If you live in an apartment, just don’t get one
Reasoning edit: pets, especially cats, will leave a smell all over furniture. Cleaning becomes an even worse chore due to the fur. They also require “house training” in order to not chew/claw/destroy most stuff that’s lying around the house.
I agree - I think it’s mean that people keep dogs, for instance, when they’re leaving them unattended for most of the day. Personally I wouldn’t get a dog unless I had family, a house and a garden for it. Cats have a bit more leeway but I would still want them to have a nice neighbourhood or gardens to explore.
Of course a dog should be activated physically and have attention, but it’d also be cruelty to keep it awake and active all day long.
Dogs sleep a lot. They need 12-14 hours every day, and even up to 20 hours for puppies or old dogs.
This fits very well with being left unattended while the kids are at school for instance.
It’s better to leave it unattended for one long stretch than several shorter ones daily, because dogs do keep track of time based on routines. Coming in and out several times, or taking the dog along randomly is more stressful for it, because it breaks the routine.
They’re very adaptable and teachable, so many things are possible, but it should definitely be taught to chill out by itself, so it’s capable of this when you actually need it to be alone for some reason.
Thats the main argument for me. I keep hearing neighbors dogs barking alone all day, it seems so sad to me…
And I can’t tell if its a historical norm or if we’ve essentially seen a huge increase in the number of lonely pets. I get the feeling that having a family pet is part of the american ‘white picket fence’ package, but that was conceived in a time when married women were usually SAHM - in which case dogs at home are constantly kept company.
I’ve often said to people that pets should be shared with neighbours, so they can stay as active as poasible and not be too much of a time drain on one family (E.G some dogs need to walk twice a day, or run once a day) but people don’t generally seem interested in a pet’s happiness.