After reading this thread and the other. "Why do people critisize" I felt tempted to post the following. I suppose I am more fortunate in a sense that I presently live on a very large piece of land(20 acres) and I have dog. I have lived in suburbia like most people on ordinary housing blocks and had pet dogs from time to time, and like most never truly understood dogs. The dog I have at the present time is a Bitza and just one of many I have had. It can go where it likes , whenever it likes, whatever takes its fancy. It goes on doggy adventures from time to time but never very far away. Generally speaking it stays within 100 m from 'base camp'. It understands many vocal commands. It is never tied up. It does not do its doo-doos anywhere near the house or garden. It totally trusts myself and my wife. I could take a flying leap at it if it was lying on the verendah. and wouldn't move a muscle. Thats because it has never been kicked or hit and doesn't expect to be. It lives a completely natural life as any dog should do. It visits the dog next door occasionally. It has a bucket of dog biscuits that it can eat at any time it feels peckish. It does not gorge itself although it has the oppurtunity to do so. It knows it gets a good tea at about 5.00 pm every day. and has always plenty of sweet rainwater to drink. When it has pups from time to time, it does not avail itself of a nice mudbrick shed with plenty of cubbyholes, it prefers to go out quite naturally into the bush and have them there. Its favourite spot is under the tree roots of a very large tree in a gully about 30 m from the house. It usally digs a depression in the dry dust earth. I don't like it to do this simply because I am a human and not a dog and am used to hygiene and cleanlyness. When the dog drops her pups in these circumstances, the pups are covered in a wet membrane which gets totally covered in dry muck and dust and the dog carefully eats the membrane, muck and all, and licks the pups clean. As far as I am concerned the dog is doing what comes naturally so I leave her alone. Some survive and some don't. If for some reason she needs help she will come to me whining and lead me down to the pups. I then try to figure out if she wants to move them to the shed or not. Which is usually the case. Another thing I have discovered is that dogs do not like eating out of deep bowls. They do not like getting their nose stuffed up with food or having to bury it in sloppy offerings. They much prefer to take their food on a flat surface. Hopefully I am not being to anthropomorphic, they are just observations and things I have learned observing dogs in a relatively natural environment. You may well ask what the point of this post is. Well it's quite simple. If I had to live in a town or city in the future there is no way that I would have a pet dog. Suburbia is no place for dogs. Period. Oh sure. we've all been brainwashed with pets over the centuries. We buy our dogs and stick them in little back yards and pretend we we are doing the best for them. These little hell holes where they have to crap and pee. They don't like it believe me. When dogs have the choice they poo elsewhere. If they could talk they would tell you they want out of there. I don't know what thought process's occur in a dogs head but I have seen their natural behaviour or what appears to be. I am not critisizing any one here because I have done exactly the same with pet dogs in the past nor am I saying don't have dogs in towns and cities, because people will continue to buy pets for whatever reason. As for dogs escaping bobthedj, all I can say is that if you gave the dog the love and attention that you appear to say you did, then the dog will at least call your place its home base and should return providing it gets through all the pitfalls of wandering around Accy. If it was totally peed off then you won't see your dog again , unless of course someone catches it and returns it to you. Back yards are prisons for dogs and when you take them for a walk It's like supervised weekend leave.
Those are my thoughts and observations. I am not an animal liberationist but I know the full meaning of the phrase. 'it's a dogs life' There is a lot more I could say but I think I have made my point.
