For a lot of dog owners, their dog is less a friend and more an Instagram cast member
When did dogs become our best friends?
21–30 of 244 posts
Re: When did dogs become our best friends?
#22[flagged]
Your funny comment actually has some deep insight I'd like to see researched more.
We know by now how we turned the grey wolf into the dog, but do we know what the relationship has done for us? What have wolves taught humans?
Some hypotheses to get you started: they might've taught us the power of collaboration. The power of social hierarchy. The empathy towards other life forms. Anthropomorphism (maybe that's why we have furries today). I don't know, but I very much doubt the domestication of wolves has been a one way endeavour.
Re: When did dogs become our best friends?
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Extremely harsh? Many of these dogs are very smart. What about locking a human away for 8 hours with no internet, no books, no entertainment, nothing to do? And it might be affection they give their dogs but it's not really love if they are so cruel. Besides, they wouldn't be strays if they were never bought, at least not a lot of them if the demand were lower, then so would the breeding and supply.
> What about locking a human away for 8 hours with no internet, no books, no entertainment, nothing to do These arguments fall apart when the animal is anthropomorphized. Dogs sleep a lot more than people do, needing around 12 hours. They will take about 4 hours of that sleep in the day regardless if a human is around. It's very breed dependent but, the majority of dogs don't require a significant amount of mental st…
Exactly. My wife has been rescuing French Bulldogs for years. Even before they were this popular. The problem is they have all sorts of health issues that people don't account for, so they get turned in more than you think. But, their demeanor makes them great apartment dogs. They'll happily sleep 15 hours/day, and even when outside will lay down in the sun to sleep more.
Speaking of greyhounds, we fostered an Italian Greyhound one time...and I thought Frenchies were fragile.
Re: When did dogs become our best friends?
#24First, 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…
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 complained on cat poop on their stoop? Or getting bitten by the neighbor's cat? Or being annoyed at the neighbor's mewing cat?
Now a cat on a farm, don't know about that. Wonder how that would work.
Re: When did dogs become our best friends?
#25Earlier 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…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farm_cat
We domesticated cats so they would keep rats away from our winter grain storage.
Re: When did dogs become our best friends?
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Extremely harsh? Many of these dogs are very smart. What about locking a human away for 8 hours with no internet, no books, no entertainment, nothing to do? And it might be affection they give their dogs but it's not really love if they are so cruel. Besides, they wouldn't be strays if they were never bought, at least not a lot of them if the demand were lower, then so would the breeding and supply.
Pre-pandemic, when my partner and I had to go to work and leave the dog alone, we made sure to leave multiple treat toys and puzzles for entertainment, and were never away for longer than 6 hours.
Now that we both work from home we can see that the dog mostly sleeps all day, occasionally getting up to bark at some squirrels or passers-by.
Re: When did dogs become our best friends?
#27[flagged]
This kind of thinking very much reminds me of those parents who view the children they chose to have as nefarious evil leeches.
Re: When did dogs become our best friends?
#28[flagged]
Re: When did dogs become our best friends?
#29First, 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…
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Re: When did dogs become our best friends?
#30For a lot of dog owners, their dog is less a friend and more an Instagram cast member
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