(147) The Right Dog for the Right Family

I had a conversation with a coworker today about dogs (big surprise). She has four dogs in her family. Three are dachshunds (German for badger dog) and a German Sheppard. We were talking about how our dogs know when we are about to leave home without them, and how they react to our leaving. Her dogs react similar to our dogs; they retreat to their comfort places and hunker down. She mentioned that three of her dogs are inside house dogs and the German Sheppard is an outside dog, sleeping outside. That got me thinking. I use to have a dog, Berek. He was my boys' first dog. He was the dog that had a Dogloo. Berek also lived outside or in the garage. At the time we lived in California and the temperature was temperate. I rationalized at the time that since we lived in a warm area, it was Okay that Berek lived outside. He did fine outside, he could go inside the garage whenever it rained hard, or was too cold. Berek got a number of ear infections and ultimately got heart worms (no monthly medicine in those days). Now we have Max and Beeker and they both live inside with us (much to my chagrin, with all of the dog hair floating around). They live a happy life and I can’t imagine keeping them outside. They enrich my life and that of my partner Brad’s as well. So was it wrong to keep Berek outside? Is it wrong for my coworker to keep some of her dogs inside and one outside? I like this question because it gets me thinking about more than just yes or just no. When my coworker was telling me about her outside dog, she was not talking angry about it. She obviously was not keeping her dog outside because he was bad, too hard to have inside, in fact she described him in loving terms and she said that he got too hot inside and would rather dig a hole in the dirt to get cooler. She also said that her German Sheppard has access to all of the things he needs like water, shade (in the garage), and food. He gets exercise like the rest of the dogs. It sounds to me like he is not disappointed that he is not inside the house and because he is outside he has a view inside through a window. Beeker would love to be outside more often, how ever since he HATES rain, he would want to be inside when it got real wet. Max on the other had would LOVE to be outside when it rains.
We decided that it is awesomely interesting to listen and learn about different families with different ways to incorporate dogs in their families. Just like different kinds of families, all families with dogs have different needs and form their families accordingly. In other words, they make it work. Isn’t it great that with thoughtful motives, we each can get our dogs where we need them and they will be accepting, and may even want the kind of life we offer them. In some ways this leads me to the next question, who chooses whom? Do we choose our dog or do our dogs choose us? Whichever it is, Max still wants one of the Dog Mansions I blogged about yesterday (with ice rink floor), and Beeks wants one with a view of the squirrels thank you very much.