Owners and Neighbors

For my first post, I'm re-posting a comment that I made in Facebook regarding Owners and their neighbors. We discuss on what it means to be an owner and the responsibility while also giving an in sight to neighbors who are not dog lovers what happens to dogs that get taken away.

Came across a few articles, forums, news and personal experiences regarding neighbors' dissatisfaction when one owns a dog/dogs and wanted to give my own two-cents.
Most of the problem occurs when the dog(s) are smelly, noisy, destructive, breaking out the house and chasing passby-ers, parasites and so on. They complain to the Newspapers and Authorities (Majlis Perbandaran), in the hope of getting rid of the dogs. I don't side with all dog owners, knowing many are irresponsible and want dogs for fun, but here's a little trivia before you decide your quest to get rid of your neighbor's dog:
1. When a dog is confiscated, they go to a pound or an organization that houses unwanted dogs. Everyday thousands of dogs are in these places, and only a small minority gets the chance to get a new home
2. As these organizations are not funded and rely on donations, they can't keep all of them. For dogs that have no hope to have a new home, they are put to sleep (which means dead for those who don't know)
3. For those that are "lucky", there might end up wondering the streets (not neutered or spayed), mating endlessly, causing even more stray dogs
4. Worst case, irresponsible owners moan about the last dog, after a few weeks gets a new one (which most likely will come from pet stores), restarting the whole process.
5. Most non-dog owners don't realize the security benefits of having a dog in the neighborhood; they are alarm when it comes to suspicious people (some can detect a human body's chemical works), alerting not only the owner, but the neighbors as well.
6. Studies prove that a child that is exposed to dogs have a higher chance of getting lesser allergies (Google it up)

For dog owners, if you don't know what you need to do as a responsible owner, you shouldn't have gotten it, but now that you have, you need to cope up with the work.
1. Dogs have to be cleaned/bathed at least once in 2 weeks (why not every week? Bcos they need to develop oil that is good for their skin, if u clean them once a week, u wash away the oil)
2. If you bring them for walks, wipe them to ensure they don't catch ticks during the walk
3. Poo is supposed to be picked up, packaged and go to the trash bin. Don't leave them on the street, regardless it's on the grass or roads. No one likes crap in front of their house or under their tyres. Don't wanna pick it up with your hands? Get clippers or paper to pick it up. NEVER leave it there.
4. Pee you can't do much, but try to wash up if possible, cos after the sun shines directly on pee, there will be a stench
5. Train your dog not to bark at every small thing (cats, birds and so on), socialize them to meet people, so that they would not be suspicious at every passer by, only those that are suspicious, they have a natural instinct on those types.
6. Train your dog to listen to you (obedience training), never let them off leash when you're outside, and minimize risk of letting them break out of your home. Once they get the habit, it's hard to train it out of them.
7. Ticks are a common problem with dogs, make sure to get proper medication for maintenance and prevention (ie Frontline). These bugs have strong will and can survive up to 6 months without food. They can hide in small holes or cracks in the house, so maintain your house to be clean. Neighbors don't like it when they see ticks in their houses, guaranteed.
8. Groom your dogs, if you know your dogs are gonna shed, comb them frequently, gather the fur and those go into the trash, don't leave the fur around, if it flies to neighbors place, neighbors aren't gonna gather them to make a pillow
9. Take your dogs for walks, 20 to 30 mins a day is good enough if you have a busy schedule. They have to utilize their energy, if not, can't blame them for being destructive. Imagine you being energetic and you have to stay at home everyday on your mom's orders without any reason, you'd go crazy too right?
10. Respect people that don't like dogs (be it religion, allergies, bad experiences), you like dogs, doesn't mean your dog can do whatever it wants and get away with it. There are official laws that can take away your dogs if you don't follow them.
11. You get a dog, it's for life (at least the dog's life), you can't do a good job, then don't get one. But if you have already gotten a dog, don't give up, don't send it away thinking that it will get a good home, more often than not, it doesn't go to a good home, and the dog's fate is unknown. Change your lifestyle for the dog, adapt to a dog owner's life, don't give up because u're too busy, u can't have time, u can't give enough love, that's just bullshit, period. Once you get a dog, you have an obligation to it, it's not law but it's your responsibility as a human being. Unless you're dying, I don't see any good reason you're giving up on a dog. Even when you die, the dog might hang out at your grave (real case in Germany). If you're one of those that give up on your dogs just because you're busy, to be honest, you're nothing but trash to me.

Just my two-cents, leave your comments if I left out anything. There's no one formula to having a dog, you just need to live the life and learn from it. You can always share your own experiences with new owners or future owners, to help them adapt to the enjoyable life :)