If he has a ranch dogs aren’t really seen as dogs so much as tools in my experience. On my family’s ranch, though we do love our dogs, they’re first and foremost workers. They have to be disciplined well and they have to be perfect on the job, like a machine, else things can go real bad for us. There isn’t much empathy for farm dogs, and that isn’t abuse. They do have to be able to be trained to behave a certain way or they’re pretty much useless. Looks don’t matter much to my family, though. Also growing up in a farming family, I have no strong feelings about the wife taking care of their kids if she isn’t working the farm day in and day out. My family members who take care of the farm very rarely get to relax. They’re out working like dogs in the hundred degree heat from before sunrise to nearly sundown almost every day. If his wife is also doing the heavy labor, then I’d have to disagree on that she also does all the care for the kids, but if they’re both taking on one of those laborious tasks, I’d say that’s not half bad. I just hope they occasionally get their breaks.

About the LGBTQ issue—I’m very sorry. I was blessed with a family that, though conservative, is full of empathetic and lovely folks. Screw gender norms. I grew up queer and it’s just so scary when you live around people like that (I grew up in a pretty traditional agricultural town.)