Dog Numbers In The Old Days

[Erny]

Agree with Crisover. And to add ...

Our dogs were a part of our family - loved very much, and we cried when they 'left us'. But they were dogs. I think we respected dogs more back then, for exactly what they are ...... dogs. Our mates, companions, shoulder to cry on when Mum or Dad needed to scold us, listener to our sadness, sharers in our joys. But they were ....... dogs. We didn't dolt over them like we do now. We didn't have to teach them independence - that just 'came' because of lifestyles, beliefs, values. We weren't rough with them and we did care (blankets for the winter time to keep them warm etc.) but they were ............. dogs. When they were ill, they went to the Vet. Mind you, that didn't happen as much as frequently as it does now. Dog got into a scrap with another, out came the Dettol. That'll fix it. And somehow, it usually did. The dogs were last in the ladder/pecking order. Nothing any of us needed to think about. That's just how it was. They wandered and therefore self-socialised - to people; other dogs; noises; etc. If our dog followed us down the street, but we didn't want him with us, we just told him firmly "go home Prince" and pointed. And he would go home. Didn't teach him that. Most dogs in the neighbourhood would respond the same. I think we carried our assertiveness more naturally, back then, and I think that's because of our natural attitude of dogs. And that we knew, even without consciously thinking about it, that they were .................... dogs.

[rubiton]

I remember the family dog rarely had a lead on - he was always stay with us or nearby. The afghan would takeoff therefore she always had to have a lead on unless my mother took her - for some reason she would come back to my mother when called only (but then she did nearly get hit by a bus once when she got out without a lead once).

You could also tie your dog up outside at the shops and know no one would go near it and leave the dog alone til you came out. Neither of the male dogs were desexed (though after what happened with the golden retirever I would NEVER leave a male dog entire - he got benign lumps that ulcerated and had to be taken off surgically to avoid blood infection and was on stilbestrol every day when older) but the afghan was and must have been some time after we got her as my brother had a short lived attempt at the showring (she had been a show dog but fought with the other bitch that the breeder had so they got rid of her luckily for her my mother knew the breeder and took the dog - she also while knowing how to stand would in the ring stand there and start to sag in the back and not hold her head right she didnt want to be a show dog).

[Diva]

My experience seems to be a bit different.

Kids played in the streets but they didn't take their dogs with them unless they had a new baby puppy to show off. Dogs stayed at home mostly. If they went anywhere it was usually on lead. But not as many people walked them as I see now, and it was more common not to have a dog than to have one.

You still knew as a kid not to run from a dog, and not to bother one that wasn't yours. If a child was bitten it was usually not considered a big deal, depending on the severity of course, but frequent biters were killed. Most negative attitudes about dogs were about the barkers.

There was only one dog who roamed the neighbourhood, a white boxer who lived a block away and was generally disliked for his wandering habit and cranky nature. He bit a few people, and his owners were considered a bit antisocial for keeping him. I don't think anyone reported him to the council though, although I probably wouldn't have known.

Male dogs weren't desexed. Female dogs usually were. People who didn't desex culled the litters at birth (drowning mostly) or gave them away if the litter was considered a bit special. Some dumped them. Most dogs weren't pure bred. I think most got basic vet treatment. But no-one would spend thousands at the vet as we do now, they'd euthanase.

Dogs didn't much come inside, or if they did it was to a specific part of the house. They might sleep in the laundry or have a bed in a corner of a room, but they weren't allowed free run of the house. The exception was a few people we knew with toy breeds, but it was considered very indulgent. I think some people worried about their dogs as much as we do, but they'd never admit it. The only conversations about dogs were those I initiated as a kid, unless it was a working dog it wasn't a grown up topic.

[GeckoTree]

My grandparents bitches when in season went into a bitches box, ( a high rise kennel). they never had accidental impregnation by straying roaming dogs despite the only fencing they had was strands of barbed wire.

Really, just like Footrot Flats?

yeah I guess , It was a big long hessian covered cage with a roof on top that fitted like a big hat over it with huge eves, sitting on top of 2.4m stumps. sensibly for the humid climate, and out of reach to horny dogs lol.

[Erny]

My experience seems to be a bit different.

What era was this, Diva?

The era I speak of would have been in and through the 1960's.

[Diva]

What era was this, Diva?

The era I speak of would have been in and through the 1960's.

Me too. 60's going on early 70's

[KismetKat]

When we had female dogs they were desexed. Too young to know/remember about male dogs. Certainly as one poster here suggested, female dogs were considered something of a liability as they could produce pups.

To get a pup most were FTGH or very very cheap from a pet shop (who would be given the pups to sell). The only exeption to that were people with pure dogs (dunno about papers) who managed to get their bitch covered (before th mutt over the back fence managed to do it) by another pure dog of the same breed - then they would sell in a pet shop on consigment.

There were many 'oops' litters - best pet dog we had growing up was a free 'oops' puppy that was a cross corgie/dasch.

Pets getting knocked by cars (and killed or needing PTS) was common.

Litters of kittens getting dumped was common.

Kids bringing home stray dogs/dumped kittens was common.

Really my memory was the biggest killer of pet animals was not PTS by pounds, but getting knocked by cars.

[newfsie]

I have though about this quite a bit lately, why do there seem to be more dog attacks these days, is it the breedings, do we own different dog breeds or is it the way we treat them.

I think the way we keep dogs is vastly different. When I was growing up our dogs went where we kids went, if 6 kids were playing under the tamarind tree after school there would be at least 2 or 3 dogs, they socialised differently, they had heaps of fun doggy things to do. One of my dogs and an old cattle dog didn't really like each other so we took it in turns sending one home.

Our dogs went tadpole fishing, played hide and seek in the cane fields, swimming in the river etc, they were not bored and rarely needed structured exercise,

Maybe modern lifestyle, smaller yards have contributed to the problem.

I do however strongly believe that the way that dog bites etc are handled these days is different.

If you teased a dog and it bit you, you got a kick up the backside, end of story. Now it seems that the public expect stuffed inanimate objects that their kids can do whatever they like to and the dog dies if it snaps.

Sleeping dogs, dogs eating, dogs with bones were left alone, you were not cruel to dogs, it was common sense. We have sadly little of it these days.

I agree with this...I am in my mid fifties. we traveled with three GDS's everywhere. they were always along off lead. No aggression and the bitches went in our kennel when they came in season. We never witnessed any dog fights as kids and there were so many dogs in our "gang"/ we had them pulling homemade sleds and everything. those were glorious days.

I still make a huge effort to socialize or dogs now. to meet as many dogs/people as possible

[KismetKat]

in many ways the bad old days were actually the good old days.

[Erny]

Litters of kittens getting dumped was common.

Kids bringing home stray dogs/dumped kittens was common.

Really my memory was the biggest killer of pet animals was not PTS by pounds, but getting knocked by cars.

Agree with this too. Although many of our free roaming dogs lived to a ripe old age - these were the ones who developed 'road sense'. But the traffic on the roads was far less then, and dogs had a chance.

[gundoglover]

There was less knowledge about the importance of vaccination, so probably a lot of pups died young. I remember seeing strays that were sick with distemper when I was a child.

[Edslaine]

My mum and dad's first dog when they got married (in the late fifties) was a scottie called Whiskey. They didn't even think of desexing him. They had no front fence and he was free to wander. They lived in a small village and everyone knew each other's dogs. Apparently Whiskey went for a walk on his own every morning and then got a lift home with the milkman. Yes different times I think. Actually come to think of it none of our dogs were desexed when I was a kid. Neither were the cats. We had one accidental pregnancy with our cocker spaniel (in the 70s) and all the pups found homes. Several lots of kittens I'm afraid but they all found homes too.

[sandgrubber]

I'm boomer generation, raised in California. My folks thought that a few litters was a good way to help us learn the facts of life. I can't remember any of the neighbors having puppies or kittens: but people (apart from my parents) were pretty conservative in the 1950s and they wanted their children to believe that the stork brought babies. I guess we were protected from other facts of life, like dogs getting run over and puppies that couldn't be placed with good homes. I don't remember what happened to any of the family dogs except Tonka, who hamstrung a neighbor's calf and ended out getting deported to someplace hundreds of miles away. He came back, and eventually got put to sleep.

Our dogs were never fenced . .. almost no one had fenced yards. Nor, can I remember, were any of them formally trained. A few kids taught their dogs to do tricks, but most didn't. Our first dog, and English Springer Spaniel, used to bring home the chooks from next door . . . unharmed but they went off laying for a few days. Kids and dogs both wandered pretty much freely. There was a big Afghan named Stupid (the sort of name kids remember) who always came to the bus stop with his kids. Dogs HAD to get vaccinated and to wear their rabies tags or the dogcatcher would take them.

[Austerra]

I grew up in suburbia, and crossbreeds were given away as they were accidental matings and unwanted mongrels, people wanted pure breeds. Pet shops sold just meat and accessories, saw the occassional kitten in pet shops but rarely dogs. Most pets were gained through family and friends. No such thing as "breeding for profit", "designer dogs" or "puppy farms".

My first pedigreed dog was a dobe with excellent lineage that cost me $80, that was in the 70's.

Seemed less problems with dogs, probably due to kids actually being told to get outside and play, so the dogs had the company and play time they need. I used to get home from school and be out with my animals (counted 20 at one stage) until mum called for dinner.