Bad dog owner
As some of you may know, I have an older sister who's frequently out of town for weeks at a time due to her work. She owns two pets: a dog and a cat; she can take the cat with her but the dog is much too big (according to her now) and so he gets left here after she pretty well raised him out there with her from a puppy to a young adult dog.
Now sometimes, one of her friends comes by to stay for a few days when she's passing through town, and she has a little pug she brings with her. When my sister is not here- the two dogs get along just fine. But the instant my sister comes home- her dog is far less than tolerant of the pug in his household and they both act so befuddled and upset when he snaps with full intent hurt the pug. They put all the blame on him and handle it accordingly.
Here's the full scope of the situation they seem to be rather blind to:
My sister comes home, greets her dog- then proceeds to utterly ignore him unless it's to yell at him or throw him outside. She hardly ever plays with him unless we nag her into it. She will talk and play with the pug, however- quite often and in full sight of her dog. As a shining example of that- yesterday she threw the dog outside so the pug could be safely fed; then she started sitting right in front of those big glass doors that lead to the patio (and which the dog was looking in through, hoping to be let back in) and played with the pug, then yanked the curtain shut on realizing the dog was looking in.
Naturally, of course, it can't be my sister's fault that the dog is getting jealous, oh no. It's all his fault and he really should know better and accept that she doesn't want to spend any attention on him unless she has to. And since he's so poorly behaved, she wants to get him a shock collar to 'better train' him. Then she gets mad when we inform her we won't touch that collar or let it be used on him so long as we're here to see it.
Y'know, last time I looked? Deliberately using electrical shocks on a person to enforce a certain behavior was considered torture. How, exactly, does it differ when used on an animal? That somehow magically makes it right when the issue isn't even him, it's her?
Said pug has also been supposedly trained via a shock collar. He still makes messes on the floor, jumps in people's laps and gets in their faces (even when they're trying to eat), doesn't listen to a single thing his owner says if he isn't wearing the collar and fears letting anyone in close if he knows they have something in their hand.
The dog barks to let you know he wants out to use the bathroom, will sit on the floor and hope for scraps rather than trying to flat out get at them, and generally doesn't jump though he loves to snuggle up to the people he likes. Usually he's content with dropping his head on their lap or crawling under their feet like a living footrest when they're sitting. His one bad habit is jumping when he thinks he might get a treat; but that's a habit he's being broken of by proper training, not by torture. He also doesn't fear to let us near him and in fact seeks out contact for petting, including realizing we don't always want to use our hands to pet him for whatever reason- and that some of our guests are afraid of him because he's so big- so he tends to stay close to the floor so as not to frighten them/so we can pet him with our feet while our hands are occupied.
But because he's getting upset at being ignored in favor of the pug by his owner, he's suddenly a bad dog who has to be shock collared into behaving.
Anyone else seeing something a little off about that situation?
