Is your family....

[JennSLK]

...Ignorant about animal things?

Eg #1

Tonight I noticed Thea's (My parents Cat)one tooth was rotten and loose. I also noticed she needs to have her back teeth cleaned. I told my dad since it was really loose and painfull. She probably cant eat well, although she is in good body weight. Well he pulled the tooth himself. OK fine not my cat. I told him if he couldnt get it I would call the vet in the morning. He said oh great that will cost like 100 bucks to get it pulled and cleaned. Um no. I wish

Eg #2

A while ago he asked my mom how much Jazz cost. He was like "well she's a pure bred show dog so she was probably really expensive. Like $400."

 

[mrose_s]

It annoys me, especially when its family. My auntie has an adorable little BYB Staffy, we call her Daphne the Defect dog, she's had surgery on both knees, has constant skin issues, can't go out for a walk for more than 5 minutes because she puffs so hard, has heart issues etc etc etc. Last time I saw her they were having a lot of skin issues with her because of the steroids she was on. Thing is, she was eating a lot of processed food. Sure it was the expensive boutiqu-y type things you get from the supermarket except I looked at the ingredients list and pointed out that it was all just processed food, why not try her on raw?
It didn't even occur to them.

Honestly, she's very much loved though and she couldn't have a nicer home to live in.

Heres a photo of Daphne I took last year, she's such a sweetheart.

 

[~Tucker&Me~]

About little things, like good quality food, some training stuff... But at the end of the day, all their animals are very well-loved, vetted, exercised, etc. I think sometimes we lose sight of what a dog needs to be happy. Sure, feeding EVO over Science Diet is better, clicker training is awesome, neutering later in life can be beneficial... But at the end of the day, with the basics most dogs will be happy

 

[mrose_s]

+1 Tucker.
I'm lucky, most of my family are big animal lovers. My father doesn't like animals unless he can "use" them for something (working dogs, chickens that lay etc) but he did like Buster when he was living with him.

 

[JacksonsMom]

Well, I'm lucky in that most of my family are 'animal lovers' so while my grandma's Lab might be overweight, has stinky breath, and probably doesn't get enough exercise... she's still a very happy and well loved dog. My aunt has an 8yr old Pittie who is pretty much untrained, a bit overweight, eats crappy food, etc, but my aunt, out of ALL of my family members, is the biggest animal lover. She's the one who will rescue a dog off the street, bring it in, bathe him, etc (just did this last week). She makes sure Max, her Pit, gets a walk each day even though she just had a new baby, and gets to her local beach for some off leash swimming, etc. He's truly spoiled and loved and is a very happy dog and gets out every day pretty much. My dad- basically same story. Him and my step-mom have 2 little dogs and they lead a pretty good life! Spoiled rotten, but my step mom gives them good exercise on the bike with her, etc. They go camping with them on the RV, etc.

I'd say the only person in my family who just doesn't "get it" is my mom. She's just never really had that special connection with any kind of animals. She doesn't dislike dogs, per say, she just really doesn't understand the concept of owning a dog. Like, when I dogsit for people overnights, if it gets late and I have to go drive to let a dog out late at night, she doesn't understand why I can't just wait 'til morning.... I'm like uh mom, they haven't been out since 5pm. They can't wait til morning. She knows Jackson is my baby and all and she likes him and stuff but she doesn't really pay attention. Sometimes she laughs when she sees me doing clicker training... but she knows it works because she's amazed at all that Jackson can do.

 

[Amber]

Yes. Yes yes yes. Well, not certain members of my extended family..but a friend, who I consider family, is just sooo...ugh I have no words. haha

The got a 7 pound schnauzer from a BYB. It's cost them thousands of dollars in medical bills in the first two years of its life. It now has been diagnosed with a severe heart murmer. I kindly hinted that if she wanted a purebred i couldv'e helped her find a good breeder or rescue.
She says, "I did not get -the dog- from a breeder! The people I got her from don't show their dogs or even register them with the AKC. They only sell pets. Breeders sell show dogs!" --head banging(smashing)-against-a-wall-smiley anyone?--

She just went and bought another dog from these people.

O.O

Oh yeah and my mom bought me a Cesar Milan book. lol

 

[Dogs6]

My mum thinks she knows everything about dogs just because she was raised with them.

Fudge has a new trick where he sits and whines at the door pretending to need out. If my mum sees him she'll tell me to take him out. When I say no and explain why, she'll just open the front door and let them all out into the unfenced yard unsupervised. She seems to think they're human and if she says "don't go to far" that they won't go anywhere

she also doesn't know why the dogs won't get off the sofa when she says down, she used to stand there yelling down at them for ages until she asked me to get them off for her. But I managed to train her to stop She asked me to get them down one day and I came in, said down, they downed and told my mum "There you go they did exactly what you said." Now she uses off.


I COULD go on for hours but those are my main rants about her :lol-sign:

 

[Paige]

Yupp. They're massively ignorant but at the end of the day all the animals have food, water, shelter, vet care, love, and the ability to self exercise in a safe place so who am I to bitch?

 

[ravennr]

Eh, here and there. My aunts know horses in and out, but that's about it as far as anyone who is really knowledgeable. My mom bred Cockers, but it was decades ago and she doesn't know as much as I wished she did. My family tends to be very breed ignorant, and they do blame the breed a lot. One of my sisters went through a big reptile and bird phase, and she knows quite a bit about snakes in particular.

The ones that know anything seem to be stuck to one animal. I'm the only one that decided I needed to be obsessed with everything that isn't human
I'm generally the one they come to when they're not sure about something, because if I can't help them they know I know more people who can (chaz, for example). It's generally either dogs, cats, or certain exotics.

 

[Taqroy]

My parents have gotten much better/more involved with how they take care of their dog. She gets grain free food (they actually switched before I did) and is kennel trained and gets a 2 mile walk every day. My dad is very old school in his training methods though and used a shock collar to keep her from running out on the road and barking at people. She did quit, but she was pretty shutdown for awhile after. He was also a total Cesar Milan fanboy and kept pestering me until I finally told him off and sent him a bunch of articles about Cesar being an idiot.

I guess the only thing that bothers me is the way they take care of their cats. They don't have one currently but the last one (Tonto - BEST CAT EVER) used to get in fights all the time and he had a lot of abscesses or wounds or half his ear ripped off when I saw him and they never took him to the vet. My dad thinks that cats should be outdoors (although Tonto did get to come in a lot) and that they'll live through **** near anything. Which, to be fair, Tonto did live for much longer than I thought he would given the lack of vet care. In the end they put him down because the vet said he either had bone cancer or a broken leg.....seriously? The VET can't tell the difference between bone cancer and a broken leg? Oh well. Like I said they don't have a cat right now anyway. And overall they're pretty decent pet owners.

 

[~Jessie~]

I'm lucky that my parents are very, very good pet owners.

They only own one toy poodle, but he's fed a high quality food and my parents also follow the limited vaccine protocol.

My parents take him out a lot, and he gets a long walk every night... they also live on acreage, so he gets a huge fenced in yard (and a pool!) to play in.

When they come to visit, they LOVE seeing our dogs. My dad wants to take Rory home... lol. They always ask questions and talk about dogs with me, and are always interested in what I have to say about them.

 

[HayleyMarie]

My parents are pretty good. Although thye bought Emme Lou from BYB against my advice they do feed the dogs a high quality food and are waiting until Emme is full grown to spay her. They lack in the training department though.

They do listen to my advice most of the time, although at the beginning it was a fight. It took forever to convice my parents to switch over to a better quailty food, until I printed off all bad ingredience that is in crappy dog food then highlighted all the crappy ingrediences that were in the dog food they were feeding the dogs. I won that one

 

[Sit Stay]

My mom's really good. She's did pet sitting for years, wanted to open a doggy day care years ago before they were popular, and has been friends with some of this area's most reputable trainers for ages. The only thing is she's still feeding our ACD Pedigree, which sucks, but I talk dog food ingredients a lot with her about the puppy so I'm hoping she'll switch her after this bag. I think it's also a bit of a cost/availability issue too - we had her on Before Grain for awhile and my mom really noticed a difference, but it was never in stock when she'd go back.

My dad ... not so much. He has a lot of experience but he's really harsh (but inconsistent - will play with the dog in the kitchen in the morning and then yell at them to get out at lunch) with his dogs and it's just not fair to them. He feeds crappy food and doesn't worry about things like shots, but I guess it's less of a big deal as they're farm dogs who rarely leave the property. He will call the vet out for big things though, so that's good. Even though he's pretty harsh with them I think he does love his dogs - he was devastated when he had to put his Aussie down a few years ago and still talks about how she was the best dog he's ever had.

 

[Fran101]

Yupp. They're massively ignorant but at the end of the day all the animals have food, water, shelter, vet care, love, and the ability to self exercise in a safe place so who am I to bitch?

I agree with this.

Ya, plenty of people in my family don't know a HOOT about health testing, good breeders etc..

but EVERY dog in my family is well loved and care for. So I just let it be.

 

[MandyPug]

My mum and her husband are Cesar Millan and Brad Pattison worshippers.

Enough said...

 

[HayleyMarie]

My mum and her husband are Cesar Millan and Brad Pattison worshippers.

Enough said...

Augh I loath Brad Pattison. I watched one of his shows last weekend and he pretty much made me livid. Same with the stupid woman who he was helping. I am pretty sure Brad has only one volume and that is yelling and he also is not very gentle with the dogs.

 

[BerryBye]

My biggest issue was when I first brought my guy home and he had extreme fear/shyness issues. I was shocked and appalled by how my family and even some friends behaved towards him.

He had lived in a kennel for his entire life of 6 months, yet they continually tried to force him into uncomfortable situations, grab at him, get REALLY frustrated with him and generally make mean comments “like what’s wrong with himâ€.

Is was so hard for me to see these people who I love and respect be so completed closed minded to a new situation and to openly go against my wishes for how he was to be approached ect. It has permanently damaged some relationships to be honest because it showed me a new side of these people.

1.5 years later I have to tell the same few people to just ignore him when they first come over, and they STILL try and “sneak†a pat, or try and corner him when they think I’m not looking. GET IT IN YOUR HEAD ALREADY!!

With the people who listened to me, my dog is amazing! He is friendly, will approach them for pats etc – just a total 180 from where is was when he came home (so proud!!).

But with those people who never listened, he is still incredibly shy and uncomfortable around – and they act all offended by it…ahh frustrating!! I could rant forever about this, sorry!! Lol

 

[Snark]

Nope, they're pretty good about animals - most of Mom's friends say they want to come back as one of her cats. They haven't gotten another dog since their Rottie died from cancer - both say they can't go through the heartbreak again. Dad likes to act tough and complains that all pets are useless, usually while petting the cat on his lap or playing tug with Riley...

 

[smkie]

sighs...some do, some don't. The don't is hard for me to know about. I have groomed, cut nails, and such for some family members. Mom is a given, she can't see to do it herself.