Tuesday 29 January 2013

dog faming

Since I am friends with many dog people, and am generally known as a crazy dog person, I get quite a few emails with pictures of "dog-shaming". Some of them are cute, or funny, but to be honest most of them I find sad. Most of the dogs in these photos are poorly trained, or improperly managed.

Working in a pet store, I meet a variety of people. Sometimes they are crazy dog people like me, sometimes not. Whenever I ring a customer through, I always ask what kind of dog they have, how many dogs, how old are they, that sort of thing. Most people love to talk about their dogs, sometimes I even get to see pictures, or will go out to meet them in the car is the person isn't able to bring them into the store.

One day I rang through a customer who told me he and his wife adopted a large-breed dog from the humane society half a year earlier. She was very timid, and comfortable with the man when they were alone together, but anytime his wife was present the dog would be terrified of him. He would speak in a whisper on a regular basis so the dog would be comfortable. This alone I find an interesting behavioral problem (what is the association with the couple as opposed to the individual?). Anyways, when they first adopted her they were told that she had been found roaming the streets with a sign safety pinned to her chest, saying "I am a bad dog".

Can you imagine?

I can't look at a dog-shaming photo without thinking about this poor dog.

So this afternoon I was snooping around the internet and heard about a reversal of the dog-shaming revolution... DOG-FAMING!

First on this blog:
http://aftergadget.wordpress.com/2012/11/30/dog-faming-picture-it/

Then this one:
http://eileenanddogs.com/2012/11/21/dog-praising/

Why are we focusing on a dog's faults and lack of training when we could be celebrating the amazing things they do every day! I think this is an amazing idea, and I'm looking forward to posting some dog-faming photos of my own!

No comments:

Post a Comment