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Posted by David Sherman on Wednesday, May 06, 2009 at 22:46:13 :
In Reply to: Re: o.t. about 4 leg friends posted by Jerry in Idaho on Wednesday, May 06, 2009 at 20:25:00 :
Good words, and probably pretty true. I've never understood why so many people get a dog and then hardly spend any time with it. They leave it alone all day, and then maybe take it for a walk on a leash in the evening so it can do its "business", and that's it. Dogs are social animals. If they had two dogs, at least they could play with each other. A dog isn't like a TV or a dirt bike that you can just leave sitting until you feel like playing with it for a while.
The other thing I think people have forgotten about dogs is that they LIKE to be trained. You can tell that a dog is pleased with himself when he understand what you want him to do. It makes him feel like he's part of a team, which is as important to dogs as it is to wolves. Nowadays it seems like people think it's cruel to train your dog -- they look at you like you're ordering a slave around or something. So, the dogs don't know how to do anything, and when their owners want them to do something, they just say the dogs name over and over in a strident tone of voice, and sometimes add a lot of other words that the dog doesn't understand as if they were scolding a child.
It doesn't matter what the breed is, every dog can be a good dog or a bad dog depending on what you teach them and do with them. Some are more interested in one thing or another (mine won't chase sticks or swim, but loves to chase any rodent or hoofed animal), but they all like to be trained and they all are amazingly quick to forgive you for being in a bad mood one day. I don't think they hold grudges like people do, but they do remember things or people who hurt them when they were pups. My dog's 13 and she still doesn't trust anyone in a uniform, possibly because a mailman maced her when she was young.
Lastly, you can tell a lot about a man by how he treats his dog. I don't see as many people being flat-out cruel to dogs as I used to see, but a whole lot more people just neglect them.