^^ I find tiny dogs to bite people more often..

I've been bit more by tiny chihuahua's and pom's then I have by border collies/labs/german sheperds/etc.

Because the owners of tiny dogs generally have problems discipline them due to sizes. Giving a lab an ass-whooping is generally more straight forward than doing it to a toy-sized dog.

It's not the dog. And being bitten or not hugely depends on the way you approach a "stranger" dog.

EB pretty much sums it up for me.. minus the last paragraph, which I removed...

Essentially, I just have no interest in raising a dog. Quite simply, it would be a hassle emotionally, financially, and personally. Kinda of like if I told you to have/adopt a kid right now (assuming you dont have kids).

And to counter EB, at least kids can take care of you when you're old!

Only dog owner understands:

A dog always takes care of you, from the day you met til the day he die.

Yeah. There needed to be a little hyperbole in this thread, but you are giving your life over to something else when you buy a dog. There was a thread where someone was trying to give away their dog because they were moving and couldn't take their dog with them, and SkinnyPupp asked "Well, do you have to move?"

At first I thought it was absurd, for someone to have to re-arrange life decisions like that for an animal. But then I realized that to some people a dog represents more than just a novelty. A dog, to some, is an equal. It was eye opening.

And as for children. I think you can infer from context that I was taking an extreme position there.

Yeah. Okay. Until your kid grows up and says to you, "FUCK YOU MOM! FUCK YOU DAD!" and do everything they can to make your life miserable (not that it already is) and become the lowest common denominator has to offer (think People of Walmart) while you sit there thinking "WTF have I created?"


Hurrah.

Just curious on why you get bit by dogs, do you work with them? I do agree tiny dogs may resort to biting more easily, but most are more bark than bite, and they won't bite unless they're cornered or something.


Something funny happened today, me and my family came out of the elevator carrying our two dogs, and we see a couple with a child. The father tells the mother, who was carrying the child, to move aside and she moved as close to the wall as possible, while turning her whole freaking body to face the wall. And to top it off, after we walked past the husband says, "we'll take the next lift."

I laughed...but seriously? This goes beyond not liking dogs. I'd understand if they were carrying a newborn and wanted to be extra careful, but the kid was 4 or 5 years old. This is just uneducated and ignorant?

^^ Nikko said it best.

Most of these smaller dogs (pom/chihuahua/toy-sized dogs) just seem like they are king over their owners. I approach all dogs the same, just seems like smaller dogs are less friendly to me..

BTW.. To answer your question, I don't work with dogs, but I approach any dog that lets me come up and pet him.
(Do the normal hold hand out under his nose. Let him sniff. Then once he gives me permission I pet. Small dogs can seem like they give you permission, just to try and take your finger off when you go to pet them.)

My wife loves dogs in general, and her own family dog immensely (she lived with him for the last 13 years until she married me)..

however, even she admitted that she wouldn't want another dog because it'll be too painful when he passes away and she wouldn't want to go through it again

he has some cysts, really bad vision, and many other health issues.. but he's the best dog ever!
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1702713/Pic...obby/bobby.jpg

I still remember I had to give away my dog when I was 6. It still haunts me to this day. :tears:

Same.... I had to give mine up when I was a kid because I was stupid, knew nothing about training a dog. I played a prank on him and he nipped me.

Dad didn't let me keep him. Oh how when the human fuck up, the dog gotta go.... I cried for a week but he wouldn't change his mind. At least mine was given to a guy who rescue and train dogs. I got to visit him once a month. This was in Saigon btw. Unwanted dogs usually go straight to the butcher.

I just realized these were completely irrelevant details. :ilied:

my dog passed away last year and it is the shittiest thing ever on earth. i would not wish anyone to go through that pain. still to this day, when i pull up to my house and park and i look at my windows, i miss seeing his head resting on the window sill looking outside.:okay:

i like dogs but hate cats...

but i wont own another dog again, i cant take the feeling of the love one that passes away

Its so rough, but you gotta be positive with what you did for that dog. You gave him a life as a best friend and so many dogs out there don't get that. They get beat and treated like shit and abandoned. I've made a point over the past few weeks of going to the pound once a week and taking a dog for a walk, and I wish everyone that loved dogs would just come in and get one if they can handle it. It does so much for the dog, and for the person. I met a guy today, who approached me about my dog, they both really liked each other right off the bat, and I could tell this guy had a connection with dogs the way they interacted. We ended up talking about his dog, and he informed me he had just put him down earlier in the month. Of course, I felt for him, told him I was sorry to hear, and he replied with "I miss him, but I gave him the best life I could give him, and after the life he had before me, I can never look back and be sad about it." It was a pretty amazing story. His dog belonged to a meth cook who lived in his neighbourhood, and it used to always get out and walk over to his house. The dirtbag would always come over, get his dog back, and go back to dirtbag shit. When the guy moved away from the crackhead neighbour, he waited all day after he packed up and had all his shit out for the dog to come by. When the dog came, he put him in the car and brought him with him, and had the dog for 10 years after that. He made sure he went to the cops, animal control etc, and made sure they knew exactly what was going on, and that was it. He gave the dog an amazing life. I agree the loss of a dog is heartbreaking, but there is no way it can outweigh the joy of having a dog, and giving him an amazing life.

Sorry for the tl:dr story, but I thought it was pretty moving.

^I want to thank that story a thousand times.

It was heart-wrenching when we lost Minnie unexpectedly, but at the same time, I know she had a really wonderful couple of months when she was with us. We were her fourth home in three weeks, and at first we couldn't even walk her a block from the house without her panicking, probably thinking that she wouldn't be coming back home again... but it didn't take her long to settle in with our pack and be part of the family, and eventually she would walk confidently all the way to Starbucks and Pet Planet with the rest of us, not even a hint of nervousness.

When we got Taffy from the shelter, we knew that too, wouldn't be for very long as she was already 12... from what we were told, she had a pretty good life before, deeply loved by the elderly couple that had had her from a pup and had to give her up because of the wife's illness. It was probably more heartbreaking to think of how she had to leave the only home she'd ever known after all those years, and as careful as shelters are about who they adopt to, I couldn't bear to think of what situation she could potentially end up in. And since she was the perfect size, it seemed a good fit.

Now I have her and Daisy in nosework training (gotta leave for class in half an hour!) and she's a happy, confident, gorgeous little girl. I hope we still get several years with her, but if we don't, I know we did everything we could to give her a safe, comfortable, happy home for the rest of her days. And that's worth the eventual sadness that you know is inevitable.

Those people should never have a dog in the first place - those are the dogs that end up chained in a yard out in the cold for days at a time, or that destroy furniture because they aren't being given an outlet for their energy.

I wouldn't go so far as to say my dogs are my "equals" or my "children" (although we do call them our furbabies); people who anthropomorphise their dogs are probably responsible for more bad behaviours than those who neglect them. But people need to realize, there's a level of commitment with having a dog that goes beyond just feeding them and letting them out to poop. Dogs are like any other intelligent creature, they need something to stimulate their minds, and they need exercise to keep health and burn off excess energy. Even if it's just throwing a ball for them, it gives them something that lets them feel useful... and who doesn't want to feel useful?

this thread needs dukes back