I find this forum to actually be pretty laid back in terms of dog ownership, in general. My very first dog forum was the Yorkie forum and so I quickly learned (or thought) that things were supposed to be a certain way. I was guilty of that for a while, too, just because I felt like a bad dog owner if I wasn't ... I've gotten so much more laid back, like I see a lot of this kind of stuff over there:
"MUST only wear harness! No collar!" I really think the odds of a yorkie getting collapsed trachea are very slim. I just don't think wearing a collar is going to kill your dog and most likely over 75% of yorkies in this world are walked on a collar with no problems. I prefer harnesses for other reasons, but I don't think it's the end of the world.
"OMG you got your dog at 8 weeks?!?!" I really don't think it's that big of a deal. I know alot of small dog breeders keep until 12 weeks, and sure it might be best, but I hate when a person posts happily about their 8 week old pup coming home and people are like 'that's a bad breeder, they won't let their pups go until 12 weeks. You're going to have issues'. Thousands of people get their dogs at 8 weeks with no issues. It's going to be okay.
Stuff like that.
As for me personally? I used to very "He needs to do something EVERY day!" and while I still very much enjoy taking him out and about and getting him good exercise (so he doesn't start to drive me crazy), I know it's not going to kill him to stay home and do basically nothing for a few days. Ya know, I try to tell myself now that this dog lives a GREAT life and gets to do SO many things, I'm not going to stress if he god forbid has to stay home by himself for 8 hours every now and then, or doesn't get the proper stimulation ALL the time. There may be a week where we DO do things like every day, or spend 3 hours at the park, but there may be another week that we're slacking and he'll just get a 20 min game of fetch in the yard. I won't stress as much about it anymore.
Begging. I'm horribly guilty of sharing my food with him, and I know I always will so there's no reason to try and stop it at this point. Especially living with relatives who feed him as well. It would be horribly inconsistent. And honestly begging is not something that's ever bothered me, with any dog. So long as they're not up in my grill and just sitting close by. The staring doesn't bother me. I think it's funny.
"NEVER walk your dog on a flexi!!!" Guilty of it sometimes. I prefer shorter leashes if we're going to be in a populated place, just for the sheer convenience, but he walks fine on a flexi, and sometimes I like giving him more space, he gets more exercise that way.
I definitely tell him 'no!' all the time, LOL.
Dog forum people would probably get this more, but I've had surprised looks come from some people when I say I will no longer be vaccinating Jackson for anything (minus rabies) and that I don't use flea/tick meds every month, that sort of thing. Dog park people sometimes think I'm nuts because they think they're being 'good dog owners' by doing these things monthly and yearly shots.
His insane alert barking when the door opens or someone knocks. It's really loud and obnoxious and quite annoying but it honestly doesn't really bother me. He stops once the person walks in. Not something I've ever felt important to 'train'. It's too difficult and I really don't wanna put forth the energy. His barking is not ever bad except at my dads house with the other dogs, it's amplified there. But since the other dogs are barking sometimes even more, I can't really stop him from following suit.
Oh and he enjoys humping a pillow pet. I let him. The end. :rofl1: