Family dog neglect

[Leypt1]

Long post for context sorry

I'm staying with extended family for a week and am becoming more and more uncomfortable and angry about how they treat their dog

For context they are my mum's relatives in a country where the conventions of dog ownership are different
They live in a house with two wings
One cousin and their family live in one wing with two dogs. These dogs have free reign of the wing and the communal garden. They are labs aged 12 and 2
The other cousin lives in the other wing with their family. They have a golden retriever aged 4. She is confined to a fenced terrace of about 10m*10m

This dog stays on this terrace the whole day and night. We have made a point of going out to play with her daily and she always goes mad with excitement. To our knowledge nobody else ever goes out there. She is left food and water by the gardener as one of his duties. She cries and barks constantly

For reasons I'm not party to she is not allowed to mix with the other dogs - apparently they fight. Today my brother asked the son whether the GR could go into the communal garden and he was granted permission. She was very excited and ran about pushing into people. She and one of the other dogs also started to rough play with some growling, but both tails were wagging. Everyone panicked and was shouting and crowding the dogs. Despite my pleading that they were playing, the GR was forcibly dragged back to her patio within about 3 minutes. I was told off by my mum for apparently sticking my oar in (although I haven't actually stated my feelings to anyone at all)

I can't stop crying thinking about her predicament. She is the sweetest dog and just wants to be petted and to chase her ball. She is only "difficult" because she literally never gets to do anything and she is one of the most social, people oriented breeds around. J don't understand why they have got a dog that they don't want to spend any time with and I don't understand why they don't arrange it so that the dogs go into the communal garden on e.g. alternate days

I now feel that I cannot leave without doing something about this. I wish I could just whisk her back home with us and would probably pay the money to do so. However my OH has pointed out that suggesting this would be insulting and probably destroy my mums relationship with her family, who will have put us up for almost a week. We also couldn't keep her and would need to re-home her after her arrival to the UK

How would you approach this?? What can I do? I can't just turn the other cheek but need to be sensitive

This is awful and the dog is being neglected-me tallying not physically. Oils you maybe have a discreet word with the other cousins who let their dogs run in the communal gardens and ask whether whey could speak to the others bout the dogs welfare? As a rule Golden Retrievers are intelligent dogs who need a good hour of exercise or more per day, in different surroundings for smell stimulation, and company. So sad.

mentally not physically

Tail wagging isn't always friendly. I have a dog who lives upstairs and has access to the front garden and one who lives downstairs and has access to the back garden.

They will greet each other by wagging tails and growling and what could appear to be rough play, to someone who did not know them well.

It is not friendly. It will descend into the smaller dog trying to kill the bigger dog and the bigger dog will retaliate. If you've been told they'll fight that's probably based on experience by the owners.

That being said, the GR should not be left alone all day and night but as long as it has food, water and shelter there is very little that any welfare agency can do to help. All you can do is try to convince your family to rehome the dog.

Lots of dogs live outdoors in kennels with minimal interaction - but they should still get walked and socialised so I understand why you're uncomfortable. It's very different to the UK style of dog ownership but that doesn't necessarily mean it's wrong.

If you've been told the dogs fight I'm not sure why you think you know differently? Tail wagging isn't necessarily friendly behaviour and can quickly turn nasty. Swapping the dogs' territory around daily could also make things even worse, though I can see why you'd think it's a good idea.

I honestly think you need to leave it. This isn't your dog and you're not there 24/7 to see their true temperaments. You also admit you couldn't keep the golden anyway so you'd be putting it though a whole heap of stress only for it to potentially spend it's life in a kennel or shelter anyway.

I get it's not ideal, but legally they're not neglecting the dog if it has food, water and shelter.

There are thousands if not millions of other animals in this country and abroad being kept in worse conditions.

There's nothing you can do in this situation, especially as you're not prepared to care for the dog yourself. I'd stay out of it.

I would do something. Golden retrievers are the sweetest dogs, despite their size. They love interacting with other dogs and humans, it breaks my heart to think about this poor dog. Our Goldie loves playing and rough playing with other dogs, they bark and growl but it's not vicious, just play. Later she'll let the cat eat her food while she watches and is so incredibly gentle with the children.