Your family + your pets

[amberdyan]

I was talking to someone on facebook yesterday about how their spouse interacts with their dog and her's was the complete opposite of mine. I thought I'd make a thread to see what your families look like!

Basically the question is- how involved are the people in your house with your dog? Whether that be spouse, significant other, parents, roommate, whatever.

In my house, I train the dog. My spouse doesn't know what she's doing really and she doesn't want to mess it up. She loves watching free shaping sometimes and once he has something down, she loves to ask for behaviors and reward them but she doesn't know how to work on something and isn't really interested in learning. She shares complete responsibility in feeding, cleaning, exercising and cuddling. : )

The woman I was talking with had her dog and her husband had his. They shared zero training or basic care responsibilities and did different sports.

What's your house like?

 

[maxfox426]

I'm the dog person. My husband is happy to participate, help out when needed, and will reinforce whatever training I do, but the core of the responsibility is on me. Sometimes we do butt heads about it, because the truth of the matter is that I'm not a brilliant trainer at all and the two of us have a few areas where we have disagreeing priorities/expectations. Not usually that big a deal, though. We do what we can and at the end of the day, we have a perfect family dog with decently good manners.

As for my kids, my son has been in charge of feeding Morgan his dinnertime meal since he (son) was about two years old. I haven't decided what my daughter's job will be yet (she's almost two now). Morgan is the family dog, so everybody gets to help out.

 

[PWCorgi]

I'm the main dog person as far as exercising them and taking them on outings, but since we got Skill, Ryan has been more involved and it's awesome. He trains Skill, and when he has a proficient behavior, he asks me for more work to do. He will also play tug with each dog when he gets home from work. He does the evening feeding and takes the dogs out in the evening, super helpful for me!

 

[Annabell]

The dogs are mine. I do all the training, grooming, and exercising, and I feed them most of the time. My mom just asks me to tell her what to do with them because she doesn't want to mess their schedule/routine or training up. She lets them out during the day if she has time, and maybe takes them on a short walk.

When I go camping without the dogs, she will take care of them for me, but they don't get nearly as much attention as they would when I'm in charge of them. Or if I'm going to be home late she'll feed them their dinner.

My mom loves them both dearly, but she just doesn't know much about dogs and never really wanted a dog herself. So she just lets me do what I want with them and helps me out with them when I need it if she has the time.

And my sister sometimes decides to say hi to them, but most of the time she acts like they don't really exist. She likes them and all, but is more concerned with watching tv than playing with the dogs (she's 10).

 

[Slick]

My housemates all like Leo but aren't super dog savvy or into dogs. All three will take care of him for me if I am gone for the weekend, but most of the time generally ignore him while at home. Two of my roommates will occasionally play with him for short bursts of time.

It's funny, because while I don't have superior hearing and smell like Leo does, I can tell who is arriving home based on his reaction. He reacts on a scale based on how much they play with him.

Housemate #1 never plays with him, and he doesn't even bother getting up when she arrives home. He might glance at the door.

Housemate #2 sometimes plays with him. He will wag his tail and calmly go to the door to greet her. After a sniff, he'll usually come back to me.

Housemate #3 plays with him the most, and she gets the butt wagging enthusiastic greeting, and he will often grab a toy before she has even entered the house.

So by extension, I know who it is.

I have weirded my housemates out before because I've hollered "Hi _______" while in my room when they entered the house and they were completely confused how I would know it was them.
I don't tell them my secret :rofl1:

 

[Jadex]

I do almost all of the caretaking and training. Sometimes Ryan will walk them with me or play with them, but he prefers just to cuddle with them. I don't remember the last time he even asked a dog to sit haha. He does drive me to conformation shows because I hate driving. The dogs are mine though so I never expected him to be very involved with them.

 

[Cali Mae]

Well, my mom is the one who primarily takes care of Cali while I'm away, so she has a big involvement. I know she doesn't work on her training and I don't think she really plays with her but she walks her, feeds her and gives her attention.

My sister's involvement is pretty minimal, although if I'm out then she'll take care of her while I'm away. And when she was still in grade 12 and I was in first year, she took her for a walk each day.

My mom hired a pet sitter as well, to take care of Cali when she's gone for extra long, and she does an excellent job. She lives up the road from us and whenever I take Cali on a walk, she tries pulling me into her driveway.

My boyfriend has more of a love/hate relationship with Cali, and understandably so, since she basically harasses him for attention sometimes. But he'll take her to the bathroom with me if I don't feel like getting out of bed and he'll come with me when I take her for walks.

 

[mrose_s]

I liove with my sister. She has her dog, I have mine.
We're pretty seperate. We both work with dogs for a living, I'm a trainer and she's a kennel hand so dogs in general are a mutual interest but we don't share a lot of responsibilities.

Occasionally we'll feed one anothers dogs if one of us is away. Occasionally I'll take her boy to work with me for an outing or for a walk if I'm taking Quinn anyway. I'll do the occasional obedience session with him.
If she's going for a jog she'll usually take Quinn because Wilson has HD.

The main thing is we are both very similar in how we structure the rules of the house and whats expected of the dogs so that makes it easy for everyone.

 

[Elrohwen]

My husband really loves the dogs and does a lot of their care, but he's not interested in the training side at all. He just wants well behaved dogs to cuddle and play with. He helps out with walking them and feeding them, maybe about 1/3 of the work but if I'm not home he'll do all of their care. He actually does like coming to dog shows. I think because he's a competitive person so he likes to cheer me and the dogs on in the one competitive thing that I do. haha

 

[Dekka]

I have weirded my housemates out before because I've hollered "Hi _______" while in my room when they entered the house and they were completely confused how I would know it was them.
I don't tell them my secret :rofl1:

That is fantastic!

 

[Moth]

My husband has become almost as involved with our dogs over time as me. He has taken up part of their care. He is happy to take them for walks and help with the feedings. He has learned how to train them. He will come along when we go to lure coursing events to cheer them on and be my kennel helper

 

[CrystalGSD]

My family basically just watches Hero while I'm at school or not home. My dad basically just pets him or plays with him and Crystal, my mom just supervises him and baby-talks to him, my brother plays with him and sometimes asks him to do some commands, and my sister very rarely interacts with Hero. I am responsible for all the training, exercising, feeding, etc. regarding Hero.

Regarding Crystal, well, she's the family dog so we all share the responsibility pretty equally, although my dad and me more so than the rest of my family.

 

[Liminal]

My dog is my dog and my boyfriend's dog is his dog, but when we're together in whatever combination we both help with dog-related chores. Training is the big exception to this, because it's an interest of mine and not of his, and because my dog is a much more attention-demanding animal in that regard (working bred Catahoula vs. Beagle). He sometimes comes along to herding lessons to be my videographer.

 

[StompinT]

I'm the dog person, and do it all. My husband and kids will help out as requested, happily.

 

[*blackrose]

We split things pretty evenly. I do the grooming, medical care, and shopping for food/toys/supplies. I predominantly train. He exercises them, feeds them when I ask, plays with them, and enforces rules/helps "rule" train. We both clean up messes and he'll brush them between the grooming sessions.

Abrams is my dog and Cynder is his, but they're both of ours, too.

 

[LostAndConfused]

if my husband is the last one to leave for work, or the first one home, he'll take Hudson out. that's about the extent of their interaction.

 

[TexasRanger]

I'm the man dog person.
My mom feeds/waters/gives treats/lets them out/ cleans up messes, but isn't really involved with training/exercising. Though she did help out a little with Kieber's basic house manners.

My dad isn't allowed to do any training (old Army yank and crank type), but does like to pet/feed/water them. He always yells for someone else to let them out/clean up after them.

 

[Bigpoodleperson]

My husband is pretty involved with Draco. I got Draco before I got the husband, so Draco is definatly My dog. He absolutely adores his daddy though! He does not listen to hubby as well as me though for the most part. Its not a big deal because Draco is well behaved in general. We enjoy doing the dog things together though like going to the park, hiking, swimming, etc.
My hubby works from home several days out of the week though, so he and Draco spend alot of time together. They are also big wrestle buddies! Id say that we are a pretty split household with me absolutely being the biggest dog person/rule maker/groomer/trainer/feeder.

We are looking to get a puppy this spring, so that should be interesting.... I've never shared puppy training and raising with anyone before...

 

[Cinnamon00]

I'm the dog person at home. I do the training, walking, feeding, etc. My family helps out when they can and when I have school hrs. But it's mostly me. Luna loves all my family tho <3.