About Pet Peeves
ABOUT YOU!
Ten years ago, my husband and I bought a dog. Because of family allergy problems we needed a non-shedding breed, and, because our son and his wife were soon to start a family, we wanted a dog that was good with children. Thus we choose a miniature schnauzer. He was the cutest little puppy – mostly black, with bushy white eyebrows and a very serious face. He was excellent with children and still is. He was housebroken. He doesn’t make me sneeze. What a perfect dog!
Well, not quite.
Wofgang is very protective. If you come to our house, you have to be very brave and stand there while he barks at you until he decides he likes you. Once he decides that, you have a friend for life. But I can tell you this, until then he can be annoying and scary – and loud!
Here’s my question for our ABOUT YOU! Wednesday. When you are dealing with house pets, what annoys you the most? Maybe it’s barking, maybe shed hair, maybe licking, jumping, uninvited lap-sitting . . .
For me, the most annoying thing is when MY dog is annoying!
What’s your Pet Peeve about pets?
Blessings,
Sue (Thank you for helping me compile a data notebook about quirks and preferences. I appreciate the help as I develop characters for my novels!)
My biggest pet peeve really has to do with dog owners. When the dog is too inquisitive about my private smell, or wants to crawl all over me, I think the owner of the dog should make the dog be quiet. It should at the least sit down and respect my space.
I’m afraid Wolfgang would never learn to like me because I wouldn’t tolerate being barked at beyond the initial greeting. LOL. Having lived with and trained dogs for 35 years, I’ve always like to have the ‘alpha’ position right from the start. But I do sympathize; that natural protective instinct lends itself to the watchdog role. And Mini Schnauzers don’t seem to know they’re mini at all, do they?
As for your question… there’s not much that annoys me about our pets. Well… maybe the drinking habits of our current Labrador. He never swallows his last mouthful of water before walking away from his bowl so it dribbles out of his mouth for the whole length of the room. If I wore shoes in the house maybe I wouldn’t care, but in bare or sock feet, finding the trail of water isn’t a welcome experience, although I guess it’s a small price to pay for his other more lovable qualities.
Oh, the water torture! We used to have an English Springer years ago who did that. He was/is my favorite dog of all times!
You’re right, Jean. I know that my dogs’ bad habits are because of my lack of discipline. I finally took our schnauzer to doggie kindergarten. He was a perfect scholar from the moment we entered the drive-way of the trainer’s home until we left. Then he reverted immediately to old ways. My fault I know!