I’d rather dream of pets. :)

Most of us have to make due with showing up to an important meeting naked, getting lost, and forgetting to study for the big final exam dreams.

I wonder how many of the people who wept over the loss of a pet to tainted pet food would have passed Jorie’s test to be a good enough to have a pet at all?

I cannot help but be glad she’s retired. That’s one less “people are bad” shelter worker to get out of the way of of the change to a no-kill nation.

Here’s what I see that makes you a bad team player:

No acknowledgement that anyone elses point has legitimacy. Working to get a goal done requires you to LISTEN as well as to speak. It requires compromise. It means accepting that sometimes 98% is good enough.

You seem to think you have all the answers. Wonderful. But everyone, including you can learn new things. But you have to LISTEN.

No acknowledgement that your comments are incredibly caustic and sarcastic. You get more done in life by making friends than making enemies. If you don’t know how you are coming across, then you have some serious self-perception issues. You can be the smartest person in the world, but no one wants to play with a bully.

Contempt for your client. We all have to deal with people we consider our intellectual or moral inferiors. Guess what - they are still people. If animals are entitled to a minimum of respect, so are people. And your dislike, distrust, and disrespect come through loud and clear.

If you want to get things done in life, learning to work with others (even if they really aren’t very smart) and learning how to listen and compromise are key skills.

I’m guessing that you have found yourself in numerous positions where you don’t fit in with people very well. That a lot of your dislike of other people comes from an inability to see yourself as others see you. So when you get negative feedback from people, instead of evaluating it objectively, you immediately knee-jerk into a ‘people are bad attitudes.’

I hope you will respect my expertise in this area - I’ve been evaluating employee performance and behavior for 20+ years. I’ve met numerous good people like yourself, who like those errant dog owners, want to do the right thing but tend to be untrainable to looking at their behaviors objectively.

Yes, training is certainly available that can improve the relationships between one’s pets- but given the fact that a dog can easily (and quickly) cause serious bodily harm to a small animal (such as a cat) if he is so inclined, why would you take the risk? IMO, safety *must* come first. Anything less would be grievously irresponsible.

If the dog was incompatible with Ellen’s family, he is better off with a family better suited to his needs and quirks. If his presence infringes on the health and well-being of the resident cats, he is better off in a family without cats. It was a poor match. Personally, I respect the decision of Ellen and her partner to recognize that and address it, rather than making the selfish choice to condemn both Iggy and their cats to a lifetime’s worth of a less-than-ideal (and potentially dangerous) living arrangement simply because they could not bear to part with him.

Isn’t it in everyone’s best interest for a pet to have a home that suits him?

“This is what I find amusing. Just because someone is behaving in a way that I know to be unethical (in terms of the dog), that doesn’t mean I judge them.”

What I find amusing is that you don’t think you are judging someone, when you “know” them to be acting in an unethical manner. Isn’t the definition of ethics the judgement of right & wrong, good & evil, responsibility & irresponsibility, based on social norms and customs? It is totally a judgement call. Perhaps you have a very strick idea of what is right & wrong (with no grey area in between), and to me that makes one “judgemental and sanctimonious.” Most of your posts have been preaching (to a blog frequented by animal lovers no less) that most pet owners are unknowingly or knowingly causing their animals pain. What kind of response were you hoping for? Many people here also have quite a few years of experience in placing animals in new homes (whether it be rescue/shelter/breeder) and just don’t see things from the same point of view. I completely agree with Gina’s article that sometimes you can take a chance on placing an animal in home that might not be perfect on paper, and have it end up being perfect for that animal. If I have a really strong feeling about someone (either good or bad), I trust that over what words on a piece of paper say. If you call that judgemental, so be it. My judgement hasn’t yet let me (or any animal in my care) down.

Now, this one is downright funny.

(Don’t worry, Jorie; you needn’t think I’m bothering any further to attempt to converse with you further, since you don’t want that. Just noting this bit with amusement.)

Since I don’t believe there’s been such a proposal around here, I don’t think we’re in the same area. However, if there were such a proposal here, I’d oppose it, but not for the reason you so generously suppose. I’d oppose it because, while I’d love for there to be more safe, fenced off-leash dog parks in the area (and there are proposals for more; we’ll see), I do still want to be able to walk my little dog—who should not be off-leash in an unfenced area; she’s not remotely ready for that—without worrying about other people’s off-leash dogs.

The solution to the problem of not enough dog parks is to push for the creation of more dog parks—not to further complicate the lives of people whose dogs, for whatever reasons, are not, or are not yet, good candidates for being off-leash in an unfenced area.

As someone with a few years of experience behind me, I can readily attest “you catch more flies with honey, than with vinegar.” I suppose the controversy erupts when one is not trying to catch flies at all, but to describe the problems common to fly catching.

Have you found that this mode of “describing the problems” is productive for you in promoting useful discussion? Or do you generally find yourself confronted by hordes of stupid and hostile people when you “describe the problems” ?

“Do you tell all these people what you REALLY think of them?”

This is what I find amusing. Just because someone is behaving in a way that I know to be unethical (in terms of the dog), that doesn’t mean I judge them.

I know that might be hard for some EXTREMELY judgmental and sanctimonious people to comprehend.(!)

If I understand what you’re hinting at, you’re imagining that I have to deal with someone I consider to be an irresponsible dog owner, and then wonder if I tell them “what I think of them”…as though I make personal judgments based on their actions.

No. I don’t. And what I mean by that is, I don’t judge them. I may not like their actions. That doesn’t mean they’re not otherwise perfectly nice people. In fact, most dog owners are perfectly nice people. I’d rather be with a bunch of dog owners than politicians.

No matter who “nice” someone is, it’ll never make yelling at their dog, or leaving it alone for hours and hours every day, “okay”.

Maybe it’s the dog trainer in me. When I get an aggressive dog, I don’t hate it when it acts out. I don’t think, “What an awful dog.” In fact, I think, “Poor dog. Never had a person to show it how to be successful in human society.”

I don’t allow the behavior to continue, though. And I set about ensuring that behavior stops.

Just because I don’t like a behavior, that doesn’t mean I revile and vilify the entire individual. No one is all good or all bad. (Not even me, if anyone here can believe that.) (gack) Only a fool throws the baby out with the bath water.

So, to answer your question, I don’t “think” anything in particular “of them”. If I see them doing something that harms a dog (physically or emotionally), I will tell them though. Failure to do so would be just as unethical (and cowardly).

No, she didn’t. She said the people doing it are not evil, and their behavior can be changed by education rather than by punitive measures, because they want to treat their dogs properly and train them correctly.

For the record, I have never treated anyone like “ignorant trash”. Your comments are insulting, to say the least.

You’ve been treating everyone here like ignorant trash, and displaying the same attitude in your comments about all pet owners.

Right back at ya’. I was always known for my generosity and patience, especially with novice dog owners. Should I have treated novice dog owners like I’m being treated here? Just wonderin’.

The attitude you came in with is simply being reflected back at you, after attempts at normal discussion failed. You might consider trying a different approach.