Maryland Dog Owners ALERT contin - Page 3

Scrap the whole thing...That's the only fair solution.  But maybe a little legislation might be in order...

Perhaps a ban on contributions from groups that support terrorism?  HSUS and PETA are the same as the Taliban, and Al Quaeda.  They're all terrorists, a threat to the way of life in this country. 

Or, TessJ10 and Horse, maybe those fox hounds should be put to hunting the foxes that are paying to 'guard' our coops! 

I'm all for hunting, fishing, and dog sports.  And I'm all for crating house dogs sometimes, as they are a very good tool.  As for outdoor kenneling, no one (except for the afforementioned puppy mills) would keep outdoor dogs in them.  My stepson, who's grown now, has a 25x25 pen he keeps his Malamute in when he's not with her, and she's got plenty of room in it, and the house that is attached, as well. 

It's funny how most of the rescue groups won't let you have a dog, unless you will keep it in the house, (no matter how big it is), but then bills are proposed that might make it illegal to contain them while they're in the house?  Does that come back to the equality issue?  If your children aren't caged in your home, why should your dogs be? Okay, whatever. 

Crys

"then bills are proposed that might make it illegal to contain them while they're in the house?"

There probably will be.  I do think a lot of dog people - the sport/show/schutzhund people - do get carried away with crating.  It's UNTHINKABLE that they'd go to work and leave the dog loose in the house, whereas the pet people all have dogs they simply leave loose in the house.  That's really weird to a lot of people.

I have a young GSD now that I wouldn't leave loose in the house, and it just occurred to me the other day that my older GSD was being left alone in the house, uncrated and with the run of the place, since he was 20month old - never a problem.  So maybe I need to think about it why I'm not doing that with the young dog now.

I wonder what the people who have Igloo dog house will do with all those worthless dog house they paid good money for if this bill passes ?  I have never seen one for a big dog that has a six inch spread  over the dogs head. I wonder what the lawyers for the manufacturers of the dogs houses and crates  think about this bill  ?  I wonder how much inventory they will lose if this part of the bill passes ?

 "There probably will be.  I do think a lot of dog people - the sport/show/schutzhund people - do get carried away with crating.  It's UNTHINKABLE that they'd go to work and leave the dog loose in the house, whereas the pet people all have dogs they simply leave loose in the house.  That's really weird to a lot of people"

Perhaps this is why so many thousands upon thousands of pet people end up taking little Phydeaux to the pound, after coming home to ruined furniture one too many times.  My sister, years ago, had a mixed dog whose mother was a purebred Basenji. That beast was beyond incorrigible, and ended up being confiscated by animal control and destroyed after he chewed through a screen door to escape.  He then bit somebody.  Oddly enough, they never got another dog.  Can't imagine why .

Good point, Mickey D.

I'm just being honest, though.  I work in a relatively small office (<100 people).  Almost everybody has a pet dog.  Like most people, we all love our dogs and at lunchtime or whenever we talk about our pets.   They've gone through the puppy chew stages, but I can't help but notice that those of us who do sport or show crate our dogs, while all the other ones (and some of these people have 2 or 3 dogs, too), just live with the dog or at most they confine it to a bedroom or laundry room while they're gone - they do NOT crate.  When I mention it they say, oh, yes, when we first got her we crated her until she was housebroken ...or until she got through the chew stage....but no, she hasn't been in her cage in years.  We still have the cage out in the garage somewhere (or the tool shed or we sold it at a yard sale or whatever).

All this to point out that for many, many everyday pet people, a "cage" is a temporary cruelty that they can just not imagine confining a dog to for 10 hours a day (or longer in the case of SchH people).  Yes, lack of a crate I'm sure has led to a lot of poor dogs being dumped at the pound, but also, there ARE people who DO raise their pets properly and have no need of crating them once they're beyond puppy stage.

 >All this to point out that for many, many everyday pet people, a "cage" is a temporary cruelty that they can just not imagine confining a dog to for 10 hours a day (or longer in the case of SchH people).  Yes, lack of a crate I'm sure has led to a lot of poor dogs being dumped at the pound, but also, there ARE people who DO raise their pets properly and have no need of crating them once they're beyond puppy stage.<

How many of those people specifically seek out dogs that are bred to work?  How many of those dogs are low-energy breeds like Bassets, Pekes, Newfies or some cross of the same?  In addition, most people keep pet dogs that have been altered at pre-puberty.   They do not keep intact, same-sex multiples.  Do you really want to force someone who owns a very dominant bitch, who may or not attack another dog of either sex, to keep her and even one other adult, intact dog loose in a house, when the owner isn't home???

Look, don't take this as my wholehearted embrace of crating dogs all day except when they're being trained.  I'm simply pointing out the reasons why someone who participates in dog breeding or dog sports/hunting may keep his animals in a different way than would an individual who can only envision the way he keeps his pet basset hound.

The laws being written completely ignore the fact that not everyone owns one pet dog.  It also completely disregards the fact that people keep dogs for different reasons, and housing/maintaining them in a manner where they are healthy, happy, and most of all, safe, is not one size fits all.

 While I agree that we need to educate the average Joe that the A/R, "dogs should never spend one minute in a crate" mindset is balderdash, you will always have the person who thinks dogs are not happy unless they are allowed to totally roam at will.  This person thinks leash laws are totalitarian.  It's extremely difficult to change this type person's perception of dog happiness.  Believe me, I've tried.  Even more common, at least in my experience, is the person who proudly announces to all that training is "mean", and he would never do such a thing to his dog!  Many people brag that their dog has flunked obedience school.