Healthy, wealthy and abused: interesting read

[dogbesotted]

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/heavy_petting/2004/07/poor_little_rich_dog.html

 

Poor Little Rich Dog

 

Ernie is healthy, wealthy, and abused.

By Jon Katz

 

 

 

Ernie, a fluffy, 10-week-old golden retriever with heart-melting eyes, was originally a birthday present. The lucky recipient was Danielle, a pony-tailed 11-year-old living in an affluent Westchester, N.Y., suburb.

 

Danielle's passions for some time had been soccer, Justin Timberlake, and instant messaging, but her parents wanted to give her a different kind of birthday gift, "something that you didn't plug in or watch, something that would give her a sense of responsibility." She'd often said she'd love a puppy and vowed to take care of it.

Girl and dog, growing up together—what parent hasn't pictured it? Her folks envisioned long family walks around the neighborhood, Ernie frolicking on the lawn while they gardened. They could see him riding along to soccer games.

Acquiring a dog completed the portrait that had been taking shape for several years, beginning with the family's move to the suburbs from Brooklyn. The package included a four-bedroom colonial, a lawn edged with flowering shrubs, a busy sports schedule, a Volvo wagon and a Subaru Outback to ferry the kids around. A dog—a big, beautiful hunting breed—came with the rest of it, increasingly as much a part of the American dream as the picket fence or the car with high safety ratings.

So Danielle's parents found a breeder online with lots of awards, cooed over the adorable pictures, and mailed off a deposit on a pup. They drove to Connecticut and returned to surprise Danielle on her birthday, just hours before her friends were due for a celebratory sleepover.

It was love at first sight. Danielle and her friends spent hours passing the adorable puppy from one lap to another. Ernie slept with her that night. Over the next two or three weeks, she spent hours cuddling with him, playing tug of war, and tossing balls while her parents took photos.

But the dog did not spark greater love of the outdoors or diminish her interest in television, iPod, computer, and cell phone. Nor did his arrival slow down Danielle's demanding athletic schedule; with practices, games, and victory celebrations, soccer season took up three or four afternoons a week. Anyway, she didn't find the shedding, slobbering, chewing, and maturing Ernie quite as cute as the new-puppy version.

Both of Danielle's parents worked in the city and rarely got home before 7 p.m. on weekdays. The household relied on a nanny/housekeeper from Nicaragua who wasn't especially drawn to dogs and viewed Ernie as stupid, messy, and, as he grew larger and more restive, mildly frightening.

Because nobody was home during the day, he wasn't housebroken for nearly two months and even then, not completely. No single person was responsible for him; nobody had the time, will, or skill to train him.

As he went through the normal stages of retriever development—teething, mouthing, racing frantically around the house, peeing when excited, offering items the family didn't want retrieved, eating strange objects and then vomiting them up—the casualties mounted. Rugs got stained, shoes chewed, mail devoured, table legs gnawed. The family rejected the use of a crate or kennel—a valuable calming tool for young and energetic dogs—as cruel. Instead, they let the puppy get into all sorts of trouble, then scolded and resented him for it. He was "hyper," they complained, "wild," "rambunctious." The notion of him as annoying and difficult became fixed in their minds; perhaps in his as well.

 

A practiced trainer would have seen, instead, a golden retriever that was confused, under-exercised, and untrained—an ironic fate for a dog bred for centuries to be calm and responsive to humans.

Ernie did not attach to anybody in particular—an essential element in training a dog. Because he never quite understood the rules, he became increasingly anxious. He was reprimanded constantly for jumping on residents and visitors, for pulling and jerking on the leash when walked. Increasingly, he was isolated when company came or the family was gathered. He was big enough to drag Danielle into the street by now, so her parents and the housekeeper reluctantly took over. His walks grew brief: outside, down the block until he did his business, then home. He never got to run much.

Complaining that he was out of control, the family tried fencing the back yard and putting Ernie outside during meals to keep him from bothering them. The nanny stuck him there most of the day as well, because he messed up the house. Allowed inside at night, he was largely confined to the kitchen, sealed off by child gates.

The abandonment and abuse of dogs is an enormous issue in the animal rights movement, and quite properly. There are, by U.S. Humane Society estimates, as many as 10 million dogs languishing in shelters; the majority will be euthanized. But Ernie is an abused dog, too.

Nobody is likely to talk much about Ernie, the kind of dog I saw frequently while researching several books. His abusers aren't lowlifes who mercilessly beat, starve, or tether animals. Quite the opposite: His owners are affluent, educated people who consider themselves humanistic and moral. But they've been cruel nonetheless, through their lack of responsibility, their neglect, their poor training, and their inattention.

I've seen Ernie numerous times over the past two years. I've watched him become more detached, neurotic, and unresponsive. I've seen the soul drain from the dog's eyes.

He's affectionate and unthreatening, but he doesn't really know how to behave—not around his family or other people, not around other animals, not around me or my dogs. He lunges and barks almost continuously when anyone comes near, so few of us do. Increasingly, he gets confined to his back yard, out of sight and mind.

This family was shocked and outraged when I suggested that the dog was suffering from a kind of abuse and might be better off in a different home. "Nobody hits that dog," sputtered Danielle's father. "He gets the best dog food, he gets all his shots." All true.

But he lacks what is perhaps the most essential ingredient in a dog's life: a human who will take emotional responsibility for him.

Sadly, I see dogs like Ernie all the time, victims of a new, uniquely American kind of abuse, animals without advocates. Dogs like Flash, a Westchester border collie who spent her days chasing invisible sheep beyond a chain link fence, and Reg, an enormous black Lab in Atlanta who, like Ernie, was untrained, grew neurotic and rambunctious, and eventually was confined to the family playroom day and night. He leaves that room for several brief walks each day.

Who knows how many Ernies and Regs there are in urban apartments and suburban backyards? Few media outlets or animals rights groups would classify a $1,200 purebred as a candidate for rescue. In fact, I've contacted rescue groups to see if they could help; they were sympathetic, but they felt more comfortable with traditional kinds of abuse. A situation like this—emotional mistreatment is not illegal—was beyond their purview.

 

I understand, but Ernie haunts me. He may be the most abused dog I kno

[Kazm]

Such a true but very sad story

[mowgliandme]

So sad and I hear it all the time~ whenever i mention I have a dog (that I adore and train and play with) and that she goes on adventures with me - people comment on theirs and its almost always so disheartening. "He's just untrainable, difficult to handle, he's an outdoor only dog because he's to stupid to know he cant piss in the house, my dog is dominant, he think's he's top dog because he jumps on me when i get home, I cant take him anywhere."

Some people don't even play/interact their dogs other than to give them food, water and vet visits and then whinge that its the dogs fault for not being perfectly well behaved  

[Rascalmyshadow]

Wow I haven't been on here in a while but this story hit home.

 

This is the exact scenario I got my first poodle from, I met him when I was in my second year of grooming (he belonged to a customer).

 

He was originally given to a little girl, she grew tired of him except when she used him for show and tell etc, over time he was put out more and more in a concrete pen with nothing but a kennel and food bowls and the housekeeper did most of the feeding and management.

 

They wouldn't even take him in the car because he accidently scratched the seats in their BMW, I would walk past the house on the way to work and pick him up then drop him home at the end of the day after he was groomed, this became his only outing.

 

I so badly wanted to adopt him, then one day my boss got a call to say the owner was moving and asked if she knew of anyone that wanted him, I picked him up the next day, the owner handed him over along with his pedigree papers.

 

The poor thing had never played with toys or other dogs, seen the beach, chewed a bone or had anyone he could bond with.

His owners were multi millionaires but couldn't be bothered even treating his epilepsy or having his rotten teeth fixed.

 

He was 4 1/2 when he became mine, I lost him on his 10th birthday.

I was only 18 when I took him in, he taught me so much and is the reason poodles became my life.

 

I have never had another dog like him, he loved everyone and everything and lived the rest of his life to the fullest.

[twodoggies2001]

 

that's the problem with a lot of people who think their dog is well  looked after because that poor dog is fed a high quality food and has the expensive collar and leads etc.  Of course that said dog must be fed and wear a collar and lead on outings but said dog needs a family to love and adore.  Enrichment in the form of spending time with his family, on outings and doggie friends.

So many of these dogs are 'forgotten' and blamed for damage when it is the owner who is totally at fault and claim the dog is stupid and becomes a burden within the family circle.  Dogs become a fashion statement, but we true d lovers know better than that. 

 

[Flashsmum]

So sad.... Every new dog owner should be made to read this, and told to really think about life with a dog in it.

[Scottsmum]

I know someone who "always wanted a Labrador"

 

Rest of the story is oretty much the same

[dogbesotted]

we seem to have become so self indulgent but  have lost the  ability to actually see that pets are not small furry extensions of our egos and that they  need a species appropriate life.. ie dogs need their pack (+ all that a pack entails)and usually that is us.  WE have a moral obligation to gently teach our dogs the way to  happily cohabit with humans.

 

I sometimes wonder how many people who are vegetarian ( fe example  only)  because they have an ethical objection to eating animals actually consider the day to day welfare of their pets.

 

now I am not saying that vegetarians are all not considering  the welfare of their pets but merely using that as an example of how we can compartmentalise  things.

 

 

[Little Gifts]

We've got new neighbours up the street - corner block with not a skerrick of fencing and one side the road that goes to a busy school so lots of traffic. Yet it is always filled with renters with dogs, usually left to roam or confined on a line of some kind. The current neighbours have rigged up a portable fence against the side fence and initially I thought good on them for caring about their dogs. But everytime I drive by 1 large and 1 small dog are in that pen. No shade except for the 2 kennels taking up pen space and just metal bowls lying on what still is some grass. We are already getting in the high 30s here. My car is getting repaired so I walked home this morning and the larger dog was crying and barking at the house. The people were home sitting in the shade under their front verandah. I saw how little the run was for 2 dogs that seem to be permanently kept in there. How little shade those poor dogs had at only 10.30 on a moderate Spring morning. I saw how small that metal water dish was with nothing stopping it from tipping over. They were desperate to be with their humans. It made me so sad because this is just so common for so many dogs! I wish people would put themselves in the same position as their dogs and see how comfortable and comforting their set up is. Then you have people who use the opposite argument for not containing their cats - their cat wouldn't like it! But apparently it is perfectly fine for a dog?

[sandgrubber]

The ones that get me, locally, are pig dogs.  Various neighbors have 3+ dogs, kept caged, that are left to vegetate, and howl, except for the occasional outing where they are let loose in the bush to hunt pigs.

They love to hunt, sure.  But few of them even have decent sized runs, and they can't interact when caged.

[Asher]

Excellent article. Should be given to every new GR owner!

[Scottsmum]

7 hours ago, Asher said:

Excellent article. Should be given to every new owner!

Fixed that for you ... 

[tdierikx]

Quote

I've seen the soul drain from the dog's eyes.

This one sentence made my eyes leak... *sob*

 

T.

[JenL]

That made me so sad. I know it happens but to actually read was just awful.  I agree that all people going to have a dog should read this article. 

 

[Guest crazydoglady99]

I wish it was only true of wealthy people and dogs.. sadly it is not.

 

Makes me so sad

[dogbesotted]

On 10/12/2017 at 7:04 AM, tdierikx said:

I've seen the soul drain from the dog's eyes.

This one sentence made my eyes leak... *sob*

 

T.

me as well.  My very first Maremma in need that I took in had disappeared into that part of himself that no one would be able to hurt.  A friend who was very dog knowledgeable  said with tears inhis eyes that he doubted that Casper would come back.  But he did ... but only when I gave him 6 wethers to guard.... ...  then for Casper life was enriched.