Strbellysneetch’s Weblog

But I sincerely hope that people have some knowledge about dogs before they obtain them.

I was taking Lucy out today in between assignments (clearly since she is little she must go out more often than the other two…we go outside a lot right now actually). A woman walked by and of course, because the little girl is so cute she stopped to chat for a moment. She asked where I live and I pointed to the building that I was standing in front of (in my socks). She expressed that she had been thinking about getting a dog and also inquired whether I thought that Lucy would “go crazy” in an apartment.

What I wanted to say was “yes, she’ll probably go crazy if I never walk her or even take her anywhere once in a while…read a book or two before you get a dog”. What I said was “no”…because as self-righteous as I know it sounds, I don’t suffer fools easily. Clearly I do not know everything there is to know about dogs, but there are some things I do know.

The size of the actual domestic home that they live in does not really matter. What matters is what people do with them. I could have a yard that stretches for miles and if I let my dogs out to play in the yard daily, thinking that would soothe their activity level, I could still end up with ill adjusted animals (in fact, I would likely end up with ill adjusted animals if that’s all I did with them). If you spend the time to walk a dog (or dogs) a couple of times a day, as well as take them to places where they can run free a few times a week, they will be perfectly adjusted, regardless of where they live.

It’s really that easy. As stupid and silly as it might sound, what I truly wanted to tell that woman, was to watch a few episodes of The Dog Whisperer.