When I got to "why are dog owners more susceptible to this kind of flaw or failure" I started mentally replacing "dog owners" with "parents" and "dogs" with "infants."

Is that a zappy collar? That little box looks like an electro-shock device.

@2 indeed it is. The infant must have found a way to shed it.

Charles, I had this problem a few years ago. It took filing daily complaints with Seattle Animal Control over the course of maybe a month before they actually did anything, but once they did start paying attention, the issue was quickly resolved. Nothing like a few tickets for noise/nuisance to get a pet owner to address the situation.

There are lots of dogs owned as pets, so naturally there are quite a few misbehaving dogs.

As far as only seeing dogs in grocery stores, you're wrong. I have personally seen kittens, rabbits, and birds brought into grocery stores. It is also legal for people to bring small horses into grocery stores.

A collar that sprays citronella is not that big of a deal. I'm saving my outrage for a later article.

This will be solved when we get better at genetic modification. Dogs that can control their barks, don't shed, and come in a wider variety of colors.

We've been deepening our connection with dogs for some fifteen thousand years. That may explain our blind spot.

I lived next to a dog like that once. Our neighbors driveway was directly beneath my bedroom window and the dog would hang out in the driveway all morning barking at people, cars, other dogs...really anything it saw through the crack in my neighbors fence. They would let the dog out when they left for work each morning and since I was bartending at the time, I would only get about 4 hours sleep before the dog would flip out when the neighborhood kids would go to school. On weekends, I would gleefully call the police--which I did every weekend for a month until they stopped putting the little bastard out on Saturdays and Sunday's. Weekdays? Sometimes I would get the gumption to throw a spoonful of peanut butter on the other side of the fence which would shut him up for a while but mostly, I just thought of murder all day.

Not a healthy way to live.

Parrot owners are just as oblivious. Try living in an apartment next to one of those.

I despise dogs, but you're wrong here Charles. You're overgeneralizing.

Plenty of dog owners are very considerate of other people, just as plenty of non-dog owners are inconsiderate asses.

Cat owners can be inconsiderate too, but cats aren't as thoroughly subservient to humans as dogs are. If cats allowed themselves to be used by humans the way dogs allow themselves to be used, you'd see this same inconsiderate behavior coming from cat owners as well.

Oh, and Charles is obviously trolling here.

@11, i beg you to reread my post. you missed some of its meaning.

My guess is that the dog is a Great Dane. I try to get responsible dog owners to talk to the irresponsible dog owners (the responsible ones have no respect for the negligent):
no, it is not cool to leave your socially dependent animals to bark 16+ hours a day for a weekend when you live in the city;
it is not cool to leave your dog to bark every four minutes outside when you are away ten hours a day;
it is not cool to leave your elderly dog with sore bones and thin coat outside in the cold so it whines;
it is not cool to leave your dog out during a heavy downpour without a suitably sized shelter for it;
it is not cool to put high-strung, loud, barking dogs outside at 6:15 am on workdays.

My neighbors seem to think these behaviors are okay. Did Cesar Millan tell them these actions are acceptable and indicative of proper and loving dog ownership and show courtesy to nearby neighbors? I doubt it.

I once saw someone with a pet duck in a grocery store in Seattle. Dog owners may have the majority, but they don't monopolize.

I'm dumbfounded that you bemoan the barking while you decry a potential solution.

Also, how do you know the owners love its bark? Perhaps they don'y like it either but are simply resigned to it.

Dogs are often barky, bitey, and antisocial for the same reason that some children bully and steal and then grow up to rape and murder and raid pension funds: a little of it is genetics, some of it is outside cultural and economic factors, but a lot of it is in the way they are raised. The #1 lesson I've learned is, don't reward bad behavior with drama. Too often when dogs bark unnecessarily, their people scream at them to shut up, which only teaches the dog to bark the next time it wants attention. The same is true for kids: it can be hard to impossible not to scream at your kids at some point, but you're only teaching them to scream back somewhere down the line. But people are much more likely to be lazy or counterproductive when raising their dogs than with their kids.

Bark collars are cruel and can lead to bigger problems, like aggression. Dog wearing zapper sees person, barks, gets zapped. Learns to associate unknown persons with pain. Pain makes person seem scarier then dog bites out of fear.

TRAINERS can help!!! But the owners have to do the work. Sounds like that ain't gonna happen in this case, since the people sound like dicks

@12,
Ok, I reread your post. A dog on your block barks. Everyone but its owners hate that.
Why do dog owners, more than other pet owners, think everyone loves their dog? Why do dogs have the power to make their owners less observant of other people?

What am I missing?

Dogs are like little zombie-slaves to their owners, they are the only pet that is like that. Dog owners know that and relish in it. Perhaps dog owners get so accustomed to their pet being totally dependent and subservient to them that they forget their neighbors are not subservient and dependent as well?

First, not all problematic dogs are the fault of the owners. Some dogs just suck - they're stupid, high strung, naturally aggressive, or extremely impulsive - and keeping them in check is beyond what a normal person can do.

Once it's clear a dog is problematic, however, the owners can be faulted for failing to solve the problem. If they can't fix the dog, they should get rid of it. If the dog is causing problems for neighbors and the owners don't do anything about it, personally I think the neighbors are entitled to fix the problem themselves, in whatever way they see fit.

A dog in a grocery store isn't by itself a problem (if the dog shits or licks the food, that's another story). People, myself included, live with dogs in their kitchens, bathrooms, and beds. People, myself included, allow their dogs to lick their faces. The health risks of this are virtually nil.

Dog's do everything with their mouths, not their paws, and their saliva functions as a natural Purell dispenser. Any disease you contract from food will have come from humans, not dogs.

If forced to choose I 'll take a neighbor with a barking dog over a neighbor that just amusedly watches (and blogs) as his neighbors homes get burglarized.

Actually, @ 12, @ 11 understands the situation better than you. This post is about consideration, and not dogs at all.

See, this is why you're a bad philosopher. You're a good observer, but like Tycho Brahe, you have virtually no understanding of what you see.

@ 19, you're all wet, as usual.

http://www.snopes.com/critters/wild/dogm…

@19, it's cute that you think it's not a problem to bring a dog into a grocery store, but unless it's a service animal, it's illegal to do so (in Oregon, at least).

P.S. We have a smart dog. She barks, a unique and persistent bark, when someone opens our gate and enters the property. She sometimes barks a different bark when another dog walks by. She doesn't otherwise bark.

One time, at about 4am, she woke us up with her "someone's entering the property bark." We looked out the window, and sure enough, we saw a man in a hoodie carrying a large bag retreat to our bushes, then run out the gate and down the street.

Smart dogs are fucking awesome.

@22: That article is mostly irrelevant to my point.

Dog's wipe their ass with the mouths, and their saliva naturally kills their own bacteria (a point which is confirmed by your link).

Humans wipe their ass with their hands, which contain no such protection. Hence, without the benefit of Purell or similar, we spread diseases among ourselves in ways that dogs do not.

I have two dogs. One to smart for his own good and knows if he barks he gets to come inside and if he barks aggressively he gets to come in faster. He learned this trick from the other one just likes to bark at select people and dogs walking by. I'll toss them out (never when I'm not home) and let them back in when one starts barking. I wouldn't subject my neighbors to my dogs annoying-ness

@23: Wasn't commenting on or questioning the law, just pointing out that a dog minding its own business in a grocery store, restaurant, or household kitchen isn't hurting anything besides Charles' feelings.

Asking why some dog owners are so crazy about their dogs is a fair question.

Asking why the sight of a dog can turn some people into hysterical hypochondriacs is also a fair question.

@ 25, interesting that you would interpret this passage that way:

Rather than attempting to fret out an answer to which is cleaner, a better question to ponder is whether it's a good idea to be swapping spit with a dog. While most of the bacteria in a dog's mouth is of such nature that it's likely be more perilous to the pooch than to those of other species doesn't mean that all of what's in there can be passed from dogs to humans via Rover's slobber, including rabies. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) say about dogs that: "To best protect yourself from getting sick, thoroughly wash your hands with running water and soap after contact with dogs, dog saliva, or dog feces (stool)."

You probably didn't read that, but I'm treating you as lazy instead of stupid. You've given plenty of evidence of the latter, so be grateful for the charitable treatment.

Also interesting that you don't know about soap and hot water, and that that's been around a lot longer than stuff that contributes to the mutation of bacteria to resist it. Nothing can resist hot water.

My dog very rarely barks. Just like one can teach a dog to sit, one can teach their dog not to bark. It takes a young dog and a very patient owner.
It does have it's drawbacks. My dog doesn't bark at intruders. He gruffs. I can't leave him tied up in nieghborhoods. He won't be there when I came back.
Unlike humans, dogs are pack animals. If you don't treat them as if you are alpha, they will challenge you constantly. It sounds as if this dog is the alpha in this pack. Sounds like shitty dog owners.

Yes, read that part. I repeat, the risk of contracting a disease from a dog is "virtually nil". Nothing in your link contradicts that statement.

As for CDC recommendations, they always error on the conservative side. But, hey, if you want to wash your hands every time you pet a dog, don't let me stop you.

Also, please see "Purell or similar" (emphasis added) in my comment.

P.S. Here's a thought for you. How about contributing some ideas to SLOG every now and then rather than just lamely contradicting and trolling those of us who do?

My dog barks a lot. All different types of barks but ever since she was a tiny puppy she's just barked her cute little head off. The citronella sprayer has saved my ears along with my neighbors patience. It's not perfect, so I leave it turned off for the most part (just the fact that she's wearing it helps), but when she gets in one of her "moods", I'll usually turn it on and have a good walk or a wrestle session and she's back on her good behavior again.

My neighbor's human screaming parrot on the other hand needs to be dealt with in an unsavory (or savory!) manner.

@ 30, riiiiiiiight. Risk of rabies = "virtually nil." Dog's saliva may have traces of fresh feces that haven't been killed yet. No, that's not a contradiction at all!

That's a Republican form of logic if I've ever seen it, along with stuff "similar" to Purell. Like that shit isn't also helping bacteria become resistant, along with virtually all antiseptic cleaning products out there.

As to the rest, I'll let Slog as a whole judge that. We can begin with what the actual definition of "troll" is, or where countering patently untrue statements like yours isn't a contribution. Might as well call Fnarf a troll because he likes going nuclear on Will in Seattle.

@32: So, presumably you have some epidemiological data showing the risk of contracting rabies or some other disease from a domesticated dog is higher than I've stated? You know, to distinguish your argument from the "Republican form of logic"?

"As to the rest, I'll let Slog as a whole judge that."

SLOG has judged you. Repeatedly. Maybe it's time to take that feedback in?

As for Fnarf, I don't care if he trolls WiS because WiS is insane, and Fnarf also posts ideas that are interesting, funny, and original, even if I don't agree with them all. You, not so much.

Oh Charles... Haven't you had enough tickling from the tickle machine yet?

@ 33, LOL. You're not SLOG, ya effin male drama queen. And if that were true, I'd be getting the WiS/Bailo treatment from everyone. Sort of the way WiS and Bailo do.

Hey, you made your claim first, without any proof. I countered with facts, while you haven't shown any. Ball's still in your court.

I love your dog trolling, Charles. & once again, I couldn't agree more.

Team Matt. He knows his punctuation.

I laughed until I literally had tears in my eyes. Oh, Charles. Never change.

And I agree about the loathsome dog owners.

Chuckie's probably had more than one dog let loose on his worthless ass.