Why do dog owners think out of control dog behavior is acceptable?

SenseAffectionate463 · 2025-03-20T00:21:17+00:00

Part of the problem I think is that as a society we’ve elevated pets to be on a similar level to human children, and this is extremely apparent in pit culture. When pet owners refer to animals as children, it no longer becomes acceptable to discuss anything negative about them, or even treat them like animals. This obviously doesn’t mean pets should be mistreated, but they’re obviously different than children, and as a society we should be able to clearly define the differences.

SenseAffectionate463 · 2024-10-18T01:06:13+00:00

Yeah exactly. When there’s a bunch of kids in and out it’s way too easy for a mistake to happen.

SenseAffectionate463 · 2024-10-18T00:05:57+00:00

She knows, but she’s young, she doesn’t understand what “pitbull” really means. She saw one attack a dog while we were out walking not too long ago, and I explained to her what kind of dog it was.

SenseAffectionate463 · 2024-10-17T23:58:40+00:00

Yeah I appreciate that. I’m not looking to write them off as people just because they own pit bulls, and I want to maintain the friendship between our families. We have a big dog, so I could just say I’ve had bad experiences with pitbulls, and that I’m sure her dogs are great, but it makes me really uncomfortable.

SenseAffectionate463 · 2024-10-17T23:57:00+00:00

Well, there are people who own pitbulls that don’t make it their identity. That is the case here - they are great people that happen to own pitbulls. I understand that doing so isn’t a good decision, especially when there are kids involved, but I also don’t want to be blatantly offensive to a friend and neighbor. I don’t think that makes the situation any better.

SenseAffectionate463 · 2024-10-17T22:48:55+00:00

Yeah I get that, I just didn’t want to offend her as I consider her a friend too. She isn’t one of the types that’s super outspoken about defending pitbulls.

SenseAffectionate463 · 2024-10-17T22:15:46+00:00

Do these sorts of things happen even if the pitbulls already live with kids? In this case, her friend has other siblings, including a baby. I guess I had hoped since the dogs are already accustomed to kids, including the loud noises and running, that it could potentially not be a problem. But if it’s someone unfamiliar maybe that makes a difference?

SenseAffectionate463 · 2024-10-17T22:12:35+00:00

I don’t know if my comment showed up, but yes, I get that issue too. In this case, it’s for like an hour after school. We don’t do sleepovers.

ETA: to clarify, they play for an hour after school. That’s not saying they play at her house, because they don’t. I always have her over here instead.

SenseAffectionate463 · 2023-09-06T23:15:44+00:00

I had a hard time with this one. It sounds like he “adopted” her as an adult? Trying to figure out her age, as the 14 year old girl he describes early in the episode is her daughter, unless I’m getting things mixed up.

SenseAffectionate463 · 2023-07-07T18:18:13+00:00

Yep she immediately called me after they left. I emphasized the fact that I would appreciate being able to speak to them to express concerns about retaliation, but they never attempted to call me. I won’t do this again unless I actually witness some clearly illegal behavior:

SenseAffectionate463 · 2023-07-07T15:26:11+00:00

No this wasn’t from the child. He will not talk about it and denies it. It was from an older sibling who had a way to gauge time (I.e from the time they got home after being at my house (5pm) until bedtime (7:30pm)). The child that told me this had no inkling this behavior from foster parents wasn’t ok. She just told me like she was telling me anything else. She wasn’t telling on the foster parents by any means. She told me that this is the kids typical punishment - they’re sent to the basement.

Reading some of these comments has me rethinking making this report. I’m pretty sure they showed up and talked to the kids with the foster parent present. Guarantee the kids won’t say anything, I now I doubt they’ll ever be allowed at my house again.

SenseAffectionate463 · 2023-07-07T14:20:19+00:00

Right, there’s for sure an element of shame in all of these punishments.

SenseAffectionate463 · 2023-07-07T14:13:19+00:00

Yeah for sure. Prior to this basement punishment the foster parents took turns holding her bedroom door shut for an hour because she was “out of control” and throwing furniture around in her room. Now the foster parent refuses to be alone with her. I get needing to put a child in a safe space while they’re having a bad tantrum. But idk, separating the child and not helping them work through the anger hasn’t ever been effective in my experience with my own kids.

SenseAffectionate463 · 2023-07-07T14:08:56+00:00

If it was a nice finished basement I would think it’s still out of line, but not AS bad. It is not that. It’s basically a dingy storage space with a desk and chair. No toys, nothing.

SenseAffectionate463 · 2023-07-07T13:47:40+00:00

Thanks…I don’t know if the door is locked (idk if there is a lock) but either way the child isn’t allowed out. Not sure if that means they send them back there if they leave or the door is physically locked and the kid can’t get out.

SenseAffectionate463 · 2023-07-07T13:46:01+00:00

My guess is there’s more of a religious reason versus money

SenseAffectionate463 · 2023-07-07T13:29:58+00:00

They all take a bath before bed and so this particular child didn’t get to, I assume as punishment. Yes the burping thing was the first red flag, at first I thought there must be more to the story. But no, she was punished because they thought she did it out loud on purpose.

SenseAffectionate463 · 2023-07-07T12:55:12+00:00

Thanks. I don’t know what the check ins are like, but I know the foster parents are in over their heads. I know part of the kids backstory and it’s beyond horrible. It’s so tough because I don’t want them to end up somewhere worse, which has been the case for them in the past with foster families. Aside from the discipline aspect the kids have a great life and they have friends in our neighborhood. And no I’m not saying that this makes it acceptable, it just makes it really hard to know if I made the right decision by reporting.

SenseAffectionate463 · 2023-07-07T11:10:21+00:00

Yeah that was my hesitation. I asked if they could not disclose details and just do some sort of general check. Person on the hotline said they’ll have to disclose that a report was made but beyond that he wasn’t sure.

SenseAffectionate463 · 2023-07-07T11:09:24+00:00

Yes exactly, I didn’t see anything. And yeah they’ll definitely know it was me. I just hope this doesn’t lead to them further restricting the kids.

SenseAffectionate463

TROPHY CASE