Although i want this site to primarily be about the great company that dogs are and the fun they can bring to your lives i also want to address important and serious aspects of dog ownership.
For me and my partner one of the important points is always the worry that something bad will happen to them. Before we owned the three dogs that we do now we had a lovely male that lived until he was sixteen and was fantastic. We moved to Spain and he spent his final years in total freedom in the Catalan countryside. At that time we also got a young dog from a village friend.
She was full of life and very naughty. Suffice to say she ate something she should not have and after a hefty Vet bill she seemed on her way to recovery but sadly it was not the case. I don’t really want to talk much about it but she passed away.
Now with three dogs i find i am constantly on guard about what they get up to. I now take it quite seriously.
Of course the dogs themselves are worry free.
I should probably relax and not dwell on such matters but then i think, maybe everyone is like this. I am sure that parents are constantly worried about their childrens safety. I am not comparing the two by the way. I know they are dogs and i am not an overly sentimental person.
So really what i am trying to ask is do you worry about your dogs like this or is it just us and the circumstances that happened in the past?
My dog is only 8 months and there’s 4 people keeping an eye on him all the time even though he listens well when we say “no”. Me and my sister have had more than 7 dogs and since that it’s been hard getting used to THE dog that will spend the most time with us. Out of those 7 dogs about 3 were killed, 2 died and the rest given away. My last dog was given away ’cause neighbors complained. Now we have a puppy and he’s great. I still worry that he might eat something in the house or out. I watch him constantly because I care. There’s nothing wrong, I think, about keeping a close eye on your dogs, even if they’re already “old”. If we love them we gotta take care of them. Just like having kids, even when we’re older and on our own, our parents keep an eye on us every time. At least that’s my case, my mom calls me every week asking if I need anything.
The fact of worrying about the people and pets you love is just in our nature, we should relax but at the same time be on guard.
Gabrielle, very wise words indeed.
Tnank you for a very informative comment. It is finding the balance between letting them enjoy themselves but also being on guard. Dogs are so inquisitive it is hard not to worry because they will, by nature, eat almost anything!