I don't Share

Well, I do share, but not very well at least when it comes to beds.  I am a Bed Hog by nature and when I find myself sharing a bed with a friend, sibling, or pet, I sleep on my side facing away and wake up every hour or so. This being said why is it that I find myself willingly sharing my bed to a bigger bed hog then me, a 80 pound poodle-pit.  Okay she is not really 80 pounds but when she is in the middle of the bed she is impossible to move, and she is not really a poodle we just call her that jokingly because she doesn't fit in with people's preconceived notions of a pit-bull. People treat her like she is a big scary tough dog, when the truth couldn't be farther away.  She is a baby, she peed on the vet because he scared her, and she gets her feeling hurt when people yell and will sulk around like she is so mistreated.  She whines to be tucked in, and she gets beat up by the cat, and our Jack Russell.    She is a happy dog, she loves people, and she has no clue that she is too big to be lapdog.  She really is a good dog, not sure exactly what she is good for but I love her, and I trust her.  

 I am taking a huge deviation from the original intent of the blog post but I have had several breeds of dogs through my childhood and short adulthood.  Doberman, Rotwillers, Labs,  Jack Russells, poodles, pitbulls, mutts, not to mention the dogs I don't remember because I was too young.  They have all been good dogs, and the pit bulls are some of my fondest memories.  When I was around 8 or so, We had a Pit Bull female named Oatmeal, and  she had recently had puppies.  My granny told me to stay away from the puppies because all animals can understandable be protective of their puppies.  Off course I didn't listen and I went into the dog house and played with the puppies.  Oatmeal let me, didn't growl or anything and was content just to watch me play and be petted.  My granny about had a heart attack when she found me.  But all was well, I was not hurt and neither was any of the puppies.  I think that says something about a dog, but I am not saying that you should let your kids go play unsupervised with young pups.  It could have turned tragic, but luckily I knew how to handle pups and animals, and Oatmeal knew me.

It bugs me to see people buying young kid animals,  Kids and animals can go great together, but you have to train the kid to know how to hold animals, and not to hurt animals. In other words don't buy your two year old a cat so they can carry it by two legs and pull its ears.   The animal of course needs to be trained and consistently trained too.  You can't allow it to do one thing today and then not allow them to do it tomorrow.

I could probably go into a pet ownership guide but there are plenty of good ones out there.  But it all comes down to this Responsible Ownership, consistent training, and love.