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Folks, JBG has a continuing joke about vicious dogs.
I don't care. Deciphering sophomoric private "jokes" isn't really in my wheelhouse, although I've (barely) noticed the commentary about Golden Retrievers and wondered if the Beagle remark was along the same lines. I simply took a question at face value and answered it.
Last edited by Metlakatla; 08-30-2022 at 08:18 PM..
There's a group of seniors with smaller dogs who do that here. I see nothing wrong with it; I think it served a particularly important purpose during the worst of the pandemic when most of these people wouldn't otherwise even see or talk to another person.
My dog likes to run around, and he's a social butterfly who loves to play with other dogs. He's young, I'm not, so I take him to the dog park so he can get his activity/social needs met. We interact plenty at home.
It does annoy me, though, when people sit there with their faces in their phones, their backs to their dogs, or otherwise not keeping an eye on them.
There's nothing wrong with people socializing, i.e. chatting with other people, at the dog park, as long as their first priority is seeing that their dogs get some exercise, or at least some healthy activity. I see too many people of all ages come to the dog park at the end of the day and plant themselves on chairs and chat and give their/each other's dogs' treats; while the dogs mostly sit around after relieving themselves. The dog owners just want to relax after work. Nothing wrong with that, in principal; but I believe that the dogs need to get out and walk and trot and sniff things. No reason why dog owners can't combine social interaction with walking their dogs at the dog park. And dog owners should keep their eyes on their dogs at all times (from even good-natured dogs) when at the dog park; spats and fights can results if they fail to do so.
There's nothing wrong with people socializing, i.e. chatting with other people, at the dog park, as long as their first priority is seeing that their dogs get some exercise, or at least some healthy activity. I see too many people of all ages come to the dog park at the end of the day and plant themselves on chairs and chat and give their/each other's dogs' treats; while the dogs mostly sit around after relieving themselves. The dog owners just want to relax after work. Nothing wrong with that, in principal; but I believe that the dogs need to get out and walk and trot and sniff things. No reason why dog owners can't combine social interaction with walking their dogs at the dog park. And dog owners should keep their eyes on their dogs at all times (from even good-natured dogs) when at the dog park; spats and fights can results if they fail to do so.
Of course dog owners shouldn't keep an eye on their dogs at all times. Never said otherwise. But actually, sometimes there are reasons why "dog owners can't combine social interaction with walking their dogs."
Guess I'm just looking at it from the perspective of someone who couldn't even walk to the mailbox and back after COVID got through with me. During this time, I made a point of taking my dog to the dog park so that he could get some exercise. He "walked and trotted and sniffed things just fine" while I was sitting on that bench. Did a few zoomies too, and chased his ball. Before you start about how could I take my dog to a dog park when I could barely walk because OMG there might be a dog fight that I wouldn't be able to stop, I timed my visits to this small and very lightly trafficked park so that we were either the only ones there or we were with a friend or two and their dogs, so kindly save it.
I guess I could have just kept him cooped up at home instead when I was recovering from COVID (like most people probably would have), and then someone like you would complain about that.
The point is is that maybe it's best not to judge someone when you don't know what they're dealing with. Edit: I never see a dog at our dog park that is "just sitting around" unless it's old and/or simply tired.
Kinda sad when people can't even sit on a park bench anymore without someone getting all self-righteous over it. No wonder the country's in a shambles.
Last edited by Metlakatla; 08-31-2022 at 12:53 AM..
The various dog breeds would quickly meld into a single mongrel type if they were allowed to go wild. All the different breeds of dogs were developed by humans through selective breeding, they are totally lacking in class consciousness. The same is true of probably all domestic animals.
Obviously, if a dog is off-leash in a fenced dog park, it's free to run or walk around or sit as it wishes. I was referring to people who "walk" their dogs but then sit, staring at a phone, with the dog restrained, NOT walking the dog OR drag the dog along at the owner's versus the dog's pace, usually preoccupied by his phone, versus being attuned to the dog's needs and wants and engaging meaningfully with it. Not to repeat myself.
And I respectfully disagree that feeling concern or sympathy for such pets is "why the country's in a shambles."
[URL="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/aug/01/should-we-stop-keeping-pets-why-more-and-more-ethicists-say-yes"]More and more ethicists say yes (but I say strongly "no"!)[/URL] Most animals that are commonly kept as pets (and I am not talking about exotic pets) have become pets because that's what the species' in question wanted. These two articles, [URL="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/130302-dog-domestic-evolution-science-wolf-wolves-human"]Opinion: We Didn’t Domesticate Dogs. They Domesticated Us.[/URL] and [URL="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-wolves-really-became-dogs-180970014/"]How Accurate Is the Theory of Dog Domestication in ‘Alpha’?[/URL] make a very strong case that dogs, at least, domesticated themselves. Some wolves began hanging out near human habitations, picking up food and companionship along the way. The ones that attacked or bit their benefactors didn't last long. There were no animal cruelty laws in those days.
Most dogs are visibly happy around people. Does an unleashed Golden Retriever, with its tongue dangling 3" out of its mouth, happily run towards a beachcomber without food to offer, merely to get a head scratch and perhaps a ball toss, if that's not what it wants? We are its pack!
Granted, cats are a bit harder to understand, and the keeping of exotics like chimps is downright heartless.
Cats are not hard to understand at all. They have socialized for human companionship just as dogs have. People who believe otherwise have probably never had a cat as a pet. Cats form very tight bonds with their human families.
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