[dogsdilemma]

I'll start by saying I favour cats but love all animals. I don't want a dog just now because I find them tying. Would date someone who had one because, contrary to what I'm about to say, I like them and it wouldn't be my responsibility.

But the obsession drives me nuts. It seems no one can own a dog in a normal way anymore. As in I have a dog, the dog is a pet not a person, dogs aren't god-like solve all creatures, it's fine if not everyone loves my dog as much as me - like I am with my cat.

Someone gets a puppy and I go to their house - all conversation is about the puppy and I'm expected to fuss like they've just given birth. I can't say 'ah I've actually come to catch up with my friend, not have endless chat about the puppy's sleep schedule and whether or not it shat in the house today' because their dogs are their babies, so I should treat them as such.

Instagram accounts for dogs - captions written like 'my mum took me for a walk today, I had so much fun'. Only mildly cringy but wtf? Are you a springer spaniel mother or Katie from uni?

I do an exercise class and the owner has a puppy. She brings him along so he's not home alone. At least 15 minutes of the session I've paid for is always taken up by the hive mind fussing the puppy. Everyone loves dogs so no one minds apparently - except I DO mind. If I say this though I'm gonna be the dick.

I'm OLD, and every other profile says 'must love dogs'. I do love them but don't want one, and if I say this it's like I've confessed to being Hitler in a past life. Cue messages trying to change my mind, as though not being obsessed with dogs is a moral failure. I love my cat but wouldn't rule out someone who doesn't feel the same?

The final nail in the coffin. I've been dating someone new. Had an absolute shitter of a week so far - nothing he can help with, not really serious, just work stuff. His response is 15 pictures of his dog being cute to cheer me up. He's just trying to be nice but I do not get it. I wouldn't expect pictures of my cat to cheer anyone up except, maybe, me. I'm being narky but I actually found it so so irritating and cannot even fake enthusiasm to reply. If I say 'awwww cute, thank you' he'll continue with this approach. If I say 'cute but why would your dog cheer me up ha' I'm gonna look like a knob.

I have no problem with others doing what they want to do but recently it is infiltrating everything. I know there are worse issues but ffs it's so annoying - what is this dog cult and how to we stop it? Can I tell this lovely man I'm dating that I actually have little interest in his dog?!?!?

I like dogs, I’ve had dogs as a child but the way a lot of people treat them as surrogate children these days and I hear of more and more friends of friends saying “oh I can’t leave Fido”, well tough. I don’t want a dog in an area with food especially if it eats mine or slobbers near mine. I would be angry with any dog eating my food where the owner did nothing to stop it. Same with dog shitting somewhere, your dog, you clean it up.

Yes, I’ve had and have cats, one currently. I’m not dragging her out to a pub or cafe with me, if it was allowed, she wouldn’t enjoy it, and if taking her by car she’d associate it with the vet where she gets nervous and scared.

Free roaming pests.

No wonder so many go missing.

I’d be furious if 15 minutes of my class was taken up with others mooning over a puppy. Could you not have a word with the teacher privately? I’m crazy about my dogs, couldn’t care less about other people’s.

I hope you mean find other homes or have accidents. I live near where the M25 cat killer operated, lots of missing cats to do with that.

I'd rather have a dog as company than your whiny self!

Even worse he wanted to FaceTime with the bloody dog so we could say hello to each other.

Now I’m reluctant to do video calls anyway let alone with a freaking dog

Has a dog actually ate your food - or is this a Self Righteous Brothers rant?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=82qGJRmR5Yo

The exercise class is one of those things that you don’t have to agree with - you choose to support the class by paying to participate, or you find something more suited to what you want.

Assuming the person running the class is self-employed, she gets to run her business the way she wants - and if that means bringing a puppy and spending class time fussing over it, that’s her choice. It’s her business.

It doesn’t strike me as a smart business move - I think it would piss a lot of people off as it has the OP - but unless people stop coming and stop paying for the classes, she has no incentive to change her plans.

I don’t know why you’d keep going to class like this instead of finding another class (or form of exercise) that is less frustrating. It’s not an essential service that’s being offered - it’s a hobby you can choose to engage with, or not.

obviously if the class is run by an organisation / leisure centre who employs the coach, you can take it up with them and tell them you don’t want to participate in the class with the dog present. That’s also reasonable…

I grew up with dogs and my dad was like this-he was more attentive to the dogs than his own kids.

I've not had dogs for several years now and realised I don't actually like them and getting another has no appeal whatsoever-something I never thought I'd say as I thought you can't have a family without a dog?! You get used to it though, and it's nice to have a clean house.

You are berating a parent who lost an actual human baby to people whose dog or cat dies and saying they might feel grief the same. This is beyond inappropriate, a dog can never ever be compared to a baby especially in death.

Especially with your own experience this is nasty, I've reported your post

Completely agree OP but this latest development is hardly surprising given how toxic and dysfunctional life in the UK has become. Attachment disorders are rife and many people are now unable to form healthy connections with humans so they replace them with animals instead. You can see posters who willingly own their misanthropy and whose identity is fused with their dog, which is why they take any negative comments so very personally. After an experience today with an owner who had zero control over her dog who was apparently trying to 'round me up' while I was walking across a field, I am done being 'nice'.

Can you not read? The person you are reporting also lost a human baby.

Grief is not a competition, and everyone feels it differently. Berating others (and you will if it is about dogs because you don't want them to exist full stop) for their pain is not on.

It hasn’t ate my food yet but I have had them sit very near where I’m eating. Not me, but a friend of mine said a dog in a cafe ate her sausage, dog was sitting near her table and was a labradoodle, and she didn’t think it would dare. She wasn’t happy but owners did apologise to her.

My dog enriches my life. She is not a replacement for anything.

Are elderly people who have no one else, but have their little dog, also unable to form healthy connections with people? Loneliness is a killer, especially in vulnerable people.

No one is trying to make it a competition. They just said that losing a pet is NOTHING like losing a child, which to any sane person is true. That doesn’t mean people can’t be sad about losing a loved pet, but most of the time pet owners just replace it with another a few weeks later. Most parents don’t think to just ‘replace’ their child if they lost them.

Can we please STOP comparing pets with children. They are nothing like each other in anyway shape or form.

"You can see posters who willingly own their misanthropy...I am done being 'nice'."
Are you owning yours too?

Most of the dog cult on this thread have proved ops point and more. Sadly normal dog owners are quite rare now, and they also find the cult ridiculous.
The biggest problem with it is they have little to no understanding of dogs and think any training is akin to abuse, and anyone asking them to control their dog or not let is touch them is crazy.
I think @Helena91 was the most afflicted, trying to tell people that dog owners actually love their dogs the same level as a child. I really really hope that as any human would if their own dog was in danger next to an unknown child they would save the child.
If not society truly is fucked.

Yep. I am rubbish for remembering usernames, but that one is on any dog thread saying how vile they think they are. It is tiresome. I don't think it is healthy to carry around so much hate for one species. Maybe they should actually get their own dog.
After all, they are are great for mental health.

They are good for mental health for those of us that like them. No good for those who think all dogs are vile- they aren’t ever going to become dog lovers. But they could improve their mental health by accepting that dogs exist and lots of humans keep them as pets. That’s not going to change anytime soon. It must be wearing to be seething every time you see a dog and human enjoying each other’s company.

This thread has turned completely batshit, like all dog-bashing threads. It's getting to be on a par with stepmum bashing.

Unfortunately I think these types wouldn’t save the child because they see dogs as equal if not more than a child. Whenever a XL Bully has yet again ripped out another throat of a child, you can always count on sympathisers blaming the children saying things like ‘Children need to learn how to be around dogs’.

“Children need to learn how to be around dogs’.

^ They do 🤦🏼‍♀️

Wow. You’re one of those apologists I was talking about?

What, so you can kiss its mouth and admire its visible anus ?