A vintage pointer dog illustration from Cassell's Illustrated Book of the Dog (1881).
By Boni
A guest writer for the DogsBite.org Blog.
Once upon a time in a land far, far away Dear Reader, there were Sensible Dog People. These SDPs owned dogs for various reasons.
Sometimes the dogs herded cattle and generations of good herding dogs were bred for their ability to be brave and clever and learn quickly from their herding elders and human handlers. Some barked warnings at the heels of sheep, big ones chest-banged cattle. Farmers respected their herding dogs. No dog that attacked livestock or the family was tolerated because of course, the whole family depended on that livestock and each other to survive. Many farmers, when the good old herding dog retired, would let it lay by the fire and feed it, even though it couldn't contribute anymore until it finally passed away. Then the neighborhood farmers would wax poetically about that dog's greatness and how half the county's best dogs were its descendants. Thus, the dog was a blessing to the whole community.
Sometimes there were sled dogs that slugged supplies and people from one place to the next through the deepest snow. Brave, resilient dogs, their lot in life was full of hardship. Without them, life would have been impossible in the arctic areas where their owners were forced to reside and learned to adapt. These dogs were admired for their life-preserving skills and if they shed more than their own weight weekly, well, everyone deserved a good winter coat.
Sometimes the dogs were bred for generations to retrieve game, to bring back dinner without a single tooth-mark upon it. Other dogs were bred to chase game or large, dangerous animals and some to bugle deafeningly to hunters or point to their next meal.
Sometimes there were cruel men who bred powerful pit dogs for sport. They pitted these game dogs against bulls and bears then as civilization moved away from blood sports -- fought the dogs against each other because it was cheap to breed and pen these hefty dogs, far harder to keep a bear or bull loose in the back garden. These gambling men of low countenance kept a tight reign on these unpredictable dogs because they didn't want their illicit activities to come to light. Never did these practical men consider these dogs as "pets".
Sometimes, Evil Men used their dogs to hunt other humans.
Sometimes there were even companion dogs. These were dogs that people kept around just because well...dogs are companionable. Many were free mongrels, procured from a neighbor whose friendly boy dog jumped the fence and paired with another neighbor's friendly girl dog and well...if you're over the age of 12 you probably have a good idea of how the puppies were made. Sometimes, dog fanciers bred elite dogs they called "purebred" to have specific physical and temperamental traits as guarding companions, lap dogs or helpers and charged top dollar for the ones that looked flashy at dog shows. Dangerous dogs that failed at being sociable companions were culled out for the public good with no second chances, which strictly speaking, wasn't always a fair system, as some people noticed.
And with that, Dear Reader, the whole world of dogdom went Barking Mad.
Because you see -- there was Big Money to be made off marketing to the sentimentality of companion dog owners. "AHA!" thought the profiteers. "Why should we only make a reasonable profit off dog kibble, retriever dumbbells, leashes, simple leather collars and check chains? We could make BILLIONS if we could just milk all these sentimental saps!"
Next there were walls of expensive dog toys, thousands of brands of designer treats to appeal to an animal that would be just as happy to mow down on a plop of cat poop, shelves of fancified duck-with-peas-and-sweet-potato dog foods that cost more than the family groceries, racks of dog pajamas, glorious handcrafted dog leashes with matching rhinestone collars and wardrobes that would put the Kardashians to shame.
Pee pads became the new Persian carpets as celebrities flashed their puppies' photos on the internet without the understanding that puppies have bladders the size of peanuts and need to potty 127 times a day rather than sit still for cameras.
Suddenly, dog trainers didn't just teach obedience classes for a few extra dollars to feed their obedience trial habit -- televised dog gurus, including some that didn't even own a dog -- materialised overnight. Buckets of cash could be teased from gullible owners who bought dogs based on looks, or without breed knowledge, or who'd never laid eyes on a working dog or even knew how to leash train a dog or command it to "sit" with any regularity. Of course, doing a brisk business depended on gushing all over said dog and promising that training would be a "wholly positive interactive relationship experience" for both dog and owner which, you would think -- if any of them ever raised children -- should have caused them all to laugh, outright.
I suspect, Dear Reader, that telling people that training a dog was repetition, repetition and more repetition regardless of methodology wasn't a strong selling point.
In an effort to avoid that inevitable truth, hobble harnesses and head halters were devised to fleece clueless dog owners who couldn't fathom why a dog wearing a halter originally designed for an animal with eyes on the side of its head was "having behavioral problems" or why feeling its front legs restricted against its will, caused a predator to lash out.
With that, along came the "behaviorists" and "dog whisperers" who promised to fix ill-bred dogs that had no business being in the average household but whose softhearted owners had overpaid the local rescue after being swindled about the dog's unproven "horrifying history of abuse" alleged by "dog adoption agents" whose conning skills would be the envy of any religious cult leader.
Then some enterprising carpetbaggers announced the idea that a dog living for 10 miserable years alone in a cage was preferable to humane euthanasia for an animal that was purpose-bred to live with humans, even those dogs that were too vicious to manage it. Between taxpayers and donors -- there were now massive dog gulags to be funded. All of this included well-paid executive management teams, of course.
Woe betide the poor sod who publicly proclaimed that the sensible answer to vicious dogs was to euthanize them for public safety and to save the donation funds for the betterment of gentle dogs. Let the public stoning, begin!
More and more dogs were also re-sold -- excuse me Dear Reader -- "re-homed" numerous times only to attack the unwitting because someone took home a temperamentally unsound or unsuitable dog.
The direct result of paying for all these unwanted, temperamentally unsound canines, was that mongrels and unwanted dogs that used to cost $50-80 at the local pound ten years ago now cost $200-500 from a "rescue". Purebreds became a rarity at local pounds -- breed rescues snatched them up. Dogs were gobbled up by owners with one ill-behaved dog who decided that bringing in another untrained dog would hopefully, mitigate their training failures from the first one and the holy trinity of the third one could be the charm. Rescues, to fill the demand, began importing dogs and purchased from puppy mills. As a result of all these practices prices skyrocketed, purebred dogs from a registered breeder cost more than a second-hand car.
So where, Dear Reader, have all the Sensible Dog People with their Sensible Dogs, gone?
Relegated to the dustbin of history by those whose agenda is neither dogs nor people, but profit, perhaps?
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
CC BY-NC-ND September 29, 2020
Further information:
$87 billion per year spent on pets in the USA
$139.80 per month is spent per dog in the USA
Dog rescues importing dogs
A vintage sheep dog illustration from Cassell's Illustrated Book of the Dog (1881).
Related articles:
03/18/16: Guest Post: Dog Trainer Shares Dog Attack Story & Professional Opinion
01/09/12: Guest Post: Saving Man's Best Friend by Branwyne Finch
Yes yes and yes. Dog owners seem to HATE responsibility anymore. They don’t do the BREED research before they get one to figure out what the chances are it will fit into their lifestyle, don’t consider if their lifestyle is conducive to having a dog at all, refuse to be responsible for training their dog to behave properly so it isn’t a menace to society, refuse to exercise their dog properly and provide enough mental stimulation so it’s not a barking lawn ornament, refuse to properly contain their mutt so it isn’t a neighborhood menace, refuse to deal with their dogs aggression and territorial issues. They want the animal but they don’t want the work or responsibility of having the animal.
I strongly feel that the crazy pet industry is all that is wrong with dog people/culture these days. And just as this article states, it’s been clear to me for a while that this is all about money. They are humanizing dogs, and allowing them to attack and kill because “they didn’t mean it” or “it was provoked” or “it had a bad owner”. These people want everyone to think “the dog is like a child, you can’t put the good boi down” or “have some sympathy for the poor doggo”.
They are doing everything in their power to encourage people to keep viscous dogs alive and in their homes, (or to tell people to go out and buy a vicious dog from some pitbull infested shelter) because if the beast gets put down, the owner won’t be spending money on it. Can’t buy expensive collars, expensive food, expensive training, expensive toys, and expensive anything else, if you put your aggressive dog down. These people don’t care about the innocent people being mauled and killed by aggressive dogs. They don’t care about anything other than making sure more and more people (many of which aren’t fit to even own a goldfish), have a dog in their home to keep spending money on.
Half of that 87B per year would put a huge dent in homelessness if not outright eradicate it.
Then again, I guess, De-housed people don’t look as cute in flower crowns, tutus and pajamas?
Not to mention the fact that a lot of them are mentally ill and are, shall we say, a challenge to deal with.
But that $87 billion would go a long way to giving our de-housed brothers and sisters the help they need.
Thank you, Boni, for illuminating how a symbiotic relationship turned malignant. The modern pet dog industry causes massive harm and suffering to both people and animals. People who love dogs do not bear harm to anyone or anything. Visualize a pile of 5,000 boxes with dead pet animals inside. That is just one tiny instance that shows how the pet animal industry is the cause of excruciating suffering of its victims.
Where did the sensible dog people go? I’ll tell you where we went, we went to cats. Decades ago we saw the transformation coming and saw that our views were being looked down on and becoming outdated. We got pulled into discussions that we wanted no part of when the new breed of owner tried to make up see that their way was the “right way” to raise a dog. We got tired of being called “backyard breeders” with distain when we were occassionally breeding bird dogs for their intelligence and for hunting. We got tired of the neighbor calling animal control because our epileptic hunting dog in its kennel had a seizure when they stood at the side of the kennel and sprayed it with water guns. See, their whole complaint was that a dog should not live outside but since that is legal (with shelter, food, and water, and no tether) it was easier to cause trouble this way by creating evidence (seizure) that the dog was not being cared for (bold faced lie backed up by the vet). We left dogs and will never come back to them because now it is dangerous to own any dog. Here is the one time that “any dog” comes into play. Taking the dog for a walk or having it in your own fenced yard is enough to provoke an attack by any pit that comes by. We all know they are everywhere. My block alone has somewhere between 6-8 or more living on it at any time in the last decade plus. No, I do not care for dogs anymore. Don’t think I ever will again.
Christy, I get ya, I really do. The dog nutters here have made all training collars (prong, starmarks, check chains, ecollars and slip leads outside the show ring) illegal.
Many a great dog came out of someone’s backyard bred for purpose.
It became impossible to have a civilised conversation on dog training sites because every nutter with an ill-behaved poodle they waved a few treats at to jump an agility hurdle…thought their opinion carried the same weight as people who worked with and trained obedience, hunting and protection dogs. They were rabid. Even Dogstra had to shut down their forums to stop the chronic bullying.
Then there were the pitidiots.
The worst part is, I was no fan of pits but I thought serious, doghandlers *should* be given the opportunity to work with them. But after seeing *where* pitbulls are being placed? No more chances.
This will be my last dog because I just don’t have the energy to devote to training another one to my satisfaction.
I’m sorry you can’t have a dog anymore. I wish yours was the only story I knew of people that were abused by nutters, but you’re not. You’re not alone, if that’s any consolation.
One of our pups (sold to a hunter for the low cost of $200) became the top field dog in the entire US and was featured in a Purina commercial. We did our best to only sell the dogs to people who hunted since that is what they were for.
Wow, $200 wouldn’t get you decrepit old dog on its last legs from a shelter, nowadays.
My ex mother in law picked up a runt Springer spaniel from a backyard breeder that wasn’t hunt worthy (gun shy) and looked a bit odd. However, as he grew he had star quality, she called him Dazzle because he could dazzle the judges and she got more dog show and obedience awards for him than for all her other dogs combined.
Even “not hunt worthy” hunting dogs (or especially) can make great pets because of their trainability.
Why in the EverLovingFark someone would pick a pitbull for a family pet over a spaniel or spaniel mix, boggles my mind.
Ah yes, Good old cheap but healthy Purina Dog Chow. Hard to even find the 50lb bags of that are here, any more. Not yuppified enough, I guess! When I was growing up, there weren’t any pet stores. We picked up kibble or dog chow from the feed shop LOL
*Dogster (not Dogstra, that’s an ecollar lol)
Thanks, Boni, excellent reflection. Yes, it seems the world has gone mad when it comes to dogs. I think I found the term “dog worship” here. People are brainwashed into thinking EVERYONE should get a dog. Often, these are folks who work 12 hours a day (before covid) outside their home. They post “funny” pictures about how Muffy tore up the couch and they’re going to get dog tranquillizers. They have no clue that isolation and no training can make good dogs psychotic. Owners are often convinced by some unethical vets that even though Muffy has incurable cancer, they ought to still spend thousands of dollars to keep the poor mutt alive. Several years ago, we had a couple in the paper who spent $40,000 on chemo and had a glass dog installed at the vet’s office so their dog could see the waiting room. Of course, the dog died shortly after treatment. So, in the end…it does come down to money. It fuels the pit plague and the false narrative that keeps people rescuing maulers and killers. As someone who has worked in media for years, I’m appalled that NO major national investigative outlet will cover it. They’d have everything they’d need to find on this website…pictures, videos and tragic victim stories. In fact, Colleen is not only a great interview, she has enough here to write a book.
A great article, our society has guilt tripped citizens into the mindset that everyone needs to have a dog.The title Rescue is used everywhere to shame people into taking on ownership of a dog when they might not be able to be a good solid owner. The idea that the issue of unwanted dogs will disappear if only one more is placed! There will always be a over poulation of pets. This is nothing new. Now a very different type of popular breeds are everywhere . Like every 15 year old kid needs a dog regardless of circumstances at home.
We had a German Shorthair birddog as a family pet who also was trained to point birds in season. Two pit bulls loose in the neighborhood viscously attacked and almost ripped his front legs off while he was playing in our yard. My husband fought them off but it was too late. The owners were not charged with any crime.Terrible tragic loss for us and our grandchildren.Thank god they did not attack my husband while he fought them off trying to save our poor dog. And what if it had been our grandchildren playing in the yard that day. We had to move, it was not safe.
Kristin, that is horrifying. You had a dog that was bred to purpose that was killed by a dog that was bred to purpose–the pitbull’s purpose being to kill other dogs.
The sooner the pitbull nutter acknowledge that fact and BSL happens everywhere, the sooner families like yours, won’t have to deal with such a tragedy.
This breaks my heart. The German shorthair was our breed of choice. Smartest, nicest dogs.
Christy, they *are* lovely. Met a fair few and trained a couple for pets.
Great with kids as far as I can tell. Used to recommend them for families with active children, who asked.
Terry, check out Terrierman’s blog on vets. He’s done some scathing articles on vets charging ridiculous prices for things like flea and heartworm medication (unnecessary in cold climates). The vet tried to charge me one year $100 for flea repellent and my two words were not, “Happy Birthday”.
Picked the same drops up for $15 a tube (lasts 3 years) at a Sensible pet shop.
For *each* major problem a dog has, an owner has to be willing to add *one hour* per day of training/conditioning time to the minimum of one hour training and walking they do with a dog 7 days a week…for up to the lifetime of the dog. Throw in a pitbull that eats cats, attacks dogs, snarls at people, guards its food/toys, knows zero obedience, knocks over granny and the children, chews the furniture, crashes through fences/doors and ain’t nobody got time for that.
There’s this weird juxtaposition of guilt, sentimentality, ignorance, arrogance and I-don’t-know-what-else going on with dog owners but whatever it is, there’s an idea that if they throw enough money around, everything with a dog can be fixed.
It can’t.
Which also leaves economically distressed people in quagmire of guilt when they can’t afford what the pet profiteers are selling. Yet, some of them can be far more sensible owners.
sad how many veterinarians exploit the good nature of people. my vet just retired after forty years. she would never prescribe medications, vaccinations or treatments that weren’t medically neccessary.
so many vets are mired in student debt that they feel they have no choice but to load up the charges on their clients.
Vets working for other vets/ practices get 20% of any test/ service they do. Just think about that when they make you have a visit and lava every 6 wks for your pet’s hyperthyroidism just to get the meds.
Where did all the intelligent dog people go? To the ABCA, of course. 😉
The problem is that the ‘sensible dog people’ weren’t really ‘dog people’ – they were ordinary people who owned dogs. Even today, these people are the majority and they carry on pretty much as described. Only today, instead of Fox Terriers and Irish Setters and mutts, they own doodles and Aussies and Labs, mostly from BYBs or online mills. So no, not a dying breed at all. Just an ignored one, because the rescue angels are so much louder.
The self-important pro dog world is pretty much cooked. The AKC variety show is closed, which is a shame but there you go, when you spend 40 years pissing on other people’s pets, you get what you give. The sport/working people are going the way of the AKC, for the same reasons – steadily increasing inbreeding and rapidly escalating indifference/hostility toward newcomers.
Happily, the pro dog world is not important. Dogs are. Partnerships between dogs and humans are. The pro dog world is a 20th century invention that’s dying now. It’s a little sad, because they had some good features. But basically, it’s now the rescue angels v. everyone else. The numbers kind of doom the rescuers, no matter how many dimwitted people retweet their adoption ad for Tank the kid snuggler who mistakes kitties for tasty snaks lol!!! Which I literally read on an adoption ad recently. WTH, rescue?
You failed to mention the “Designer Dog”.
Kitschy-POO!
45 YEARS as a “big dog” Man. Inherited the THREE-POUND, $600 cotton-puff “Yorkie-poo” a grown child couldn’t live without, then couldn’t live WITH.
I’m not capable of being MEAN to an animal, but I wasn’t NICE. Little pest half worked himself to death, sucking up to me.
One night, I came in, when he was not aware I was OUT – and he went AIRBORNE. He was ALL claws & teeth, prepared to DIE to protect my wife. Ok. I couldn’t DISrespect that.
The final straw came when my neighbors’ TWO GIGANTIC Rotties came in our direction – and he went at them, SHRIEKING his fury! The buffalo-sized beasts tucked their stubby tails & ran like their NUTZ were on fire.
He became my constant companion.
He was the smartest, most courageous dog I’ve every known. Having HAIR (rather than FUR), he didn’t shed. He was ALL DOG – if it stank, he rolled in it – but he lives the water too. A neighbor trained retrievers – Jordie would go steal their dummy. It was bigger than he was. If he heard the “crack” of its blank-round launcher, he’d be the first to get it. More than once, the retrievers fetched HIM – after HE fetched the dummy.
She INSISTED on giving him the foofoo “sissy-cut”, little blue bored on his ears & all. He HATED IT!! He’d go make Mom happy, only after that would he tear them off. Freshly “groomed”, you couldn’t keep him out of mud, road-killed opossum, etc. etc. When it grew out he was FASTIDIOUS & CLEAN. The mud, & stink was his
REBELLION!
My friends would rib me – “Here comes Alan, with his little gay dog!”
Your pit-bull PISSED HIMSELF in fear of my “little gay dog”.
His best friend was a Dachshund, named Max. One day, Max’s Dad came down. Jordie ran right under his die. He helped, ran straight to Mom, & died in her arms, an instant later.
I sure do miss my LGD.
That dog is a book waiting to be written, Alan. Game little fellow. Loyal.
That, my friend…is a DOG!
I have had dogs my entire life. Working dogs on our farm and a golden retriever that grew up with our sons. Now as empty nesters we have another golden.
I hate the term fur babies and I hate the terms adopted and rescued. At the end of the day they are dogs, not furry humans and not babies. Don’t get me started on the pibble baby talk.
I love my big retrievers but they get boarded when we travel. They can’t get on the bed. Couch is ok though. 😉
What is wrong with people having these dangerous dogs around children. I would be arrested if I left a loaded gun out for a child to find but Pits run free.
I appreciate finding sensible folks o. This website
There are still sensible dog people, nobody hears about them because they don’t dress their dogs up in clothes and post the pictures on facebook, they don’t let their dogs run wild attacking any and all creatures in the neighborhood, they don’t pretend their dog is a “support” dog and take their dog with them everywhere they go. Unfortunately, the crazy dog people do all of the above, which is why we heard about them, and not about the sensible dog people.