Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Dog Abuse, Bad dog owners, a misunderstood myth?



When you want a pet do you buy one from the pet store or the animal control shelter? Do you select or prefer  to get one for free and look out for its best interest or are you thinking only of yourself when you pick one out. Most importantly, do you intend for this pet to be a partner in life or just another animal to keep an eye on your property and bark when a stranger approaches your door? There are endless questions regarding choosing a pet but the most important one you should ask is will you love it.

Every year, millions of dogs are sold, kept and abused. Animal lovers want the absolute best for their dogs but there are many sick people out there who abuse this relationship between man and animals. They either don’t treat them right or they should never have gotten one to begin with as they aren’t good pet owners and do not respect their rights to co-exist with man. 

Most animals give their love unconditionally no matter how harsh you treat them. They are substantially depended on you for all their needs and do what is considered a meager service of being a loyal companion or a guardian of you domain. Regardless, their worst fear is your disappointment or neglect of them when they let you down. Strangely, they have other fears as well. 

Dogs have the fear of being hurt. Some are slapped, punched, kicked or worse and are defenseless to protect themselves. As the laws are written, any dog who defends itself against is automatically put down or euthanized because of society’s fear they are bad dogs. Bad dogs are dogs that bite, scratch, jump or otherwise injure a person even when they are playing. Dogs can’t speak so they can’t defend themselves and explain their motives for doing what they did. 

They are just put to death and that is that. No explanation needed. There is no argument whether or not the bite, scratch or any other act was justified. They are wrong in the eyes of society. Good dogs don’t do such things. Yet it is this fear of man that makes dogs act the way they do. For example, you buy a cage and you put your dog inside a cage instead of a long chain in the yard. 

Both are wrong but one can say that one is better than the other. In time, both the chain and cage will ruin any good dog and cause them to go bad. The crate is a tool for confinement and control. It is usually much smaller than it should be for the size of the dog used to put in there. An alternative to a cage is a dog house but even dog houses can be too small for the dog as it grows and outlives the purpose of such shelter. 

Combined with a chain and there is limited to no freedom for that dog. It can only go where the length of the chain lets them and it cannot escape the elements of the weather if the dog house is too small. So is crating a dog harmful. Is chaining a dog so bad it shouldn’t be done? What is so harmful about putting a dog inside a crate or on a chain that causes it to be so wrong? What can be done to undo such harm and restore the dog’s faith in its master to be treated right? 

The answer is yes, it is very harmful to crate a dog or chain it. This method creates behavioral problems that may lead to other problems. Crating or chaining a dog causes the dog to be isolated and separated from the very humans they were meant to serve, please or keep company. This type of confinement breaks their spirit and makes them change how they feel about their purpose in this arrangement between man and dog. 

In a busy world, the dog is often forgotten. When you add the time for man to work, sleep and take care of things around the house, the hours left for the dog is minimized and almost non-existent. These hours add up and there is no denying it impacts the dog’s health and relationship with the family or master. It becomes a burden and neglected more often than not. The cage, chain or dog house become their only possession and when time goes by, this is part of their territorial domain they must defend and protect so not to lose whatever is theirs. 

Without the interaction of people the crate, cage, chain or dog house is just an empty den where they live. They become den animals without the sense of domestication that makes them different from other wild animals. In a sense you alter their behaviors when you isolate them and neglect them. Even wolves who have pups don’t live in a den any longer than they need to raise their pups. Eight weeks after they are born, they go out into the wild and the den is abandoned. 

Caged, chained or isolated dogs can’t leave their den so it becomes part of their lives. There are locked or restrained to move about freely. There are no animals in this world that love to be caged, chained or restrained to a limited movement. Nobody likes to be caged or locked up or chained up. These animals are forced to endure whatever comes their way and have to protect it, defend it or accept it no matter what the reasons are for such adversity. 

Man is their guardian because they chose to have an animal as its pet, companion or protector. They should allow their pet or dog the freedom that is reasonably allowed under the law and living conditions to exist. They have a right to be given their partial freedom and not be locked up or forced to live in a small confined space. It is best the dog bonds with a human rather than bond with its crate or dog house or chain. Sadly, that is exactly what happens when the dog is neglected and abused under such conditions. It is forced to choose which one is closer to them. 

The crate, cage, chain or dog house is an inadequate substitute for a human. Yet it is done daily. Tragically, these dogs become less playful, more aggressive and lack socially accepted life skills that makes them appear to be threatening or harmful to kids or grownups as they are no misunderstood and no longer the cute puppy they brought home from the store, the animal shelter or a freebie by a friend or neighbor. 

Before that happens, most dogs will endure living on this earth without love. Love, affection and attention is their most wanted quality in humans. They endure this void for a very long time but even time doesn’t stand still and creeps up on the dog’s ability to cope with loneliness, neglect and abuse. Most cannot undo what they have done and the dog is put down, given away or set free somewhere in the middle of nowhere and abandoned. 

Thus dogs are fearful of humans and their relationship during their time spent together. If a dog is kept in extreme isolation, confined by cage, chain or other restraint, they will not bond with people but rather they bond with their own possessions such as the crate or cage or chain they are bound to.

It’s really that simple. Dogs cannot learn to adapt, learn or overcome their fears if they are not taught how to behave and interact with humans. It also makes them less likely to be successfully trained as they live in a fearful environment where they are not confident how the owner or master will treat them.


This is where you tread on dangerous grounds and cause the dog to act or misbehave contrary to expectations because you, the owner, have failed to prepare your dog for interactions, training or any other kind of purpose for they have no learned to cope with the change in their world.

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