Puppy Love
I understand how pets are part of the family. I really do. I still miss our own Maggie and Maya. What I don't understand is people who allow their pets to behave badly. Now, I know that pets, like kids, will sometimes do as they please. But that doesn't mean it should be ignored. Here are a couple of examples to illustrate my point. Our neighbors have two dogs. We refer to them as "The Mops" because they look like the dogs you always see on America's Funniest Home Videos hanging on to the dust mops. These dogs bark. A lot. During the day I don't really mind. It's annoying, but whatever. But they barked for 2 hours the other night. 1:30-3:30 in the morning. It woke myself, my hubby and one of the kids up. And the owners did nothing. This happens a lot. I'm not sure what to do about it. When we had our dogs, if they barked, we went and checked it out. Then we stopped them from continuing on with the midnight alarm. Just seems like common sense to me.
My other example makes me mad every time I think about it. We went to Lowes the other day and this woman had her dog in the store with her. It was on a leash but it was barking and growling at everyone that walked past and she just stood there and visited with her friend! This dog was leaping at people going totally crazy and she did nothing. It was scaring some of the kids in the store and some of the adults didn't look to comfortable either. Then, she went and sat at a table in the doorway of the exit and let her dog bark at everyone as they left! To me, this is like letting a child yell and scream at a stranger. I'm still baffled by the owners complete lack of caring. It didn't bother her one bit. Tell me, what would you have done? I wanted to walk up to her and ask her to control her dog... but I didn't want her to let it loose on me either!
8 comments:
That would drive me crazy. That is incredibly rude. I have my dogs, but they are expected to behave at all times.
I am not a pet person, so I might now have the best outlook, but I agree. Mostly because pets have to potentioal to be much better behaved than the average toddler. They are MUCH MUCH smarter than the average 2 year old. Since I have on occasion put my toddler on a lease and let them totally melt down while I visit with a friend (because sometimes you really MUST discuss why Gwenyth named her kid Apple or explain why your children don't look like you) I can't point fingers. But if I did that with my kid, I would expect people to think that I was a bad mom.....
In the second case, I think I would have spoken to the store manager. You shouldn't have to put up with that.
Well you saw my doggy. She is very well behaved and that is what we expect of her. Some people are too indulgent of their dogs. She probably is so used to it that she can block it out. I wonder if you nicely told her that her dog was scaring everyone would she care?
Weird. I wonder why the employees of the store allowed it. I thought only service dogs were allowed in stores like Lowes?
Lee - it does make me crazy and I feel like it is rude, but I'm not bold enough to do anything about it :S
Bek - see, to me there is a difference... the dog can stay at home - the toddler can't!! :) And we've all had our moments where we let the kids do their thing and we just try to block it out ;)
Kailani - I should have... next time I will!! lol
Eve - it is so weird down here... people take their dogs with them EVERYWHERE! And it doesn't seem to be a big deal. I don't think any of them are service dogs because most of the ones I have seen are quite small. It's strange...
Very strange - I can't remember the last time I saw a non service dog inside a store. I would have definitely said something to an employee and had them handle it.
But as far as the owners go, they're just like us parents. You have to learn to block out a lot of the annoying stuff to deal with pets/children but sometimes you forget to tune back in when outsiders are involved. We have a dog across the street that barks ALL DAY LONG. I feel for the thing - it's a German Shepherd with about 5 square feet of yard and has nothing better to do but it's like chinese water torture for me to have to listen to him all day. I think his owner must be at work and probably doesn't even know.
That is ridiculous! We have a neighbor that leaves her dog on the porch to bark all night...it's lovely.
That lady should not have even had her dog in the store! I would have kindly notified the manager of what was happening and let him or her deal with it. Some people!
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