PoodleMommy said:
Yet then I came across this post, and it got me enraged!
Why would someone get a small dog, only to make it sleep alone or stay outside? It does not make any sense!!!! Dont get dogs if you dont want them.
::Going to hug my princess, Elle... to make myself feel better::
Elissa
Now, I don't think that's fair. Brian has taken most of the advice given, and at least brought his puppy back inside the house. Perhaps he just didn't know that it would be best for the dog to be inside, and thought that it would be better for him to learn to stay alone asap. When he found out that that was incorrect, he changed his behavior. Just because someone raises their puppy differently than you would doesn't mean that they don't want or care about him or her. People have had outside dogs, that they loved, since the beginning of time, and there are so many different experts out there who give conflicting advice that it's hard to know just what is correct. Ex: I've been reading a lot on puppy care since before I got Gage a bit over a month ago and have seen a lot of exchanges that go like this:
One expert will say "flick a dog on the nose to stop it from doing wrong".
Expert 2 will say, "never do that, it will be afraid of your hands. Throw a can of pennies at it."
Expert 3: Never do that, you'll make him afraid of loud noises. Spritz him with water.
Expert 4: Never do that. He'll learn to fear water. Just ignore bad behavior.
And so on and so forth.
The thing is, there are a lot of us out there struggling to find the right thing to do, and the majority of us want the best for our pets. Unless someone is being horribly abusive, or won't listen to reason, I don't think we should come down hard on them. We all need a community where we are safe to ask questions without people questioning our love and dedication to our pets without just cause.