Do people make fun of your dog "obsession"?

[skittledoo]

I'm seriously getting sick of people (mainly family) making fun of me for being such a dog person. Anytime I hang out with them I do talk about my dogs a bit but I'm really active with my dogs and they are a huge part of my life. My sister kind of made fun of me today when I was showing them photos from the Chaz meetup recently. I got a little defensive with her.

So just curious how many of you deal with this reaction from people. I'm positive I'm not the only one.

 

[Cali Mae]

One of my friends continually likes to make fun of the fact that I brought Cali with me to an agility trial and stayed in the car with her because it was a tad warm and I didn't want her in there alone. I know it's just lighthearted so I just shrug it off... there's absolutely nothing wrong with taking marvelous care of your dogs.

 

[JacksonsMom]

SO weird you just made this thread. I was literally just logging on to post something similar.

I just got back from spending a night with some friends out of town and they just simply don't get it. If I talked about Jackson like I do with my family, and people here on chaz, they would CERTAINLY think I've gone bananas. Heck if they knew I even belonged to chaz, I don't think that'd go over well. Luckily my family is really cool with the whole dog thing, so I don't have as big of an issue (though I'd never tell them how much I spend on collars and the like, LOL). They maybe aren't AS into their dog as I am but they all are still very much so dog lovers.

But like last night they made a few comments about my FB pictures and then one said something about me posting on the wall of a dog foods 'like' page and kinda laughed about it. I just laughed along or whatever but it DOES get irritating. To me, Jackson is like my child (but of course treated like a "dog" and allowed to do dog things lol) and I like to plan my activities around doing things with him. I think you just have to be a dog person to understand.

It's not that I felt they were being mean-spirited about it but I wouldn't feel comfortable talking to them about him a lot or the things I do because they just wouldn't understand so I tend to avoid the subject. Thank goodness most of my closest friends are now "dog people" haha.

 

[Ulteed]

Nope! My family all just love dogs, and all my friend's are dog people!

 

[Red.Apricot]

My family doesn't, and most of my friend's don't, either.

I'm not sure why, since I'm pretty vocal about Elsie.

 

[JacksonsMom]

One of my friends continually likes to make fun of the fact that I brought Cali with me to an agility trial and stayed in the car with her because it was a tad warm and I didn't want her in there alone. I know it's just lighthearted so I just shrug it off... there's absolutely nothing wrong with taking marvelous care of your dogs.

I had a friend like this. I had Jackson over her house (he's totally welcome there) and we had to run to the grocery store so she told me just to leave him at her families house (where he had only been one time before, and he's uncomfortable around strangers, AND there's no fence, and they are a very loud family, LOL)... so I was like no, that's okay, I'll bring him. Then she was like "you won't leave him in the car?" lol... no, it's kinda hot... and I don't feel comfortable doing that.

 

[Kayota]

All the time omg, I thought I was the only one who talked about dogs all the time... All I ever DO is stuff with my dog and watch anime! People don't really get how important dogs are to me... At this point my family and coworkers just tune me out.

 

[Dizzy]

Err.... No. I'm really the only person with a dog out of my friends, so they just get it. And they have known me long enough. I know a lot of people who love dogs though, so that helps.

I've ALWAYS been obsessive, so family know very well, its not even mentioned.

Most people admire (or at least pretend to lol) that I spend time training her, and love watching her tricks, or having snuggles.

The only person who knows I go on a dog forum though is my other half. He's as obsessed with cars as I am with dogs, so we both accept that! He spends more time online looking at them than I do at dogs lol

 

[skittledoo]

Haha my family and some of my friends do the whole eye roll thing as soon as I start talking about something dog related. It's so hard not to though. I mean, I work with dogs for a living. I'm a huge dog lover. I love to train. I'm active with my dogs and try to involve them in as much as possible. Most of my life is involved around dogs. My family is also frustrated that I won't go to the family beach trip because they didn't rent a house that allows dogs. Meh, oh well. LOL.

 

[AdrianneIsabel]

I tend to keep it to myself if not asked. I find car obsessions painful, gambling boring, remodeling as only mildly entertaining. I am not shocked when people hear of my dog obsession and are pretty uninterested. It's polite to tolerate some but there is a limit for everything.

 

[Barbara!]

My boyfriends parents continually tell me I am spending their sons money on stupid stuff....dogs have always been just fine apparently eating Ole' Roy and sitting in the house. I'm spending their sons money that he could use for things he enjoys, even though I have my own job and he has bought two motorcycles....but apparently there's something wrong with that...

 

[Dizzy]

In all fairness I don't just talk about dogs.... But they do crop up a lot

 

[Lyzelle]

I have the same issues. Luckily I've been able to convert DH, but everyone else doesn't really get it. And of course I'm THAT person. The one who can't keep their mouth shut when I hear something stupid, so I try to educate when I get the chance.

People just don't bring up dogs around me anymore. They don't share the same passion, and I have no issues talking about dogs, dog food, and especially Zander for hours.

 

[Linds]

Well, let me put it this way: No one was told about Didgie coming until she was actually here and even then I wouldn't have said anything because I didn't want to hear it but my mom told people.

I just didn't want my happy puppy parade to get rained on.

Just the other day a family friend was talking to my mom and they had just put their ancient collie mix down. My mom asked her if they were going to get another dog and the friend said probably not because they want to travel. And my mom said "Well you could look into a smaller dog too" And the friend went into a very pointed spiel about how she can't stand people who bring their dogs everywhere and can't go anywhere without them.

And since she well knows I take Traveler and now Didgie almost everywhere it was rather....hurtful in a way.

 

[Shai]

Yeah not really.

A family member said something about it once so I mentioned his snowmobile, ATV, and chrome obsession. That was the end of that

In general I think my non-doggie family and friends think it's a bit odd but just figure I'm harmlessly nuts and move on with their lives lol.

 

[houlahoops]

I sometimes joke with my friends that they can listen to me blab about either my motorcycle or my dogs =P

Either way, I think most of my friends understand that it's just an interest...I'm no different from someone who is way into interior decorating or scrapbooking or whatever. Sometimes people at school joke that I probably miss my dogs more than I miss my family, but it's all in good fun and I try not to get offended.

 

[Paige]

People are so used to it now. I LOVE talking about my dog and my kid so you probably aren't going to be a friend if you do not like how much I chat about them.

I only have one friend though... so... She is as into her kid and a crazy cat lady so it works.

 

[Dekka]

I tend to make friends with similar thoughts/tastes etc so I don't really have issues with this. Sure some of my friends are horse vs dog obcessed but no one gives me a hard time about it.

Even my family who doesn't understand really accepts it.

I don't think I would have enough in common with someone who couldn't accept that animals are a big part of my life and have been since I was little (I apearantly said Tee Tat, 'kitty cat' before I said Mom). Even my school friends are fine with me being animal obcessed, most of them think its cool what Dekka can do.

 

[shazbot]

I get people teasing me all the time. I take my dogs health and well being very seriously, they come first. I got booted from my friends circle because I just missed a wedding due to KC's health going downhill fast. He's dealing with LP, a mass in his trachea, a heart problem and now a very nasty skin infection. They're upset because I spent the money I was going to use to travel up to the wedding on KC. They didn't understand why I couldn't just leave him with a sitter.

My mom and her ex bf used to give me gruff also, because I was willing to spend to $60 on a bag of dog food instead of buying whatever food was on sale at Safeway that week. They didn't understand why I would boil chicken and rice when they had upset tummies.

My response is always that when I adopted these guys that I took the responsibility to take care of them to the best of my ability, and that I like dogs more than I do most people.

 

[Fran101]

Nope, but then again..I keep dog talk to a minimum around those who aren't interested honestly. I'd rather people feel included and why waste my breath? lol
So yea, it's more of a "feel the room" kind of thing.. I'll share a bit about my pups if it feels right or people show interest

People pleasantly tease me for having a dog as my phone background or just being a dog person (which is obvious) but never anything negative really. I'm not over-bearing about it so why would they