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Originally Posted by SuzyLee 
I know it is hard for some die-hard dog lovers to get it
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No, trust us, we get it. We've all got kids and we've all got huge demands on our time. But it hurts my heart to see people hating their dogs for things that are so ridiculously solvable--at their hearts, in terms of what they need, dogs are very simple creatures; meet those needs and they are generally a joy to live with. And they are living creatures, extremely intelligent living creatures, who are tortured when they cannot live with their pack (their family).
The person who wrote that the answers for dogs are often the same as for toddlers was very correct. The dog is dirty? No duh. You would be too if you never got bathed; bathe the dog! The dog sheds? Switch his diet and GROOM! The dog chews things? He's bored, probably desperately bored. Exercise (this is the huge piece missing from most dogs' lives), provide better toys. The dog is nuts inside the house? It's because he's so desperately overjoyed to be in the house because he's been tortured living outside and alone. Move him inside, get him a crate or a safe room, exercise him.
MDC is all about empowering moms to do better for their families--this is where you've GOT to get empowered to put these relatively easy things into place to make your dog a lovely animal to be with.
It isn't a money thing; it isn't a training thing; it's a respect thing--on both sides. You become the type of owner that makes the dog act in respectful ways--such as not charging through doors, not taking your food or the kids' food, not being obnoxious--and you respect the dog for what he or she is, a climax predator who MUST be inside with his or her pack and whose body was built to go 20 miles a day. Every dog, from pug to poodle, is like owning Lance Armstrong or Laird Hamilton. If you put Lance and Laird in your living room, fed them hamburger helper every meal, and let them walk around your block once a day, pretty soon they would dismantle your living room and build a stairclimber and a treadmill from your drywall and your couch.
That's exactly what dogs do. They wake up every morning with an evolutionary need to travel long distances and work for meat, bone, and blood, but we get furious at them when they build treadmills (eat the couch, dig through the linoleum) and work for their food (open cupboards, steal bread), and we feed them crap and don't give them what they need to stay healthy.
Again, nobody has to be in love with their dog. But what I am reading, over and over, is not that you hate your dog; you hate the static that surrounds a bored and uncared-for dog. You, ANYONE, *can* remove that static; it's not "real" and it's not the normal personality of your dog.
I understand. We spent a long time retraining our doxie. He had developed severe separation anxiety and literally destroyed the flooring in almost every room of our new house. And many other destructive behaviors. I now enjoy him again, but it wasn't overnight.
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