Humanizing our Dogs - Page 1

Recently I was at the vet's to take up my regular supply of sentinel spectrum, and I met a couple from my neighborhood preparing their dog for a trip to Canada. The lady had the dog wrapped up in a warm woolen sweater, and fully cuddled. I ask if their dog was sick, the husband look at her, looked at me smiled and said " No". The lady , oblivious to the surroundings called the dog Mom mom, and mommy. The dog seemed to be very pleased. When I came home , I googled this and found out their is this whole phenomena of " Pet moms ".
Anyone here ever was tempted to treat their dog as " child" of the family? How was it?

http://www.poeticexpressions.co.uk/POEMS/Dogs%20better%20than%20wives.

Makes me wonder where in Canada they are going, and what they think the weather is like, lol.....

I think they are going to see relatives; but the smile on the husband's face tell me that the wife is probably well on the way to being a pet mom.
I know people some times call their little kids " mommy ". In the Latin Community they openly call the kids " mami"

[sigh!] Don't get me started...

I've had former clients worry about their dogs getting stressed while waiting to be groomed if the groomer couldn't start working on the dog right away. I'd explain that we'd treat the dog as if it were being boarded, and it would go back in the kennel, be given water and a comfy blanket to lie on, and a chance to go out in the runs and pee or poop, but no, that wasn't good enough...

One lady brought a radio in and insisted I play it to relieve her dog's stress while it was being boarded.

Some clients would insist I dress the dog in a sweater or coat before I put it outside. These always seemed to be the dogs that were so unsocialized they'd try to remove a couple of my fingers if I went to touch them.

I have to confess I sometimes say to my dogs, 'Come on, kids, let's go outside!' but I'm fully aware they are dogs, and treat them as such.  Treating dogs as humans/kids with fur coats leads to all sorts of behavioural problems!

SS


can you elucidate " ...all sorts of behavioral problems.."?

People with this sort of mindset think dogs have the same emotions and almost the same intelligence as humans. For instance, they might say "Oh, the dog was upset with me for leaving him at home alone. That's why he peed on the floor/tore up the carpet/etc.

Their dogs are often untrained or poorly trained because they don't understand the basics of canine behaviour. "He understands EVERYTHING I say!" they will tell you. Um, if that's true, WHY do you have to tell the dog to 'sit' 15 times before he does it?

They tend to treat all dogs as plush toys, or as if the dog were their own dear little lap dog. A trainer whose blog I subscribe to (The Naughty Dogge) said how we need to proof our dogs against people like this who haven't the faintest clue about dog behaviour. Once such person grabbed the trainer's malinois by the cheeks and kissed it on the forehead. Lucky for them, her dog was stable enough that it didn't bite.

And the last thing I'm going to say is the most controversial. Contrary to some current teaching, I believe dogs have a pack structure. With strong breeds like the GSD, if you don't assume an alpha role, the dog will take over. With softer dogs, the dog will be confused and insecure, because it expects YOU to be the leader, and it isn't comfortable taking that role. A person who humanizes their dog and treats it like a friend or family member will often be incapable of taking leadership when training their dog. I actually know people who are afraid to speak to their dog in a harsh tone of voice, because they are afraid of hurting its feelings!

Wonder if some of these women tear up the beauticians
office and pee on the shop carpet if the stylist is a little
late getting to them ?

I've seen somebody kissed a puppy I was taking home, even after the puppy just vomited; it was so disgusting. As for me, animals, including dogs should neither take the place of humans or being placed on same pedestal with humans, for one, humans were originally created to live forever, animals aren't, humans are created specially and uniquely in God's image, whereas animals were created enmass. "mommy", "dad" or "my kid" can't even mistakenly come out of my mouth in reference to a dog, even though I like, excited or fancy them; .... my dogs are dogs.

@ NDM, "Humans were created to live forever"???

The oldest human you ever met was how old?

If you are going to get all biblical animals were the only buddies of the only human in the universe until yr totally clever gods realised something was perhaps missing. 

 

hmm, something missing, let's see animals, paradise, a man....I got this, Adam take a nap dude. got this brilliant idea,  just need a rib.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1%3A25-28