Has anyone ever regretted getting a dog?

[jt2345]

Just that really!
I'm thinking about getting a puppy and have been thinking for a while.

I have grown up with family dogs and know how much of a responsibility they are.

Just wondering 😀

X

No, he's very much part of the family, hate to think of him getting older. My friends say I treat him better than they treat their kids😂😂😂

I've even found a company that help me along the way...

www.facebook.com/BoopBoxes/

just like having a baby boy to buy for...I know, I know I'm often teased at work too!

Me 😩
He's two years old now but still chews ,pees now and again,aggressive to other dogs so walking him is a chore not enjoyable and he constantly digs up my garden.
He's very attention seeking and hyper when we have visitors but barks if he's locked away.
I love him to bits but he's definitely put me off ever owning a dog again.

Never! Our puppy can be very naughty sometimes, he always runs away in the park and he's started begging at the dinner table...but could never give him up

No, never. She makes me so happy. I was on antidepressants for about 10 years before we got her. Within about 6 months I was at the GP saying I didn't need them now I had natures antidepressant.

We would have liked to have kids but it didn't happen and as we're in our 50s and I've had a hysterectomy it's not going to happen. She's helped channel my maternal instinct.

Yes it's a pain planning holidays etc but it's worth every second.

Here's the cheeky monkey that stole my heart. My niece had her 10th bday during lockdown and wanted a Pets Party via Zoom. Maggie wanted to dress up for it.

I did when we first got our scotty. I had never had a dog before, and I did not plan or do my research. He chewed up the house, then the garden and we were worn out. The last straw cam when he pulled an entire water hose through the dog flap and chewed it up into sections and ate my rattan dining furniture in one day. He cocked his head on one side and smiled. I wept and the kids sat there thinking the end had come. Then I started laughing and everyone thought I had lost it. The penny dropped. It wasn’t his fault. We made amends and adjusted his and our living arrangements and his routine. I loved that dog. He taught me how to be a dog owner and whilst I regretted the first 6 weeks, the next 11 years were blessed. Read up, be prepared for mistakes and plan for success!

I have a 7 month old puppy and have not experienced anything that @CMOTDibbler outlined bar the toilet training at the start and getting up at night but after 3 months he is perfectly trained and the hard work paid off as we’ve never had a poo incident inside and very few pee accidents (usually when he goes to the door and it’s closed and we don’t notice so always right beside the door). He doesn’t touch our stuff and our house is still spotless. He’s a dream on the lead - loose short lead and no pulling and he has somehow trained himself to come back and sit beside us whenever a car comes if he is off lead. He’s an absolute darling.

However :

• we were both completely exhausted and sleep deprived with the toilet training for 3 months
• we got him during lockdown and were working beside kitchen back door so letting him out every 30mins was easy
• we don’t have any financial constraints so we send him to a really good small daycare a few days a week and can afford his vet bills and expensive food easily - they are very expensive and our dog has lots of allergies and issues so we’ve spent a fortune on foods and vet bills.
• we have tons of toys for him all over the house which may be why he doesn’t chew our stuff but again that’s an expense and if you have children you can’t really leave dog chew toys around everywhere
• I have a robot hoover who I put on whenever we go for a walk so floor is lovely and clean when we get back
• he is medium sized and non shed so no fur anywhere
• we can’t leave him on his own as he’s a breed with bad separation anxiety but we are lucky we have two family members who mind him without issue for us and will mind him for a week if needed and our friends all love dogs and when inviting us over are happy for the dog to come.
• we don’t tend to eat out much or go to pub or cinema so it’s not curtailing our social life really

So that’s a very specific set of circumstances that mean our dog ownership journey has been easy. We also don’t have children yet.

A friend with a 1 year old and a 3 year old said they were thinking of getting a dog and I said NO WAY don’t do it.

So it really depends on your personal circumstances.

Ps according to Victoria stillwell there are no bad dogs just bad dog owners!!!

Victoria stillwell there are no bad dogs just bad dog owners!

She's a dick.

There are bad owners but that message suggests every difficult dog is difficult because of their owners - which is a crock of shit.

There are all sorts of influences on dog behaviour that occur before 8 weeks old - and so is outside their new owner's direct control. Genetics (inherited and natural variation), in utero exposure, breeding environment, mother's stress levels, early observations etc.

Some dogs have behaviours that are genuinely harder then others for a good owner to handle and it doesn't do anyone any favours for VS to imply it's the owner's fault, unless the specifics on that individual suggest it is.

@SaintWilfred I rewatched her show it’s me or the dog and she always improves the dogs behaviour by the end. If you read a lot of the posts here

My dog still chews - why? Are you leaving it on it’s own in a room with expensive furniture? Do you leave toys or shoes or clothes on the floor? If you see the dog chewing do you redirect it to something it can chew. Does it have enough chew toys? All of this is dog parents problem not the dogs

Dog still toilets inside - why? Bring it out more, install a dog flap and train it to use it with treats, reinforce positive behaviour. Back to going out every 30 mins. If you don’t have time that’s your fault the problem exists not the dogs.

Dog barks all the time - has the dog been trained not to bark? Has it been rewarded for quiet time? Has a dog behaviourist been consulted to help

Dog is aggressive or resource guards - again a behaviour and training can help with this.

Dog pulls on lead - has training been done to correct this - has a head halter been tried?

I’m not saying there are absolutely no bad dogs out there but I work wonder if dog owners have put substantial amounts of time into helping their dogs correct their behaviour.

I feel awful for admitting it but honestly yes. I got our dog when we were first married, we had him as a puppy, trained him well and worked mostly from home so were always with him. I knew plenty of families who have children and dogs so just assumed it would be fine when we eventually kids. Fast forward 8 years and I do really wish we’d waited and got a dog when we had older children rather than having one now when we have babies and toddlers. I find all the extra work with a dog just an inconvenience and constantly having to police the children around the dog is stressful. He’s a good dog but being around the noise and chaos of children has affected his behaviour and he’s much harder work than he used to be (barks at every noise, goes in the bin when we’re not looking, follows us everywhere, never seems settled). Thankfully we have family who take him long term and I think realistically he’s probably more their dog than ours now but I would never advise someone to get a dog if they were thinking of having children in the future (I was a huge dog person before and had dogs that I trained growing up). Don’t know if that’s relevant to your situation and clearly lots of people do have dogs and children and don’t find it as stressful as I do.

Not at all, although when we go away I always have to factor in ages beforehand who is going to look after her and only then I think a cat would have been easier. One think I do regret though is getting a puppy in November. Out in the cold, wind and rain at all hours of the night. So if we get a dog next time it will be a spring or summer puppy!

I didn't want one in the first place, (I wanted to wait a couple of years in order to move house) but was outvoted.
Owning a dog has had a negative impact on my mental health and my marriage has suffered. When we eventually move my dh wants to get the dog I wanted when the time was right.
My experience has been so negative however I will never own another pet. My dh went away with the dog for a few days last year and it was the happiest I have been in 3 years.

Victoria Stillwell herself admits she has said and done a lot of things about dog behaviour that she would no longer stand by. Mainly due to her only really getting the show because of her background in acting. She had no professional qualifications in canine behaviour - but tbf has worked hard in later years to try and make up for that and to correct some of her earlier advice which was wrong/dangerous.

Yes, there are lots of things that owners can do to help sometimes and I actually don't think there are any bad dogs, either. But that's not the same as thinking that difficult dogs are the owner's fault or that everyone with a difficult dog should feel guilty or think they have failed the dog somehow.

Aggression and resource guarding, are two such examples.

Both are multifactorial and have links with the dog's experiences before an owner ever gets near them. Whilst SOME dogs with those behaviour traits can be helped, the best that many owners can hope for is to be able to safely manage the dog and their behaviour. For some owners, these behaviour traits are more than they can cope with. A lifetime of managing potentially dangerous behaviours with the risk of getting it wrong once and the consequences that brings is too challenging for them. Understandably.

It is unfair to those owners to lump it all into a "there are only bad owners" bucket when problem behaviours in dogs (as in everyone) are often causes by many factors, each coming together to be expressed in a challenging way.

I wish more people understood more about dog behaviour (as someone with qualifications in it, this speaks directly to my own path) but I hate the over simplification of the "there are only bad owners" phrase.

I should also, arguably, learn to get off my soap box

I think you make valid points, you only have to read some of the threads about difficult dogs to see how much time money and effort some owners make in order to overcome challenging behaviour.

I think that’s fair enough @SaintWilfred and it is a over simplification.

I suppose it has be useful to us as a mantra for some of the easier to correct behaviour (ie dog ate our garden hose in his first month - we wouldn’t turn round and say oh he’s a nightmare eating everything. We took responsibility ourselves that we shouldn’t have left it out and we now put away all gardening stuff and do a walk round the garden to check a is ok and bought a closed shoe cabinet for our shoes etc as we’re in the habit of leaving them around) so I think it is useful from that perspective but fully acknowledge there are some more severe behaviours that can’t be helped or fixed.

Victoria Stilwell mainly focuses on changing the owners behaviour, which then benefits the dogs. She’s very good at that.

Most the problems she deals with are caused by lack of exercise, structure, correct equipment and handling. Easy to fix.
She doesn’t tend to deal with really aggressive or problem dogs.

‘There are only bad owners’ - yes and no.
My dog is now highly dog fear aggressive as he was savagely attacked by another dog. So I guess it was a bad owner that caused it, but it wasn’t me!

@Sunshine1235

I feel awful for admitting it but honestly yes. I got our dog when we were first married, we had him as a puppy, trained him well and worked mostly from home so were always with him. I knew plenty of families who have children and dogs so just assumed it would be fine when we eventually kids. Fast forward 8 years and I do really wish we’d waited and got a dog when we had older children rather than having one now when we have babies and toddlers. I find all the extra work with a dog just an inconvenience and constantly having to police the children around the dog is stressful. He’s a good dog but being around the noise and chaos of children has affected his behaviour and he’s much harder work than he used to be (barks at every noise, goes in the bin when we’re not looking, follows us everywhere, never seems settled). Thankfully we have family who take him long term and I think realistically he’s probably more their dog than ours now but I would never advise someone to get a dog if they were thinking of having children in the future (I was a huge dog person before and had dogs that I trained growing up). Don’t know if that’s relevant to your situation and clearly lots of people do have dogs and children and don’t find it as stressful as I do.

This is my experience too and I feel very guilty but after nearly 10 years I'm really ready to not own a dog. I'm tired of the extra work and having to be vigilant to keep dog and children apart. My dog is also stressed by the children, only we don't have anyone who would take him. Im not sure I'll ever have another. I feel guilty that his quality of life isnt as high as it was so I try and make up to him with evening cuddles.

If I could go back I wouldn't get a dog.

@dasherr I commented on the first age when this thread was started and I am the same.
I adore my dog. He doesn’t cause any problems. He has a great life. But I regret how much time/energy/money/effort/planning he requires. Selfishly my life would be better without him.
But I will also be inconsolable and empty when he dies.
I won’t get another one.

Currently wondering WTF we've done, acquiring this needy, destructive little critter.

But she's our fourth puppy, so clearly the regret goes.

No. He’s only young still so has a lot of energy but he’s been great for getting us out together as a family to parks etc. It took 5 years for dh to convince me
to get one and you do have to make sacrifices but for us it works well. We both take equal responsibility for him so that helps & our eldest daughter adore him & helps look after him too. Also most of our friends & family have dogs so he comes along with us. We’ve not had to leave him for hols yet but know a lovely lady who will dog sit so I’d be comfortable leaving him with her. So far it’s worked well for us. Hopefully it will continue.