Ok so I have lived most of my life in a pretty rural part of Ireland; surrounded by farms, rolling hills and fields for dogs to run and play in so the concept of a dog park was pretty strange the first time I heard it. I remember laughing out loud when watching Cesaer Milans show, someone mentioned that their dog had been "expelled from the dog walking class for bad behaviour". Oh how I laughed at those silly people who seem to 'humanize' their dogs and treat them like children. When I was growing up we had pet dogs but they were always outside, never in the house, rarely walked on a lead or anything like that really. From my experience both parties were happy with the arrangement. Treating an animal like a person was something they did on TV.

Fast forward a few years I gained a wife and 2 kids and we decided to get a dog, I left the decision to my wife as she was really really into the idea. She picked a King Charles which was much more of a 'toy' dog than I was used to. Suddenly my entire household was turned into a gushing dog appreciation society. Every conversation was about what the dog had done or tried to do. The transformation was instantaneous but I hoped it was temporary. A year later things hadn't changed. The dog was the central subject of conversation in the house.

Then the dog was hit by a car :(

My wife and children were inconsolable for weeks.

Its now been about 2 years since the accident and the topic of getting a new dog is raised every now and again. I'm against getting another dog. I say its because they are a big responsibility, the dog would be lonely when everyone is at work/school etc... The real reason I don't want to get one is that to me a dog is an animal, I don't feel the need to 'raise' them above the level of a pet or companion. I don't want to talk about the dog all the time, I find it boring after a while. Actually come to think of it my sister tends to speak almost exclusively about her pet dog and 2 cats. She will speak for hours about her concerns for them... It can become very tedious at times and I tend to switch off and not listen :(

The end result to all of this is that I'm slowly turning anti-dog which is a shame. When I have to listen to someone gush about their puppy-wuppy and how cutey-wutey they are I have a growing urge to cut them off mid sop "its just a fucking dog, can you get over it, even the dog is embarrassed at this stage, its just a dog!"

So yea dogs a great, humans are the problem.