What do you do that makes casual dog owners balk?

Fran101

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#1
Lol we all have those moments at the dog park or vet. We ALL love our dogs of course.. but there is that one thing you mention in passing that makes the casual dog owner go :yikes: or look at you like you are a crazy person.

- My weird near obsession with Merlin's fecal matter. I have gotta many a glance at the park because I appear fixated by what is coming out of my dog! LOL I JUST WANNA KNOW HE IS HEALTHY AND SUCH!

-The collars. Anyone else grow up in a home where dogs have ONE collar? My family thinks I'm nuts for the amount of accessories Merlin has.

- The dog friends facebook. My friends know I have a work facebook, a personal facebook and a dog facebook.. a say what now? A DOG FACEBOOK. My amount of dog forum people, dog friends, dog walking clients etc.. became such a HUGE part of my friends list, that I have a facebook just for them. and I go on it more than my personal/regular one.
Weird?
very much so.
 
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#2
Well that time I drove to Ohio to pick up a puppy from someone I knew on the internet made a couple of people scratch their heads. :p
 

FG167

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#5
We own 7, soon to be 8, and also usually have at LEAST one work dog, if not more (right now two), at our house.

We crate dogs in our car - I get a lot of comments on this

I want dogs with active aggression. Yup, I like aggression. (Kastle and Moonshine for IPO training).

I carry a first aid kit for dogs, but not one for people, in my car and while hiking

Our dogs have their own level and the cats have their own room
 

Emily

Rollin' with my bitches
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#6
-Raw feeding. Though my friends do enjoy watching the dogs demolish chicken quarters, because it's "like being at the zoo!"

-my attachment to my dogs' ovaries, LOL. I rarely get judgement except from people that don't matter, but friends are definitely a little confused by Keeva in panties, not to mention that whole driving to Wisconsin so Blossom could have a hysterectomy-only instead of a traditional spay.

-I've gotten some mild weirdness about training Blossom for protection sport from some people. Attack dog connotations and all that. :rolleyes: Even though she's pretty much a social goof when introduced to people. My roommate calls her the Derp-tection dog. She's here to derptect us! LOL But people fear what they don't understand.

-sometimes people are put off by how easily I accept my dogs' general lack of strange dog social-ness. I'm just like, oh we can't do the dog beach, mine don't like strange dogs. "OMG THEY WEREN'T SOCIALIZED!? You should call the dog whisperer!" Lol

-similarly, my acceptance of my dogs' territorial nature. People are sometimes horrified that we can't just let people in the house willynilly, and more horrified by the fact that my roommate and I are fine with that. If we want to let people in, we can easily introduce them to the dogs, so it's really no skin off our noses. Plus we're two girls living alone in the city. We don't mind everybody knowing we have a house full of dogs that don't like trouble. ;)
 
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#8
  • The dog poop obsession.
  • Getting dogs from Australia and/or a breeder in general.
  • Feeding raw
  • Meeting dog people in real life that I met online. Because serial killer.
 

Red.Apricot

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#9
Feeding her eggs.

"BUT YOU CAN JUST BUY CANNED DOG FOOD." It's expensive. "BUT EGGS ARE HUMAN FOOD." They're fine for her, I've talked to the vet--it's actually good for her to get them. "BUT YOU BOUGHT THEM AT THE HUMAN STORE."
 
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#10
I think i've been weird for long enough, those that know me don't pay any attention, and if people I don't know have a reaction to something I say or do, I don't really notice it anymore :)
 

Dizzy

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#11
I think the obsession in general... Anything past owning a dog and it being part of the furniture is considered a little weird.

The dogs have their own Facebook pages....

The fact that most of what I post or discuss on my own Facebook is dog related.......

I think most people just know that's who I am though :) certainly no one has ever said anything nasty about it (to my face haha). Most people I know, know I wouldn't care what they thought anyway :)
 

Beanie

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#12
Um, a lot.

Mentioning the chiropractor is usually a really excellent way to get bizarre looks. I suggested it to a friend for her senior dog once and her husband almost flipped his s*$* over it.

The fact that I have intact dogs.

The training and trialing in various sports or just stupid stuff for fun. Some people think it's cool and some people are like "You do what? Why?" One of my friends was talking with a mutual acquaintance at a party with me, and I mentioned I had to get home and let the dogs out, and he turned to the acquaintance and said, "Her dogs are badass." and then went on to talk about the agility stuff and how accomplished Auggie was. Wait, whaaaat?? He's never even indicated that he thinks the agility stuff is cool before and suddenly he's all "Her dogs are badass!" It was kind of awesome actually LOL. But I think *I* was looking at him like he was crazy. Like "Where is this coming from all of a sudden? Nobody else ever talks about my dogs, let alone says they're badass. WHO ARE YOU?"

The whole not thinking four dogs is a lot of dogs thing. And/or whenever I mention wanting a puppy...

My dogs all being related is another one. For even bigger shiggles, I like to explain how they are all related. "Well Auggie is Payton and Pepper's cousin once removed. Payton and Pepper are half-siblings. And Pepper's sister is Georgie's mom and Auggie's brother is Georgie's dad. So Payton is Georgie's half-uncle." I can almost see their brains exploding. Bwah ha ha.

I think most people in general would find the fact that I bought a house heavily influenced just because of the size of the backyard so I can work my dogs to be totally crazy. And they probably wouldn't be totally incorrect either.
 

CaliTerp07

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#13
Agility.

"What are you doing this weekend?"
"Going to an agility trial."
"Does that get expensive?"
"Yeah, it's $140/weekend usually."
"What are the prizes?"
"Uhhh...a 25 cent ribbon."

:rofl1:
 

Laurelin

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#14
I don't really talk about my dog obsession unless people ask. :p I've had people ask 'Doing anything fun tonight!' 'Oh yeah, dog training class!' And get blank looks. I'm pretty sure my non dog friends just think my dogs have terrible issues that I am constantly having to go to obedience training to fix. I mentioned agility once and got a 'wtf' look. I just don't tell them how much I spend/how often I'm out training my dogs.
 

Shai

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#15
Ummm I like to run around a PVC obstacle course with my dogs. Further, I obsess on this and actually wander around the countryside competing agains other people to see who can do it the fastest. And refer to a top-notch run as beautiful, elegant, or poetic.

Relative to that, the mountains of dog gear, dog-centric vehicle and residence setup, travelling for a puppy, owning more than two dogs, vacationing to visit my dogs' breeders, borrowing a puppy, massive ortho surgery and rehab, therapy, raising livestock for healthy dog food, fifty thousand pictures of the dogs, and a general education and willingness to debate the most frivolous nuances of dog ownership, training, etc. really don't seem as crazy as they would otherwise.

I don't actually get much weirdness about the rawdiet thing. Maybe by the point they've already decided I'm a nutter and just take it in stride.

That is, if folks even know about any of the above. Many don't even know I own dogs, or if they do they don't know anything beyond that.

  • Meeting dog people in real life that I met online. Because serial killer.
And to think, of all days that's the one that I had forgotten my chainsaw. Drat.
 

PWCorgi

Priscilla Winifred Corgi
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#16
The work I went through with Frodo for his separation anxiety. I had a person come into work with a VERY anxious Vizsla that had severe SA. I talked to him for a while about some of the things we did (Relaxation Protocol, switching up routines, etc etc etc.) and at the end he was like "Honestly, that's crazy. I'm not going to be going through that"

Mmmm, okay. Little bit offended there.

He bought a Thundershirt and the dog tore it off herself in the crate and shredded it. :cool:
 

Shai

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#17
Agility.

"What are you doing this weekend?"
"Going to an agility trial."
"Does that get expensive?"
"Yeah, it's $140/weekend usually."
"What are the prizes?"
"Uhhh...a 25 cent ribbon."

:rofl1:
What are you doing this weekend?

Oh, just getting together with friends (at an agility trial with our dogs where we will battle for blue and give each other hell an have a great time).

Oh nice, where ya headed? (clearly thinking I'm heading to a bar like normal people)

Oh, probably down around *named city the trial is in*

Oh you should check out *names favorite club/bar/restaurant*!

Thanks, maybe we will! Have a good one!

(lol)
 

Cali Mae

Little dog, big voice
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#18
My friends just think my "obsession" is plain weird... so I avoid talking dog to people because honestly, I can get a little uptight about that sort of stuff. I had to bite my tongue the other day when a friend said her aunt is letting her train her horses this summer... when this friend has almost no experience. I'd love to have someone to talk dog with all the time though... some day, maybe.

Firstly, everyone thinks I'm incredibly weird for wanting to start Cali on freeze-dried raw this summer.

Secondly, wanting to take a bunch of dog sport classes at $100/class for the eight weeks.

Thirdly, bringing her places to socialize. I have a friend whose family is wanting a GSD this spring, and my jaw literally dropped when she said when she brought up socialization that her parents said "what's that?". I cannot even fathom getting a GSD, much less from a BYB, and not socializing him/her. Any dog really. I can remember this friend came with us one time when I took Cali to an agility trial (where I briefly met AgilityPup) for socialization and then proceeded to eat my lunch in the car when they all went to the mall. She thought I was crazy. :p

Lastly, how much time I spend with her. Most people around here are minimalist so to speak when it comes to their dogs. One walk a day, no training or little, feeding Pedigree/Purina because they simply don't know better, etc.

Also, my friend and I did a project for our media studies class and used Cali's pictures on the slide. She thought I was nuts when I showed her my Flickr that contains a couple hundred pictures of Cali, and sadly, that's only maybe 10% of them.
 

SaraB

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#19
-Raw and my obsession with finding deals on raw
-Weekends spent at trials
-Traveling for dog events
-Importing two dogs from half way around the world and then driving across the country to pick up said dogs
-I have three (which I always point out that in the dog world, three is NOTHING)
-That I got o JoAnn's to buy fleece and ribbon to make dog leads
-That I converted the back of my car into a dog crate haven
-Requests for birthday presents/holiday presents that revolve around the dogs
-Taking an unusual amount of pictures of my dogs
-That I spend hours online researching pedigrees
-Meeting people I met online and not questioning that they are murders because, well "they are dog people!"
 

SpringerLover

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#20
Chiropractic & massage
Raw feeding
Safely contained in a car 99.9% of the time
SO MANY CRATES
So many collars/leashes/harnesses
Coats/boots in winter
Supplements
Routine bloodwork
Routines and structure...?
 

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