Disclaimer: I am not a cat person and generally like dogs, but prefer to have no pets, not even fish, so that my wife and I can leave for a week on a whim without doing more than locking our doors and stopping our mail (which you can easily do online).
What brought this up?
My wife and I volunteered to watch grandchildren for a week while our daughter and her husband took a vacation to Hawaii. They have a seven month old Lagotto Romagnolo puppy, which is an enthusiastic dog, especially in the morning. Immediately after the week with those grandchildren we flew to another daughter's home to watch her kids while she and her husband went to Orlando on a combined business/vacation trip. She has two dogs, a Boston Terrier and some sort of mix that is about the same size as the other dog. At least those two are mature dogs of about six years or so and semi-obedient.
The daughter with the Boston Terrier says the main thing she gets from the dogs is unconditional love. When her kids are giving her a bad time the dogs still show her some love. I get that, but the dogs can also be annoying and get yelled at on a regular basis. Their patio is covered in dog poop because nobody wants to clean it up. That's how it is at my other daughter's house too. At least these two dogs recognize a few commands and will go upstairs to their kennels when asked to and they don't whine when they're locked in, even after hours of incarceration. The Lagotto puppy has to be shoved in and starts whining after five minutes.
In theory, all of these dogs were supposed to help the kids be responsible, feeding them, taking them for walks, cleaning up after them and so on. The reality is quite different. It seems to be up to the mom in both houses to do most of that, or nag the kids to do whatever needs to be done.
My daughter with the Lagotto was the last holdout to get a dog. Now every one of my kids have dogs for a total of seven of them. My younger son has a Border Collie which is definitely the most well behaved of the bunch. But even that one can be annoying once in a while in the house.
A lot of our neighbors have dogs too. When it's 18 degrees outside the only ones out there freezing their butts off are the ones walking their dogs. The woman who lives next door to us has two dogs, a Labradoodle and some smaller dog. They're pretty well behaved, but they bark when they're outside. She's usually pretty good about keeping them quiet, but not always. Whenever she has a dog sitter they spend more time out there barking - enough to be annoying.
We had a couple of dogs growing up, a Cocker Spaniel that was a year old when we got him and pretty well behaved, and an English Springer Spaniel that was pretty good until I left on my mission, then my parents and sister let him get away with too much.
Another daughter came to live with us for 16 months back when we were in Folsom. She had to bring her indoor dog, Taz, so we put up with him for that time period. I don't know what mix of breeds that dog is, but if you put an Ewok costume on him he looks exactly like a young one. I used to take that one for regular walks, but it was annoying to have to take along a "doggie bag", because as soon as we had walked a block or so he was almost always read to produce some dog doo.
With every one of these dogs except the Border Collie you have to be careful to shut all of the doors and keep a gate across the stairs or your garbage cans will be spread all over the room. This happened several times while watching the grandchildren. And if you let the Lagotto get out the door it could take half an hour to catch her because she hasn't reached the point in training where she will come back when you call her. Sometimes she's even too smart to be bribed by cheese or bacon. And she chews up any plastic item left lying around as well as a little bit of the furniture.
So other than the unconditional love, what makes it worth the bother to have a dog?
I see it as more bother than it's worth.
What brought this up?
My wife and I volunteered to watch grandchildren for a week while our daughter and her husband took a vacation to Hawaii. They have a seven month old Lagotto Romagnolo puppy, which is an enthusiastic dog, especially in the morning. Immediately after the week with those grandchildren we flew to another daughter's home to watch her kids while she and her husband went to Orlando on a combined business/vacation trip. She has two dogs, a Boston Terrier and some sort of mix that is about the same size as the other dog. At least those two are mature dogs of about six years or so and semi-obedient.
The daughter with the Boston Terrier says the main thing she gets from the dogs is unconditional love. When her kids are giving her a bad time the dogs still show her some love. I get that, but the dogs can also be annoying and get yelled at on a regular basis. Their patio is covered in dog poop because nobody wants to clean it up. That's how it is at my other daughter's house too. At least these two dogs recognize a few commands and will go upstairs to their kennels when asked to and they don't whine when they're locked in, even after hours of incarceration. The Lagotto puppy has to be shoved in and starts whining after five minutes.
In theory, all of these dogs were supposed to help the kids be responsible, feeding them, taking them for walks, cleaning up after them and so on. The reality is quite different. It seems to be up to the mom in both houses to do most of that, or nag the kids to do whatever needs to be done.
My daughter with the Lagotto was the last holdout to get a dog. Now every one of my kids have dogs for a total of seven of them. My younger son has a Border Collie which is definitely the most well behaved of the bunch. But even that one can be annoying once in a while in the house.
A lot of our neighbors have dogs too. When it's 18 degrees outside the only ones out there freezing their butts off are the ones walking their dogs. The woman who lives next door to us has two dogs, a Labradoodle and some smaller dog. They're pretty well behaved, but they bark when they're outside. She's usually pretty good about keeping them quiet, but not always. Whenever she has a dog sitter they spend more time out there barking - enough to be annoying.
We had a couple of dogs growing up, a Cocker Spaniel that was a year old when we got him and pretty well behaved, and an English Springer Spaniel that was pretty good until I left on my mission, then my parents and sister let him get away with too much.
Another daughter came to live with us for 16 months back when we were in Folsom. She had to bring her indoor dog, Taz, so we put up with him for that time period. I don't know what mix of breeds that dog is, but if you put an Ewok costume on him he looks exactly like a young one. I used to take that one for regular walks, but it was annoying to have to take along a "doggie bag", because as soon as we had walked a block or so he was almost always read to produce some dog doo.
With every one of these dogs except the Border Collie you have to be careful to shut all of the doors and keep a gate across the stairs or your garbage cans will be spread all over the room. This happened several times while watching the grandchildren. And if you let the Lagotto get out the door it could take half an hour to catch her because she hasn't reached the point in training where she will come back when you call her. Sometimes she's even too smart to be bribed by cheese or bacon. And she chews up any plastic item left lying around as well as a little bit of the furniture.
So other than the unconditional love, what makes it worth the bother to have a dog?
I see it as more bother than it's worth.
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