Dog Ethics. - Page 1

Hello. I was hoping to have a polite discussion on how a person believes a dog should be treated. It's sparked by a recent post I've read where some say a dog has rights, others say a dog has privileges (among other things).

If you can't be civil, take it to the PM. If you think you'll be bashed for your opinion but want to share, feel free to PM me.

So, what's your idea of a proper way to keep and treat a dog?

Is your dog a house pet that can also work? Can you leave your dog home alone without a kennel and trust your house not to look like a tornado swept through it upon your return?

Is your dog permanently kennelled and only brought out to work? Is your dog allowed to be social and friendly, or is he expected to only tolerate his handler (or not even tolerate the handler)?

How do you feel about tethers? Is tethering conditional to things such as the dog's age or time limit that the dog will be tethered? (Example: Dog is tethered outside while out grabbing groceries so that the dog gets fresh air instead of being cooped up in the house while it waits on your return.)

Why do you think this is the proper way to keep a dog (whatever your dog ethics are)? Does your opinion change if it's a pet dog vs a working dog?

My dogs are house pets, but are treated as dogs, not kids. They are not allowed on furniture, and are not babied or coddled. I consider them both working dogs, though the older one is more or less retired.

I do not tether my dogs outside, or leave them out in the yard when I'm away from home. Reason being, one of them is a nuisance barker if left out too long, and I don't want to annoy my neighbours! The other reason is THINGS CAN HAPPEN to unattended dogs. I saw a video of a dog theft ring in action not long ago. It took them just over a minute to scale a high wall, snare the dog, and remove it from the owner's property.

Young dogs who can't be trusted to not tear the house apart are crated or confined to a dog-proof room while I'm away from home. Anyone who's raised a puppy knows a certain amount of property damage is inevitable. I've lost rugs, books, shoes, and, most recently, a coffee table to puppy chewing. One puppy chewed through a double-walled cardboard box, and removed several heirloom silver knives, and damaged the handles.

I understand there are reasons for dogs having to be kenneled (bitches in season, dogs that don't get along with one another) but I don't agree with keeping a dog in a kennel and only taking it out for training or walks.

I reasonate somewhat with SS

My dog stays in the house always ( except for outdoors exercise everyday ) never crating, never tethering. Dog is allowed access to entire house( including bed and furniture ). Dog is treated with respect and care and never left alone for long hours . yes and when she was younger we had lots of property damage ( walls, doors, shoes, mattress covers, and comforters too numerous to count ). Damage not an issue now. Dog gets own diet but may occasionally get from house food. Have a strong bond with dog who is practically always close by.

My views are also very similar to SS, except I allow my dogs on my bed when invited. They receive some people food as treats, but that is kept to a minimum.

Some of my dogs are more social than others; I insist they all be polite to my guests, but I don't encourage socializing while we are out. More because I don't have time to stop and let every person who wants to pet them do so, they have been trained to stand quietly if I do stop to talk.

I stopped using crates after their puppyhood, all are trustworthy while I am gone. Things were destroyed when they were puppies: books, blankets, wool rug, a sweater. These were ruined when I was supposed to be watching them, but got distracted. Puppies destroy things, but I want my adult dogs to be housetrained.

I am very much against tethers, dogs can be stolen or injured while tethered unattended. If I am outside my dogs stay close to me and don't need tethering.

I would say dogs have rights: food, water, exercise, medical care, daily prolonged socialization with their pack whether it be with their human family or other animals (dogs are pack animals and I believe it is cruel to deprive them of this); they also have privileges which vary from owner to owner, some owners offer more privileges than I believe are necessary or even good for the dog, but that is the owners' choice.

I think kenneling a dog and taking it out for work is cruel. I think when the dog is around its pack all the time a very strong bond evolve.

I believe whenever a person takes a dog into their home, the dog has rights. This has nothing to do with treating the dog as human. The dog has the right to , care, health, food, shelter, exercise, and training. And above all the owner must take responsibility, instead of blaming the dog for any mishap. Regardless if it is a working or Pet dog.

The same responsibility i take for my children that does not  mean i treat my dogs as children.

I don't mind choices people make based on environment or living conditions as long as all the above are meth.

No one is born with rights not even humans, rights are granted to one and other by civilize people in a civilized society.

An animal is only human when he/she grants an other animal the same rights he/she wants for them self, otherwise he/she is just an other animal.

I believe dog have rights, to humane compassionate respectful treatment.  I believe that are not to be abused or hurt as a form of punishment (i.e. e-collars or electric fences), again that is my belief.  I do not ever let my dogs out unsupervised, too much could happen.  I don't tether them outside either.  I make sure they are comfortable and their needs are met such as healthy food, good exercise, training, vet care, and play as well as love.  They are not allowed on the furniture or my bed.  That said, they did at one time have a doggie sofa when I had the room and was renting a good sized house.  They were/are working dogs all of them and yet were in my home as pets.  I crate train them and crates are their cave and good place where they go sometimes when I know they will get into mischief when I am gone.  My youngest was one of those that was kept in a kennel and only brought out to train.  He had major issues such as when I got him and he had an accident in his crate, he tried to eat the poop and lick up his urine with his tail between his legs, whale eye, and shaking like I was going to beat him, same when he threw up.  He would not come out of his crate and kept trying to clean it up.  He is much better now and house broken (he would think nothing of lifting a leg and peeing between his crate wires or on my kitchen table, did not know how to go up/down stairs, or that he could step on carpet and it would not eat his feet.  My dogs are part of my family with expectations for behavior just like when my son was small (not saying dogs and son are all the same level).  Dogs have the same cognition and affective abilities as bright elementary age children so I treat them as thinking feeling beings that still need to behave within expected boundaries and  I am the leader/boss.

All domestic animals have rights in a civilised society. In fact my country at least backs those rights up with enforceable laws.

My dogs have a 5 acre kennel with free access to the main house.

All of my dogs (6 since 1975) have been GSDs and have been strictly house pets. The ones I got as puppies were in crates when I wasn't home until around a year of age and could be trusted not to damage things in the house. While I was still working and had a puppy/young dog who was crated, I had a pet sitter who took the dog out midday. I have also always had at least 2 dogs or a dog and cat so an animal isn't alone in the house all day. I live in a condo now where tethering isn't allowed, but for safety I would not do that anyway. My dogs don't get on furniture or my bed but that is primarily to keep things used by humans as clean as possible. I believe my dogs have rights: veterinary care, good quality food, adequate exercise, companionship, a designated bed, etc. For the past 30 years I have lived at my current residence where my small backyard leads directly into a township park and wooded trails. My dogs go out for walks 3-4 times a day and when the park is empty (frequently) they have been allowed to run and play off leash. I don't have children and can probably be accused of treating my dogs like children, but they are required to be well mannered and have been to obedience classes. All 6 have been good with other people and children though not necessarily with all other dogs. This is just personal opinion, but I wouldn't have a dog that had to be kenneled or kept outside. Dogs are social animals and isolation isn't something they should have to endure.

Any dog that has lived in my home with me for any length of time, whether a 'boarder' or one of the 3 GSDs I have wholly-owned, has been treated the same: as a dog, not as a human child-substitute.

[I am not going to discuss here the many, many dogs I have looked after through being paid to work with them, even those times where I was their only 'carer', or was the manager of those who helped me care for them, as they were ALL, in one way or another, kennelled out.]

I believe dogs do have some 'rights'; they have the right not to be treated badly, neglected, abused, starved, overcrowded or underexercised.

But usually when we talk about granting 'rights' (to people), we also talk about the quid pro quo of 'responsibilities'. While we can USE dogs and their various abilities to fulfil a variety of services and tasks for us, it is hard to define their willingness to do so as them consciously taking responsibility for doing things, so that's where I fall out with PETA and the like who go on about the Rights of animals. As far as I am concerned, the responsibilities in animal keeping are all on the other (human) foot, therefore so are the 'Rights'.

In treating dogs 'as dogs' I have never granted access to the furniture, at all. Certainly not my bed, and almost exclusively not to sofas or chairs. I make one current exception, to a small mixed breed I board occasionally, and I do let her sleep on an armchair - because she is treated as a 'child' in her home, she settles better up on the chair; also with a large GSD around in a small flat, she is probably safer, at least while I am sleeping.
My excuse for a GSD has TWO beds of her own to use; she mostly chooses neither, and would rather sleep in the bathroom on the shower tray, or on my floor, as close to me as she can get, wherever that happens to be at the time.

They always have to sit still, politely (at the very least !) before they get any treat or chew, above what goes in their bowl at mealtimes. They eat dog foods, they are not given bits of this and bits of that just because I'm having it. They do not get food left down, ad lib.

As I have never lived anywhere with its own, attached, secure garden or yard, my dogs are not allowed outside without me. I do not have fouling problems, as I get off my arse and take them out - no matter how many times I need to do that in 24 hrs. Initially this means treating adults exactly as baby puppies, you go out when they wake up, when they have eaten, when they start sniffing the floor; which means rather a lot of trips, at least for a while until the idea has registered with them, but at least it means I see what they do (for medical vigilance), clean up what they do, immediately, and get to praise what they do, so they have no doubt they are doing it right. Yes this gets awkward when I am unwell; but I still just drag myself round with them - or if I have advance notice (like when I had knee surgery) I can make arrangements with someone to come in several times per day to help. I know of several Rescues who would not support my having a dog from them because of this; however, there has never been the least hesitance from people who know me personally, who have let me have all my GSDs.

Except at Christmas parties for a few minutes, I have never made my dogs tolerate being dressed up in clothes of any kind. There is a dog raincoat to wear in really heavy rain or snow, but apart from that, while I doubt, but don't claim to completely know whether, dogs can actually get 'embarrassed' as we do, it seems to me it is beneath their dignity to be put into unecessary garments.

I have crated a dog regularly for a few hours at a time, 1) while getting an adult cat chaser acclimatised to living with a cat; 2) in the case of an inveterate 'chewer' of anything and everything. Whenever I can supervise them being out of the crate, or out of the house entirely and doing something more rewarding than chasing the cat or chewing the furniture, then that has applied. Please note I do not think any of mine would spend much crate time if I had been able to raise them myself from tinies, but that has not been the case. Sheila has only gone in the now largely redundant crate for a few minutes on occasion, to keep her out of the way of the hoover or some dog-unfriendly visitor. Because my garden is separated from the house, she is tied to the fence when out there with me if I have to do gardening tasks and cannot concentrate on what she is up to; she is prone to both digging holes, and wandering off ! Apart from that I never normally have to tie a dog out (although I train all of them to sit and wait quietly if I do leave them tied anywhere); but I don't object to other people tieing their dogs out, so long as they do it PROPERLY (running lines etc; not leaving great hunks of tow chain round dogs' necks, or tieing them short & letting them get tangled up then leaving them for hours on end).