The joy of owning a dog

Here here! Dogs can be a joy and our dog has brought us a decade of laughter, love and companionship. It's the owners who can be a problem.

I couldn't agree more. Dogs are wonderful companions if they are trained well but you will never convince people who don't like dogs.

I agree, the unconditional love of a dog is a wonderful thing. It's always the owner that is the problem.

My dogs make me smile every day and they don't jump up on anyone. I accept not everyone loves them like I do and I respect that.

Totally agree. We lost our beloved old Lab in June 2020, and the months before we got our new boy in April 2021 were the longest we have ever been without a dog, and I cannot even begin to describe how empty the house felt without one. I genuinely feel sorry for anyone who has never known the unconditional love a dog brings. They enrich our lives in so many ways - yet ask for so little in return.

Just because they're loved here.

I'm not a dog person and prefer cats. However, dogs have lots of advantages. You can take them on holiday with you, for one thing, and not have to arrange lodgings or carers for them. You have to walk them, and then other dog walkers talk to you. I discovered this when looking after a friend's dog for extended periods. They're consequently ideal companions for people who live alone.

I'm not keen on the smell of dog, clearing up after them or of them jumping up, but I've known and liked several dogs belonging to friends - and they've made me smile.

But some of us dont want the responsibility of a dog or any other pet.
We know 5 people who have got dogs over the last year, three of those dogs are untrained, undisciplined and a liability. One couple in their early 70’s have a Newfoundland/ poodle cross, they can’t control it, another couple a rescue German Shepherd ‘doesn’t like people walking past it’, so it snaps.
Our local news states the financial difficulty many are having providing properly for their recently acquired pets, hence increasing numbers now being given up.
My brother however has an adorable well trained spaniel.

It’s not all ‘doggies’ and rosy pictures grannyrebel7.

This is the love dogs thread - the joys. There's another thread for the opposite view, though I appreciate comments will cross over.
I think that's why grannyrebel17 started it.

Once seen on a birthday card, sent to someone appropriate: ‘If your dog thinks you’re the greatest person in the world, don’t seek a second opinion.’ ?

I agree with all you said, grannyrebel7.

We’ve had dogs in the past, none now, because they are admittedly a tie, and after we retired wanted to be free to go out for the day/away at short notice. Just can’t do that around here, nobody to leave a dog with and at many times of year kennels need to be booked well in advance.

As I’ve said elsewhere today though, if I were left on my own, I’d certainly have another dog.

I love my dogs, they are both as thick as planks, but very pretty and cuddly which is what I needed when my sons both moved abroad. One is getting on now and I don’t know what I’ll do when he finally crosses the bridge to doggy heaven.

I don’t have any criticisms of people who don’t like dogs though, I’ve trained mine with a view that not everyone likes dogs, and so they have good manners. Many people who don’t like dogs or are cat people, say they like mine dispute their usual dislike because they are so good. If more people trained their dogs better, it might reduce people’s dislike of dogs in public spaces.

Ooh this is a nice thread grannyrebel.

Our dogs make our house a home and for me the only negative about being a dog owner is when they die and it breaks your heart.

I like dogs,too but won’t have any more now because here the restrictions have become so draconian the poor little things have, well, a dog’s life!

Our dogs have enriched our lives, they bring comfort and joy.
When he was young, ours walked for miles and nothing was too much for him, now with so many health problems it's my turn to comfort him.
I've been sleeping downstairs with him since last September as he now cannot cope with being alone through the night.
I dread the time when we no longer have him, he is a special boy, as are they all.

I just love the vacuuming every day and getting up at 4am to let one of them out - Oh! all of them. Getting pounced on when I come out the shower, watching them play in front of my favourite TV programme.

Wouldn't be without them

I ❤️ dogs ... my last dog passed away sbout 18 months ago , had 5 in all ... not together may I add ... each one own personality loved them all, each one their own personal mannerisms, now have 2 budgies ! My hubby passed away & we always said we wouldn't have any more, my daughter & son in law has a black labrador, when they go on holiday I dog sit , he is gorgeous but a nightmare aswell ... but I love him to bits

Dogs, their breeding, training and judging was a big part of DH and my life, although I was just kennel maid, sh*t shoveller and dog walker. After 45 years of dogs - sometimes up to 10 at a time - poor health forced him to rehome the last few and he returned to his boyhood hobby of fishing.
Now I’m on my own, I have considered, but decided against getting a spaniel of my own - but I have DD2’s dogs a couple of days every week for various reasons, so I think I’ve got the best of both worlds.

I loved my own dogs and trained them to have good manners. DD is allergic to all things furry so no pets for us now, and anyway my OH says no.
Dogs are great, but they need responsible owners.

So true, Smileless2012.
Dogs just don’t live long enough.

I will probably get flamed for this, but have to admit that now and then, someone newly met who I’ve been getting on with quite well, has told me they really don’t like dogs, or even loathe them.

I then go off them instantly. It’s as if they’ve told me they belong to some weird religious cult, or belong to the flat earth society.

I can't understand why anyone would say that to a dog owner Witzend and FWIW I feel the same way. 'Love me, love my dogs'.

To be fair, Smileless, by that stage they haven’t usually known that I had a dog or was a lover of them.

It happened once in an informal outdoor setting where someone had brought their dog along - perfectly well behaved, not bothering anybody, and the person said, ‘Ugh, I hate dogs, they shouldn’t be allowed anywhere like this.’ (Or words to that effect,)

There was also someone who I’d been friends with for quite a while - we had dds of similar ages - who told me that they’d had a dog a few years back but she’d got fed up with it, so her dh had driven it out in to the countryside and ‘let it go’. ?

Talk about instant chill!

I love my little pooch who is like my shadow. Sitting under my chair in the garden yesterday, I moved it and squashed her paw! ?. She squealed and ran indoors. I felt so bad and followed her in. I picked her up and she licked me and nuzzled my neck. How’s that for unconditional love. ♥️

Oh that's horrible Witzend, fancy admitting to doing such a dreadful thing!!