October 2011 Moms

Why do we get so attached to our pets??

Gosh this sucks. We have a 3-year-old Lab and an 8-year-old Beagle (Sandy). Sandy is very sweet and loves to cuddle, but is really defensive about food and can be really grouchy when she sleeping on the floor out of her kennel. This morning I was sitting on the floor and Sandy came to curl up in my lap. Abby came over a few minutes after Sandy dozed off and Abby pulled up on Sandy to pet her. Sandy immediately woke up and growled at Abby -- didn't show her teeth or anything, but just growled. I pushed Abby out of the way (natural instinct), which caused her to hit her head on a toy and now she's got a huge bump on her head. So that's sad part number one about Abby. Sad part two is that we're going to give Sandy away. We thought this might happen, but Sandy has let Abby pull up on her before and "cruise" around Sandy, and she never cared. So we thought maybe it was going to be OK. Guess not .... Ugh, I love that dog so much! I know it's the right thing to do to give her away, it just sucks. Sorry for the rambling, just had to get it off my chest ...
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Re: Why do we get so attached to our pets??

  • We get attached to them because they are members of our family. Sorry you are going to give her away.
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  • I'm so sorry you have to give her away, I love my pets like they are humans...they become family.

    It stinks but it's for the best...I bet Sandy will miss you too, but maybe she will be less stressed out and more comfortable ;)   Big hugs to you!! 

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  • Like Happy said, they are family. We have 2 beagles, 3 & 5 years old. I was so worried about them with Luca, especially Bella, the 5 year old. She is kind of the same as yours, gets nasty if anyone bothers her while she is sleeping. So far they have been great with him, I am lucky. I couldn't imagine having to give either away.

    I'm so sorry you have to go through this, but obviously the safety of Abby is priority. Have you found someone to adopt Sandy yet? Maybe if it's someone you know you can visit her often?

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  • imageHappyAardvark:
    We get attached to them because they are members of our family. Sorry you are going to give her away.

    This exactly.

     

    But I would strongly recommend against not giving her away.  If you don't want her anymore, the kinder thing to do is to put her to sleep, surrounded by her family.  Because if you give her to a shelter, with aggression issues, they will put her down - and it's terribly scary and sad for them to be put down in a strange environment like that. And it would be irresponsible for you to give her to another family knowing of her aggression issue - because if anything happened to the other family, aside from feeling terribly guilty, you would also be legally liable for any damages.

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  • I know it was scary but is it possible maybe Sandy was hurt in that spot or just didn't feel good? Maybe Abby scared her because she was asleep? I never let the kids go near dogs, or animals in general, that are eating and sleeping. Our dog Sally will let the kids do anything to her when awake, pull on her ears and tail, Lo isn't always gentle about petting, they get in her face a lot, but if she is asleep and you touch her she will jump up and growl or snap. I wouldn't rush to give her away, maybe just see how it goes. I wouldn't consider a dog not responding well to being touched while sleeping or eating an aggression issue.
  • imagecantalopes24:
    I know it was scary but is it possible maybe Sandy was hurt in that spot or just didn't feel good? Maybe Abby scared her because she was asleep? I never let the kids go near dogs, or animals in general, that are eating and sleeping. Our dog Sally will let the kids do anything to her when awake, pull on her ears and tail, Lo isn't always gentle about petting, they get in her face a lot, but if she is asleep and you touch her she will jump up and growl or snap. I wouldn't rush to give her away, maybe just see how it goes. I wouldn't consider a dog not responding well to being touched while sleeping or eating an aggression issue.
    Our dog is the same way when he is sleeping. He has even snapped at my parents' dog when he has tried to curl up with him. He doesn't care what Darcy does to him normally and will just lay there while she head butts him but he snapped at her once when she disturbed him while he was sleeping. nbsp;
  • Its always a tough choice but im going to side with cantalopes on this one.

    My beagle is a PITA and is nasty with his food and when sleeping. He will growl from time to time if you sit on him (ive done it) or touch him when he is sleeping. 

    However growling is just a dogs way of saying I dont like that, It does not mean they will always attack.

    If you truly feel that abby will be unsafe then removing the dog is the best thing.


  • this has been an ongoing debate of ours. We have a 3 year old lab and a 3 year old shih tzu. The lab sheds too much to be an inside dog, but she won't take being an outside dog. The shih tzulikes to use our carpet at her potty spot when she feels like it. I think it's because we have another dog. When we stay somewhere else and only take her, she has no issues. I would hate to get rid of either, but my lab was my first baby. The shih tzu was my mom's dog, so she kind of represents the loss of my mom.


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  • imageWoodsie:

    imagecantalopes24:
    I know it was scary but is it possible maybe Sandy was hurt in that spot or just didn't feel good? Maybe Abby scared her because she was asleep? I never let the kids go near dogs, or animals in general, that are eating and sleeping. Our dog Sally will let the kids do anything to her when awake, pull on her ears and tail, Lo isn't always gentle about petting, they get in her face a lot, but if she is asleep and you touch her she will jump up and growl or snap. I wouldn't rush to give her away, maybe just see how it goes. I wouldn't consider a dog not responding well to being touched while sleeping or eating an aggression issue.

    I'm with lopes

    Yup, me too. 

    We have two beagles. One lets E climb all over her. The other is more ornery. She will growl to let E (and us) know that she is not enjoying what is going on. Then she will get up and walk away.  We know she is more ornery so we keep a close eye on E when the dog is in the house to make sure she leaves her alone.



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  • I am with Lopes on this one as well. Shadow will growl if she has had enough as well. No teeth or something, more of a grump, but nonetheless. I know the difference to her 'I'll rip your throat out growl', though. The 'enough growl' is way different. 

    Can you just keep them apart maybe? Rehoming a dog that old is difficult, and it sounds like you really don't want to get rid of her anyways.  

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  • We had to give one of my cats to my inlaws. Which is fortunate because the other options were not so good. I'm sorry you are going through this.
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  • We had to rehome our male cat just before DS was born because he started biting/hissing/scratching DD. It was months in the coming but finally we made the difficult decision to get rid of him. Luckily the rescue that we rescued him from took him back and rehomed him with a single man. Worked well for all parties and we are all happier. 

    Good luck with your decision... 

  • Thank you for all your ideas ladies. I wish we didn't have to give her away and I wish it was just a matter of more supervision or Sandy just saying she doesn't like what's going on. Unfortunately, Sandy growled at Abby again tonight and curled her lips. This time Sandy was just sitting in the middle of the floor and Abby was just crawling her way, Abby didn't even touch Sandy. We won't let Sandy go to a shelter, we'll be keeping her until we find her a good home to go to. I am just a mess over this ......
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  • Sorry you're dealing with this. We don't have aggression issues with our pup, but Gavin is allergic to her and has asthma so we debate all the time whether the dog should stay or go. We do love our dog like our child, as I'm sure you do too! I would be a complete and total wreck if our dog has to go...

    It sounds like you've made your [difficult] decision, so I hope you can find a good home for your pup. Thinking of you.

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  • I'm so sorry you're going through this. It is a tough position to be in, but I agree that you have to put Abby first of course. I hope you're able to find Sandy a good home.
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