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When did dogs become our best friends?

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Re: When did dogs become our best friends?

#31

Post by JohnBooty »

poloniculmov wrote: post #18
Arisaka1 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me and my parents came to an agreement that we will not own a pet while we live in an apartment precisely because of this sentiment. I also disagree with the strawman the other comment presented: The alternative isn't to have the dog fight for survival on the streets as a stray. The alternative is to have the dog owned by a family that can actually provide it with the appropriate environment.

Dogs are very social and they love to be with their humans, your pet is not going to be happier being left alone in the back yard than lounging on the couch with you.

I do not see where the parent poster advocated for leaving a dog alone in the back yard.

Re: When did dogs become our best friends?

#33

Post by DontchaKnowit »

temporarely wrote: post #24
sph wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I strongly agree and it's apparent not everybody shares this opinion. I grew up in the countryside in the middle of nowhere, my dog used to have an enormous backyard to run in, and was cheeky enough to have made a hole in the fence when that time of the year came and he really wanted to leave for a couple days at a time, either to sire some puppies, or to roll around in horse dung. We used a leash whenever we took hi…

> Cats on the other hand are much more like humans - cat's dig urbanism, can hang out at a cafe for hours, sit on a couch watching the tube all day, they happily adapt.. So that' why we say "there's a cool cat" but you never hear anything about "cool dogs". So your theory is correct in my opinion: dogs are good rural friends and cats are good urban friends. There is also the matter of dog poop. Has anyone every compl…

Any farm ive ever been to has about 8 mildly domesticated cats that live around the premises.

Re: When did dogs become our best friends?

#34

Post by pvg »

vouaobrasil wrote: post #7

First, I know a lot of people are very nice to their dogs, but... I live in a large city, and based on the number of dogs locked away in apartments all day barking and bored to death with almost no stimulation, I figure dogs are certainly not the best friends of a lot of people. Instead, they are more like prisoners that illustrate the cruelness of humanity in general: these people use them as entertainment and care…

Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: When did dogs become our best friends?

#35

Post by sph »

INTPenis wrote: post #2

On this topic I saw this great documentary called "Man's first friend" from 2008.[1]. Also speaking of northern Italy, as a dog owner, I am fully behind this[2] proposal to DNA test dogs and punish anyone leaving dog poop on the streets. 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=talBvZ5x8sY&t=4882s 2. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/17/italian-provin...

I also enjoyed the probably not very historically accurate movie Alpha, about a prehistoric young man domesticating a wolf: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4244998/

Re: When did dogs become our best friends?

#36

Post by scrapcode »

vouaobrasil wrote: post #7

First, I know a lot of people are very nice to their dogs, but... I live in a large city, and based on the number of dogs locked away in apartments all day barking and bored to death with almost no stimulation, I figure dogs are certainly not the best friends of a lot of people. Instead, they are more like prisoners that illustrate the cruelness of humanity in general: these people use them as entertainment and care…

Unfortunately, this pet-owner energy mismatch extends to those who live in all types of environments. People will often seek a companion putting plenty of research into their looks, size, and how much they shed - without paying mind to the breed's temperament. I work with high-drive waterfowl retrievers that have seemingly endless energy and they can really start to act up without proper frequent exercise. They require multiple 20+ minute sessions of training/running per day that would be equivalent to many miles of running each session.

Re: When did dogs become our best friends?

#38

Post by xandrius »

ethanbond wrote: post #5
xandrius wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a low-trust country such as Italy, I'd say that it would be useful. Also it would depend on the specific commune and not a country-wide requirement.

Also necessary in NYC which I don’t really feel is low-trust in general.

NYC and US are definitely low-trust.

Interesting comparison: https://jacknicastro.substack.com/p/vienna-and-new-york-high...

Re: When did dogs become our best friends?

#40

Post by the_af »

mynameisvlad wrote: post #8
vouaobrasil wrote: post #7

First, I know a lot of people are very nice to their dogs, but... I live in a large city, and based on the number of dogs locked away in apartments all day barking and bored to death with almost no stimulation, I figure dogs are certainly not the best friends of a lot of people. Instead, they are more like prisoners that illustrate the cruelness of humanity in general: these people use them as entertainment and care…

That’s an extremely harsh take considering those same owners likely do care a lot about their dogs and shower them with love and affection outside those 8 hours. You’re focusing on a single part of the experience in order to paint the whole thing in a negative light. To put it another way, would they be better off being strays? I doubt it.

> To put it another way, would they be better off being strays? I doubt it.

Adopting a dog will probably do it good, but a lot of people are buying dogs from dog breeders (and then the mentioned behavior happens, dogs left alone to bark in apartments). Should dogs be purposefully bred as pets, only to be left alone for hours on end?

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