Dog Community

Lazy dog owners!!! grrrr

Posted : 6/29/2006 10:24:26 AM

I am pet sitting this summer and I am watching one family's two dachsunds for 10 days. The girl is really overweight and has the longest nails I have ever seen on a dog! I feel bad for her, I don't even know how she can walk. The boy, on the other hand, is underweight. He is skin and bones. They were an impulse buy at a petstore (grrr) Both dogs eat crappy food, eat out of the same small, plastic food bowl, and have rainbow colored poop!!!
So, anyway, they have soooo much energy!! I am walking them several times a day and letting them run off leash in an enclosed playground near our house. They are loving it. I just feel really bad though, becuase I know that their family does not ever take them for walks, let alone let them run. They are bred to hunt and its so cute to see them run and sniff around. The poor dogs are kept in the house or tied out in their back yard all day.
I know they are having fun with me and this is why it makes me sad to pet sit. Dogs are always given loads of attention and exercise with me, but as soon as the owners come home its back to being cooped up in the house.....
And they are not trained at all. They pull and pull on the leash until they choke themselves and start coughing. I know its bad for thier backs, which makes it worse because they are dachsunds. And as soon as I open the door to take them out, they dash out and run away and I have to chase them down.
Why are pet owners so lazy these days?? I hate it when dogs are not properly cared for...

Firestorm

Posted : 6/29/2006 11:10:51 AM

Obviously their priorities are messed up. Too tired from working all day and why would they want to come home and exercise the dog to boot.....goodness they are tired and want their own break....If your going to have pets you not only need to feed and water, basic care grooming and vet, and exercise and of course lots of love. They aren't stuffed animals. I am glad you are making a difference in those dogs lives...you should be happy that you are! [

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Terri

Posted : 6/29/2006 11:32:39 AM

I feel the same way about one of my friends who has a dachsund. She never spent the time to properly potty train him, so at over 2 years he still has accidents in the house. She lets him chew anything in the house and eat off the table. He's about 5-8 lbs overweight. She leaves him alone for hours and hours to just run around the house and do anything he likes. And she hardly ever walks him. I pet sat for her once and he had such a great time walking with my dogs and I and actually being cared for. She loves the little guy and she means well, but this is her first dog and she just doesn't know better. I think she's getting better though, because she hired someone to come walk him 1-2 times a day, so I'll be he's losing some weight.

Julitza

Posted : 6/29/2006 11:49:58 AM

I also get soo mad at people like that, they think that because they are tired that the dog can wait, when it is something necessary! As soon as I get home I let Lizzie run around the pen while I hose it down, then we come inside and she will get her afternoon meal while I start to cook. After she is done I go with her outside so she can potty, and then we spend a long time playing fetch with her Hello Kitty McDonalds stuffie, we play until she feels her 'baby' is in 'danger' and goes of to her crate to hide it. [

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I will admit Lizzie doesnt get walked much because we live on a main road with no sidewalk, so she only gets walked when we go visit my grandmother on weekends and sometimes on weekdays.

I know a couple that have like 4 Shih Tzus and they are darling little things very well groomed (only because they pay someone) but the little things spend all day on the porch with almost no human contact [

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Same with my mother in law she has a Tiny Heinz 57 and that girl spends ALL day tied up with a little dog bed and an empty bowl

fuzzy_dogs_mom

Posted : 6/29/2006 12:36:20 PM

Melissa, maybe they'd be willing to pay you to come buy a couple of times a week even when they ARE home - especially if you could take a few pictures to show them how much their dogs enjoy being able to run around.

Joyce

Melissa Camiel

Posted : 6/29/2006 1:58:19 PM

I just can't stand people like that[:@]. I plan on telling them about how well behaved the dogs are after they get a good run, but I doubt that will convince her to walk them. She doesn't even take care of her kids, so her pets are of course very unhealthy. Her daughter is in first grade and weighs more than me( I'm 16!) becuase she hardly exercises.

Margaret Tyler

Posted : 6/29/2006 5:20:16 PM

That's how I got Joey. Joey's original owners kept him outside because they couldn't house train him, but, they gave him to his second owner when he was 4 months old, so they obviously didn't give him much of a chance.

His second owner was an old roommate of my now husband. She was lazzzzy. The first night she brought the pup home she went out to a bar. Who gets a puppy and then goes to a bar? I'd be to excited to leave for a week. Anyways, as time went by she paid less and less attention to him. She treated all of her animals like dirty underwear. She just got bored with them and then let them go outside or gave them to her mother who had a ton of animals thanks to her. Well, I just took over. She ran out of dog food, but she didn't have time to buy him food, so she fed him bread for 3 days. Mind you, she had lots of time to party with her friends. I went out and bought him food, toys that he also didn't have, chews, and a crate(in which her response was, "He'll only cry all night in that crate.") I became very attached to him.

Then one day she told me she was going to give him back to his old owners because he was "impossible." She came home later that night to find him gone. I took him back to my apartment. She never asked where he was.

Oh, one more thing. My husband and I ran into her with Joey at a pet store. She said "oh you still have him." I want to say "yah, I don't dispose of my animals when I get bored of them like you do." But I just smiled and walked away.