Comments on: The Problem with Treating Dogs Like Children

By: Kimberly Gauthier

Kimberly Gauthier — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 03:59:32 +0000

Great post!

I do think of my dogs as children, but I work hard (on myself) to make sure I treat them like dogs too. I let them enjoy getting muddy, splashing in puddles, running off to explore new things.

I want them to enjoy every single moment as dogs so I back off a little, put my dog mom hat down, and let them go nuts.

By: Jen K

Jen K — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 20:15:18 +0000

Baby talk drives me bananas… whether it’s directed to dogs or babies. If someone excessively baby talks to my dog, I explain “he doesn’t speak English” in a super passive aggressive way to shut it down. It rarely works. I even once had a vet that baby talked to Moses and then looked at me and used the same voice and demeanour! (I say “once” because we’ve never been back to her – hard to take someone as a serious professional when they baby talk to your face!)

I think the dogs-as-kids thing can get out of hand to the point that it’s detrimental and confusing to the dog (e.g., carrying them everywhere and not letting them walk) but the term fur-kids will slip from me every now and again, too.

I think a lot of it is semantics – “owner” implies property, so a lot of people don’t like that term. “Parent” implies kids, which a lot of other people don’t like. There’s a campaign here by Pet Plant stores for the term “guardian”, but I honestly think that’s simply got too many syllables to catch on.

Mostly, I don’t care about the terminology if it communicates effectively and if, in practice, people are still recognizing that their dogs are… well… DOGS.

By: Vicki Cook

Vicki Cook — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 21:55:42 +0000

It’s interesting because I’ve thought about this a lot. I think part of the reason dogs appeal to us is because they are sort of like children in the way that they bond with their parents/owners. I do talk baby-talk sometimes, but I try to keep in mind that Zora is a dog – not a little person. And I definitely don’t get into dressing up pets like people, but that’s just me.

By: Jan K

Jan K — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 17:01:44 +0000

I think I talk baby talk sometimes, but not all of the time. Most of the time I call the dogs “sweetie” or “pumpkin” the same way as I would human children, if I had any. I do think that when I talk to other people about them, I might call them the “kids” but I also refer to them as “the dogs”. Perhaps those of us who don’t have human children, or whose children are grown and gone, are more likely to treat our dogs as our children? But I don’t dress my dogs in cute little outfits either, so I don’t try to humanize them that way either. OK, I want to put cute little pj’s on Cricket, but my hubby won’t let me! 🙂

By: Ann Sowards

Ann Sowards — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 15:43:34 +0000

When I want my dachshunds to pay close attention to me, I call out “Dogs!”. Which I suppose shows that while I often take care of them and spoil them like little furry relations of mine, deep down I respect and love and WANT their dogness. They are dogs. A special relationship exists. They are so much more than pseudo children.

By: Human Rescues Dog

Human Rescues Dog — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 09:20:20 +0000

thought provoking post. I do see my dogs as my canine kids in a way; although I do bristle when people say “It’s only because you don’t have children yet. Once you’ve got kids, you’ll forget the dogs”. I think you can do both – see them as your babies and still appreciate their awesomeness as adults. There are many times that my dogs have saved my sanity and provided me with peace; ie. looked after me like they were my parents, rather than the other way round.

By: Roxy the traveling dog

Roxy the traveling dog — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 02:56:26 +0000

Guilty of the baby talk. But, I do regard Torrey more of a big dog than Roxy, simply because she is. She is lots younger, but smarter, and way more in tune with what is happening around us.

By: Roberta

Roberta — Sat, 17 Aug 2013 01:36:24 +0000

I am the Owner of my dogs in that I’m responsible for their well-being: food, water, shelter, exercise, training. I am also the Mom; not because I see them as children, I truly don’t though I will say “Come along, babes (or) pups!” As the Mom (not Mom), I shower them with love like my mom did for us. I’m not a Guardian (they can’t make any legal or food decisions for themselves) nor am I their Parent (yet, I do use the words Pet Parent to distinguish between children and pets of adults).

Dogs are dogs. To me, the kicker is, God created us ALL – and he created Dog before Man and Woman…We humans are Stewards of this Earth, and that includes the ocean, the lands, and all within them especially those who cannot speak for themselves.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 21:16:15 +0000

Realistically, I have to be *more* careful of Silas than I would of a child. I think a situation would have to escalate pretty wildly for him to bite someone, but it’s a possibility (as it is with all dogs). We live in an urban area. In that extremely worst case scenario, I suspect he would be put to sleep. Being irresponsible or inattentive is literally gambling with his life, exactly because he *isn’t* a baby. Dogs are capable of doing genuine harm.

That’s the bad side of “your dog isn’t a baby,” I guess.

By: Dawn

Dawn — Fri, 16 Aug 2013 19:20:16 +0000

Love the pup killing the stuffie photo. 😀 My dogs are my children. It doesn’t matter how old or adult they get, I will probably always consider them my children. When do I consider them most like children? When they do naughty stuff like steal vegetables from my garden or bark at every little thing.