Dogs - classic or dud?

Is that a pitbull/freetail bat hybrid?

OMG PUPPY I LOVE YOU! That is the same face my dog makes in that position, except when you aren't giving him a belly rub, he looks at you from the corner of his eye like, "Where's mah bely rub?"

yay! fat beagles!

I just (yesterday) got home from house/dog-sitting a labrador. It is joy being in a home with no dog hair and no wet doggy smell. I vacuumed that place every day and there was STILL hair everywhere, nearly drove me batty. The dog was gentle and lovely, but a tad clingy - I'm glad to be home not having her following me everywhere in the house. I think if I ever got a dog it would have to be reasonably independent and not pine for me every time I left the house.

dogs=classic!!!
we have a staffy/lab/? cross called Bella, and she brings so much joy into our house (fuck that sounds corny, but it's true). she's kinda like an ADD 4yr old on smack sometimes, but she's so much fun, so loving and so smart. awhile ago my flatmate was imitating the sound of a motorbike (don't ask) and bella started to imitate *her*...

a couple of nights ago i gave her some bones, but because she swallows everything whole, she started choking on it. it was one of the scariest things - my flatmate put her hand down bella's throat and pulled it out, and she was ok. but it made me realise how devastated i'd be if anything happened to her.

Oh so classic.

http://photos-a.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v62/8/65/19400695/n19400695_30292316_384.jpg

I'm okay with dogs as long as they're the quiet type. The ones I've known like this were also big dogs.

But I am a cat man, always will be, etc.

My wife found this on the internets.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/WilliamCrump63/whippetgood.jpg

It's a whippet.

for some reason that dog makes me think of the robot dogs in neal stephenson's 'snow crash'.

I like other people's dogs but don't want one myself -- like lots of people say about children. Had dogs growing up and have "known doglove" but still vastly prefer cats to dogs. My mother is coming to visit in a few days with her dog who growls at and nips at children. Should be a hooot.

http://www.gotpetsonline.com/pictures-gallery/dog-pictures-breeders-puppies-rescue/catahoula-leopard-dog-pictures-breeders-puppies-rescue/pictures/catahoula-leopard-dog-0019.jpg

me and my closest childhood companion, jody.
http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t73/rubyred79/lkjjhgg4.jpg
we had to give her to my aunt and uncle when we moved a few years later. they were fuckheads who treated their pets like shit. about a month after my grandfather died (my other closest childhood companion) i found out from my cousin that his parents had jody put to sleep "because they wanted to get a new dog". i have never forgiven them for this.

Anybody see this one yet?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0dzMp61G5w

Big dumb yellow lab wanders into Tour de France, hijinx ensue.

OMG Rubyred that is so utterly evil. You look v. v. happy with your little dog friend!

I wanted a dog more than ANYTHING as a child. Me & my neighbor worked out one day that we'd trade his collie for my Nintendo. When our parents came home, we of course were forced to undo the trade with which we were both very happy.

I didn't get a dog until I was 23 but he brings so much fun & joy & entertainment & calm & love to my life.

no offense to your family but those people were shits xxpost.
what maria d says, i've never had a dog and i love them but don't really ever want one.
dogs are great, but there's nothing worse than listening to dog owners talking about dogs.
i actually love these conversations! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> child owner conversations anywy. unless it's the parenting thread amirite

I have become a dog person and i wasn't even trying.

no offense taken, tremendoid. most of my family are indeed big shits. the dog (bella) isn't technically mine; she belongs to my housemate. i thought it was going to be kinda a pain having a dog in the house, but like abott says - she 'lights up my life'!!

I grew up convinced I'm a cat person, but I think I'm more of a dog person these days once they're beyond the floor-crapping puppy stage.

Oh man. I want a dog!!! We don't have the time or space and it makes me so sad. I got to hang around with my parents pugs this weekend and imt was awesome but made my puppyfever go crazy. Not fair.

Rubyred, that is such a cool t-shirt!

i also think my polyester tracksuit is pretty cool ;)

i love dogs. dogs are allowed in the building i'm moving into and i want a puppy so bad. are they expensive? i thought about a cat but my cat (who my parents are taking care of back in nyc) has cost $$$ in terms of prescription food, vet bills, etc. i can't afford that right now.

are there particular breeds of dog that are healthier and more self-sufficient than others?

I'm mad about cats but almost indifferent toward dogs. This sounds shallow and arbitrary, but with cats it's like you're dealing with some sort of alien intelligence -- they're bewitching. A dog, and especially a puppy, just seems like a toddler and a dim one at that. And since I don't own dogs, it's always someone else's dim kid. So, dud.

A dog, and especially a puppy, just seems like a toddler and a dim one at that.

I disagree. Puppies can be like toddlers, but once dogs get older, they gain a certain dignity. Some of the older dogs I've known have been very dignified and loyal creatures, and haven't seemed dim at all.

I love my dog. She makes the mornings seem that much less blah.

sorry, i'm living with a puppy who I kind of wuv but really I'd rather he wasn't here. he's distorted my view on dogs. it's my roommates dog and it's making my cat miserable.

Cats are kind of like warm, purring throw pillows.

If you want a dog with fewer risk factors, probably best to look at some kind of mutt - certain breeds are much more prone to cancers/hip problems/etc. than others thanks to inbreeding (or just the way they've been bred to a certain look - breed wikipedia pages are good for this). 'Working' dogs and very popular dogs (and their mixes) are probably the hardiest - large breeding population, genetic mixing, bred for health and so on.

My family's chow/lab mix basically cost nothing in vet bills (excluding those paid by the woman who rescued him from some asshole's closet where he had been starved) until he was in his teens.

The 10 most irresponsible reasons given to Dogs Trust staff as to why owners could no longer look after their dog are:

1. "My dog doesn't match the sofa."

2. "The dog looks evil and has different coloured eyes, just like David Bowie."

3. "My black dog doesn't match the new white carpet, can we swap him for a white dog?"

4. "My current dog is too old, can we swap for a puppy or younger model?"

5. "My dog ate the Christmas turkey cooling on the work-top."

6. "My pet guinea pig got worried with a dog in the house."

7. "The dog opened all the presents on Christmas Eve."

8. An owner accidentally knelt in the dog's urine while cleaning it up so brought the dog in the very next day.

9. A puppy was bought as a present for an elderly couple with dementia.

10. The owner was paranoid about recent bad press on Staffordshire Bull Terriers, and the dog was given up through no fault of its own.

geez

Pretty much dud.

They smell bad, they eat their own excrement, they are thick and, most irritating of all, they are sickeningly, vapidly faithful.

"My pet guinea pig got worried with a dog in the house."

Haha my mom-in-law got rid of her guinea pig because she thought it was making her dog nervous. (He is a weird old dog with dementia BUT she also projects like crazy.)

Also, if you're buying furniture, get it to match the dog, duh! (If your dog was made by Eames be prepared for a bit of an expense.)

Heavens to Murgatroyd! Shall we next be seeing a "Human Beings: Classic or Dud?" thread? Dogs are intelligent and emotionally complex creatures - so they are both unclassifiable and unfuckwithable.

I have a mild distrust for people who dislike dogs. (Unless they are terrified of dogs because a dog attacked them, that one makes sense.)

some real sad sacks on this thread

I should have searched first: Human Beings: Classic or Dud?

I walked my little guy to the convenience store the other day and brought him in. The clerk (who is a nice, chill guy) came out and started feeding my dog Jack Links jerky sticks. After the fifth jerky stick, I was like, "He's gonna get spoiled!" (meaning 'plz quit feeding my dog 600-calorie treats'), but I am glad my little guy brightened his morning.

How do you know when it's time to get a new dog after your old dog passes on? I don't want the poor new dog to be the object of subconscious derision for not being Mr. Snitter, but on the other hand, the house feels so empty and wrong without a dog around that it's just breaking my heart every day.

Abbott, I'm sorry you lost Mr. Snitter, but if you're asking and you're a dog person, the time's drawing near (also you'd probably be going to a shelter, right, so some little guy gets friends and a home before Xmas). In my family, it sometimes seemed like our poodles were auditioning to be the drummer in Spinal Tap: apart from the one that bit me when I was three and had to go 'live on a farm', we had two killed by cars and one killed by another dog - all male dogs. The only one to die of old age was female and her last six months were shared with the puppy my cousin sprung on my mom - Willie will be 10 in March. My mother has had a black poodle on call since she was 16 and every time we came back to an empty, dog-less house it probably only took two weeks TOPS for her to get motivated and send for reinforcements. So, basically, as soon as she had the cash we had a new dog. The thing with dogs is that we don't really resent a new one as replacement, because IT'S A PUPPY and they imprint from the second they interact at the breeder/shelter. The only other thing I can pass on is that puppies who don't get mad when you squeeze their paws grow up to be the best-tempered adults.

I didn't think it was right, but I got a new dog right away after my dog died. I thought it might be disrespectful, but dogs bring a warmth and sense of safety to a home and once we brought our new dog home we didn't feel like we were "replacing" the old dog. The new dog seemed to know that an old dog had been in the home before him. I would recommend getting a dog that is completely different from the older one, unless you fancy a particular breed.

We ended up getting another dog pretty soon after, too, about one week. I still miss my old dog a lot but the new dog, Mandy, is really sweet and affectionate. She makes things a lot easier. She has a pretty different personality than my old dog, who kind of had dog aspergers. She came with a kennel cough, though, so she hacks and has a gross runny nose even after two weeks of antibiotics, poor thing.

Yay hero dogs:

http://www.ktla.com/media/photo/2010-05/53623954.jpg

What a boss little face he's making.

They are fascinating, but I ultimately find them annoying. Their barking sounds ugly, especially when it comes from the small ones. I don't like their unpredictable aggressiveness (especially with other dogs), or excessive jumpiness. I wouldn't want to put up with their potential destructiveness (after hearing, for example, "my dog ate my laptop" type stories), although cats are probably worse on that account. Would not want to live with one, and prefer not to live near them if they bark much at all (again--mostly the little ones with the piercing cries).

Once I saw a friend's mother pick up a dog and use it to wipe away her tears, hardest moment of my life trying not to laugh in her face

What is a good dog toy for a dog whose favorite thing to chew on is paper towels, toilet paper, tissue paper, Q-Tips, etc – paper products?

Classig generally but dud when they go out and roll in shit (like our filthy creature did this morning)

*classic

omg I need to know the paper question too. Benson thinks paper is the most amazing thing ever.