Quote: "a gaurd dog?... buy a machine gun sissy..."
bwahahaha. This would do the same job and be legal.
http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/search.do?productCode=ROODEF
Quote: "The letting the dog loose on the streets though - I'm almost sure that's a no-no, especially with a dog that gets limited human contact. "
The first time I saw it in our back garden I think I crapped my pants!
It's probably really friendly and would love to come over and say hello, but it's too big to risk it. It stood about 10 foot from the kitchen window, staring in for about 30 seconds then legged it.
Just to ellaborate on where I stand on this though - it's not keeping the dog outside. That was a poor choice of title really. I don't have a problem with a dog being kept outside, so long as its a breed that can be comfortable in the environment (don't keep a skinny racing dog outside in Alaska for example!
). It's just the crying.
I'm pretty sure in the wild dogs don't spend all day crying, because they're pack animals and would be in a pack with company. I know my parents dogs don't spend all day crying because people are not out for more than 5 hours at a time, and they get 3 walks a day. The dogs live downstairs (can't go upstairs), and whenever I'm home, sometimes I don't come downstairs in the morning until late afternoon. Normally by that time they've been on their own sinse 8:00am. I very rarely him them cry/moan. They just lie there patiently for someone to come home. This is the same when we had one aswell.
The only time the dogs whine/moan is when they know it's time for a walk or it's leading up to dinner time. And that's more excitement as they're normally bounding about the place - not sorrowfully sitting in the corner.
To me, it's not natural for a dog to be chained all the time. It violates its natural instinct for freedom. I'd say by keeping it indoors, we're violating the same freedom, but by walking the dog 3 times a day, we counteract that violation. If you chain a dog, but walk it often and let it off, I'd say that goes someway to counteracting it aswell. Similarly, it's unnatural for a dog to be on it's own. It needs other dogs, or human contact. This is so obvious (you just gotta watch a few wildlife programmes) for the way dogs try to please their owner, try to cuddle up to them, nuzzle them, and bound about like crazy fools when you're around!
I've never known a dog that doesn't greet his owner when they come in the front door.
It's subjective, I suppose, to what degree you think this is true, and also how much you care. It's simply that a dog that spends all day and night barking and crying to me has a low quality of life. Inside or outside. There's another guy down the street that has two MAAAHOOOOSIVE dogs which he keeps outside, but he's a mechanic. He spends all day at the front of his house working on cars and the dogs plod around and watch the world go by. They seem really content as their master is about and they have each other. They're not suffering the solitary confinement.
