how a person treats an animal.......

i understand your point completely. to me, i wouldnt end a friendship, simply cause i know some people just dont "get it". but i give them a choice. they can either treat my dogs like i tell them to, if they dont get it, they can ignore my dogs. that's fine by me. if they show they can't do that they get kicked outta my house. i try not to be mad (cant stay mad for long anyways) but i wont subject my dogs to a "threat" (they perceive it as such). especially not with a skiddish dog like jason and a submissive pee-er like moca. no thanks!

 in my particular situtaion, I wasn't close friends with this person to begin with. and this 'telling' him how to treat my animals happened on three different occasions. It was REALLY irritating.

I am bummed that the other friend & I are not close anymore, that just plain sucks. 

Nope you weren't over reacting at all, I have told numerous people to take a hike that have been mean to my animals or have judge people on the fact that they aren't that animal friendly I know that is just as bad as people judging me for being all about my animals. But you need people in your circle that understand your interests and respect them. If they can't respect your animals you don't need them around.

I used to live with a guy(a friend) that was good with my cats but mean to my dog, I was often telling him to be nice then one day it all exploded I yelled at him and actually lashed out I was so angry. The freaky thing is I was surprised I reacted like that with him & so was he, after that he was better towards my dog. I just used to call Chip away prevention was easier hehe.

I was dating a guy that one day kicked my dog our relationship ended right there, the guy used to come sit outside my house & try to explain/aplogise for his actions I didn't want a bar of it. If you can kick my dog who knows what you could do to me I am pretty firey & what if I pushed him too far one day. Someone that can hurt or kill an animal in my eyes is a dangerous person if you can do that to an animal a person is just the next step.

 If somebody doesn't get along with my dogs, I don't want much to do with them. What fun would it be to spend time together? My dogs are always with me!

Hunterwayit

I was dating a guy that one day kicked my dog our relationship ended right there, the guy used to come sit outside my house & try to explain/aplogise for his actions I didn't want a bar of it. If you can kick my dog who knows what you could do to me I am pretty firey & what if I pushed him too far one day. Someone that can hurt or kill an animal in my eyes is a dangerous person if you can do that to an animal a person is just the next step.

I totally agree with that. My ex BF used to pick my dog up by her scruff & the skin over her butt, and throw her becuase she was 'bad' - he would never listen when I told him to stop.  he was say that it didn't hurt her.

 I didn't care - when that was over - she stayed with me

My sister in law is horrid when it comes to animals. She thinks that she can treat other dogs the way she treats her own dog.

She comes in my home with the squeakest mickey mouse voice and then asks why the dogs get overly excited when she comes over. She sits on the loveseat, PULLS Rory up to her and wraps her arms around her neck practically smothering her. But she has a pit bull too so I whatever I tell her she says "they are tough, they can take it"

One night we were at her house and she put a mask over her dogs face and Rory immediatley was confused and on guard. Not to mention her dog had no idea what was being done to him and had poor sight through the mask. Rory growled because it was a scary mask and she told me my dog was unstable. I just took it in stride and took Rory with me into the other room for a sit/time-out. So here comes sister in law with a rope toy and says "lets see if they'll play tug-o-war"......ugh we'd already been there for 5 hours, the dogs adn kids were tired and I told her No but she laughed and threw it on the ground. Her dog is 8 years old with severe arthritis and was not in the sharing mood. He lunged at Rory and then sister in law had the nerve to say "he must be gettign bad vibes from Rory". DH knew I was pissed so we left and we havnt brought Rory over since.

When we got Primo she tried to bring her male dog into my yard to meet him while I was still inside. I didnt even heat her pull up but got out there just in time when I heard Primo growl.....she'd never even met Primo herself.

She brings her dog to every family function at my in-laws house and wont ever split the time with me so we can bring Rory. The family loves both dogs so she suggests we bring them both......ugh I just cant imagine having to rambunctious dogs around 7 kids and several elderly people for birthdays and family gatherings so my dogs are ALWAYS left at home and they wonder why we want to go home soon.

Sorry for my rant but I've still yet to reach a resolution because I cant talk to her like a adult.

I'm a huge believer that how someone treats an animal speaks volumes about their character. I understand that not everyone loves dogs (or cats or whatever), but to treat them inhumanely would send major warning signs up for me. I'm very protective of my dogs and wouldn't tolerate even the slightest cruelty towards them.

My friends and family actually ignore my dogs. Well that is except Kujo of course. She will not be ignored. It's kids I have to get after about being mean to my dogs. And then again it's mainly Kujo that they are being mean too. Just because she is little does not mean she can be played with like a stuffed animal.

Strangers interact with my dogs more than the people I know. Weird huh? I dont think it's a bad thing that my dogs arent paid attention to by people I know. My dogs actually dont come up asking for attention from any but me except Kujo. She has got to have everyones attention. My friends and family all have one or more dogs that they expect others to treat nicely so why wouldnt they treat others dogs the same?

The only person I know that annoys me about my dogs is my brother. He was good with Kujo but was mean to Cheyanne and Lillie. They didnt know he was being mean to them because he was just calling them names but it made me angry so I told him to shut his mouth and not talk about my dogs if all he was just gonna call them names. 

akyramoto82

 in my particular situtaion, I wasn't close friends with this person to begin with. and this 'telling' him how to treat my animals happened on three different occasions. It was REALLY irritating.

 

I am bummed that the other friend & I are not close anymore, that just plain sucks. 

i kicked a guy out of my house that i didnt know very well. i told him twice to not scare my dogs, he said i make them soft. i told him that is MY decision, he went on. so i told him to leave. he was at my house with his friends and my sister, so they all went downstairs to hang out. when i saw him again after that, he apologized to me, and said it would never happen again and it didnt. i think my sister gave him a talking to as well. haha.

i think, for us here on the board, it is about protecting our pets alot. but just because others dont have the same mindset and dont understand how animals should properly be treated, it doesnt give them the right to interact with OUR pets however they please. it is about respecting OUR wishes! none of my friends are dog people. they dont "get" dogs and they dont really care about them. that is fine with me. but when they are at my house, they interact the way i tell them or they dont interact at all. they all think i am weird because i care so much. that's ok. but they respect my wishes nontheless... THAT is the key here.

 We once had 15ish of BF's coworkers over here for a video game party. They all wanted to see the dog, so I let Rascal out, after warning them VERY strictly (making eye contact with each one) that they were NOT to touch the dog, because he WOULD bite them if they did. Rascal goes out, is friendly, everyone behaves, all is happiness... until one of our friends, who knew Rascal and had been over several times before (and heard the shpiel several times before), decided that he was above the "no petting" rule and started patting Rascal on the head. Rascal promptly growled and snapped at him. BF immediately says, "That's why you don't pet the dog."

Random coworker then says to bitten friend, "Just smack him."

I shoot dagger eyes at Random Coworker and snort condescendingly. I decide to drop it because said coworker is well out of range of the dog, and I don't know him, anyway.

Random coworker then proceeds to argue, "No, seriously, next time he does that, just smack him across the head."

I glare at random coworker and then say VERY seriously and VERY clearly, "I would smack YOU." Random coworker sees I'm not joking, gets very uncomfortable, and doesn't mention the dog (or look at me) for the rest of the evening.

As Rascal's owner, I feel **very** strongly that it is my responsibility to protect him. I take this responsibility very seriously, and will not tolerate any behavior towards him that makes him feel uncomfortable in any way. Sometimes this means just removing him from the situation (there are certain friends of mine who are nervous around dogs, so they make him nervous - not their fault, so he gets crated in another room while they're here). Sometimes this means confronting the offenders and, if necessary, asking them to leave. But to allow someone to frighten or hurt my animals without intervening... I would consider that a lack of responsibility akin to leaving a 2-year-old unsupervised in a swimming pool. Just totally, completely unacceptable.

BF used to be terrible about frightening Rascal - he wasn't able to recognize when Rascal was scared, didn't understand why he would be scared, and didn't think it was a big deal anyway. We had a number of serious talks, and because BF is a superstar, he tried really hard to behave himself better, and now he and Rascal are great buddies. But if BF had been unwilling to stop "playing" with Rascal in ways that frightened him...? I really think for me that would have been a relationship-ender.

Compassion and empathy are two of the traits I admire most in a person, and IMO being kind to an animal is one of the highest forms of both. It's much easier to be empathetic to those similar to us, isn't it? And few things are less similar than an entirely different species. So, to me, the willingness to (try to) understand and respect an animal's feelings is one of the most admirable traits I can think of in a person.

I have a very close family member that I love dearly but who treats my dogs horribly sometimes. I have told him in no uncertain terms that his behavior towards my dogs is unacceptable and it ends or he leaves my home.  He has left at times, stating that it's pretty bad that I would choose my dogs over him.  My response is that I haven't chosen the dogs over him - he has chosen to leave by continuing unacceptable and cruel behavior. I don't care if he doesn't agree with me, or if he thinks there's nothing wrong with what he's doing, or if he thinks I'm babying my dogs - whatever.  I feel that if he truly loves me he should respect my wishes, regardless of how he feels about them, especially in my own home.  This is also my dogs' home - they have a right to be comfortable and safe and happy here.  If someone can't understand and respect that, then they are free to leave.   

BF and I had a get together with friends a couple years ago, BF at the time had Zoe, a 14 year old yorkie.  She was on a special diet because she had stomach problems.  We told our friends do not feed her.  She might come around, might sit and look as though she is starving, she isn't. 

So as we were all talking, I notice one of my friends' new girlfriends who I didn't know very well, giving Zoe food, I told her, stop.  I caught her doing it again, I agani told her, even angrier to stop feeding her.  She said okay.  BF caught her feeding Zoe, we told her to leave.  She looked at us as though we weren't serious, but ooooh boy were we ever, and she had to go, and she went. 

How someone treats an animal says a lot to me about the kind of person they are..but I have no firsthand experience with anyone in my circle of family or friends being anything but nice to Ben, I'm not sure how I'd react if it happened but I'd wager it wouldn't be pretty. 

My brother in law and my nephew get annoyed at my dogs at times, I can tell when its happening and how they might shove them away.  Honestly, I don't blame them so I put the dogs away. Somepeople don't like dogs up their butts or dogs wanting to be petted etc.  I have a girlfriend who loves dogs but is afraid of our big boy, so I put him away too when she visits.  It's no big deal to him or us. 

My DH also has a friend who as far as I know never owned a dog and is one of these guys who is a know it all.  Everytime he stops by to visit (which is not often) he insists on trying to roughhouse with River and has at times been growled at.  I always tell him "knock it off" leave the dog alone - he stops for a while if I see him starting again I put my dog inside and out of his reach.

None of these people are inhumane to my dogs and I would kick them out if they were but it is my job to keep my dogs safe and secur as much as it is my job to allow my company to visit peacefully.  My dogs don't have to be in the middle of the mix 24/7 so when company isn't into them, or they are not following the rules I set out for the dogs, I remove the dogs.