Basically, if you don't know the dog is a dog.
You refuse to let it be one, no getting dirty, playing rough, chasing squirrels...
Making it stay indoors all the time because..OMG its so mean to put them out.

*Coddlers.
*Women who fatten their dogs with "love" aka treats and over feeding.
*Who believe DA or other breed specific traits can be loved away because "its all how you raise them".
*Basically anybody who spoils their dog to the point that it negatively affects the dog or breed image.

This definition....PERFECT.

We should make this a thread of........

You're a fur mommy IF...... here i'll start

You're a fur mommy IF you think just because a dog is on a chain it's cruel, inhumane, or makes them mean.

You're a fur mommy if you call your dog a child.

You're a fur mommy if you call your dog a pittie or a pibble!!! Man I HATE that!!

You're a fur mommy when you give the do a human bed and room of its own AND a television

I'm a male but I gave my pup half a futon as his bed. I took it apart was going to throw the entire thing out before I noticed that oh wow half of its still good. Not big enough for anyone but my son to sit on and he has couches soooo now it's a dog bed.

Every fur mommy believes, your dog sitting on the couch all day, watching sesame street, while being gifted with treats, is love.
Every fur mommy believes, any dog actually working to earn his/her feed, is torturous and inhumane, as your dog is suppose to be, man's best friend after all, not a machine.
Every fur mommy believes, a dog's prey drive, is a result of bad ownership, by forceful trained killing sessions, leaving the dog no other option, but to kill or be killed.
Every fur mommy believes, if the dog is not plumped or obese, you are starving the dog.

Lol I love my dogs prey drive though. I can't move that fast on my own so him making me run with him makes me feel young again and without so many injuries. I just hate when he chases frogs, so afraid he'll catch one and put it in his mouth before I can jerk him back off of it.

Gosh.. I can't believe some people actually believe that shit. I'm really not over some people truly believe this stuff.

I think everyone has pretty much covered it but I don't fully believe some one is a fur mummy for giving their dogs human emotions, a room with a Tv (what's the harm if the dog enjoys it?).. Maybe it is a tad fur mummy but that depends how far they take it. If the dog is still getting everything they actually need, I don't see the issue. Also, I don't see a problem with 'cute' nicknames.

There are 'bad' fur mummy's who take it to the extreme and some who are 'good' who may be fur mummish but aren't extreme like the 'bad' fur mummy's.

These.

I fit many of the "stereotypes" of a furmommy - My dogs have their own couch and futon mattress. My dogs ARE my family. I take a dog anywhere I go.

BUT - My dogs are DOGS. If you forget your dog is a DOG, and treat them like a CHILD... you're a furmommy.



I want to slap the shit out of people who use these terms >.<



Frogs are okay. Toads aren't. http://www.pitbull-chat.com/images/smilies/smile.png unless you live in a climate with naturally occurring Poison Dart Frogs or something LOL but in North America, there aren't any frog species that can poison a dog, and even the toads aren't too bad here

He doesn't like the way frogs taste, so he ends up tossing it. I do not want to get hit by flying frogs heh

This and this alone.

How one chooses to integrate a dog into their home is a matter of personal lifestyle choice. Generally people obtain dogs to enhance their lives in some particular way. For example, I have a dog for the purpose of companionship, so while I am not opposed to outside or tethered dogs...if my dog was not with me...then it wouldn't fulfill my purpose in having it.

I think the problem lies with people who have dogs that do not reconize and appreciate that they are dogs...animals that come with a unique set of hard wired behaviors.

That they communicate using barks, growls, snarls, teeth, that they have to be taught how to live among humans because they don't despite domestication automatically know, that not every act of aggression means a bad dog - it means an untrained dog, that they will revel in the killing and eating of small animals, that they may kill each other if given the right circumstances and the opportunity, that resource and territorial guarding are not bad behaviors they are dog behaviors (again teach them how to live among humans but don't demonize them for acting like a dog)...I could make a longer list.

If you know you have a dog...then if you want it to spend some of it's time sitting on the couch, eating bon bons, keeping you company while you watch Oprah, I think that's fine. At the end of the day you still have a dog and it didn't understand a word of Oprah. The couch was comfy, the food was good, it spent time with it's "pack"...not a bad use of time. Sure it would be healthier for both dog and human to get off their asses and go outside and do something together...but again that's personal choice.

I like your post, Jazzy.

I've seen dogs grieve the loss of a human or other pet. I have seen dogs that are smart enough to understand a few words, pair those words with human body language, and come up with an appropriate response. I have seen dogs just seem sad and come to a human for comfort. I have seen dogs confused, anxious and I have seen them try desperately to figure out what the human wants them to do. So, I do believe they experience feelings and emotion, but not as complex or as well expressed as human feelings.

I have given my dogs a twin size bed of their own in the basement, partly because "why not?" and partly because there are 4 of them and not enough room on the furniture for both them and the people at the same time. No reason they shouldn't have a comfortable place to lay down when we kick em off the couch.

And when I leave for a long period of time I do turn on a TV because I think the sound of humans might make them less lonely.

I am not a fur mommy, though. A dog is a dog. It's a companion, protector, assistant in work (herding, hunting, etc.etc.) and has been bred and refined for those traits over thousands of years by us, so we do have a responsibility to take care of what we created. Of course, that includes understanding and recognizing their natures and needs, physical and mental, as best we can.

You're a fur mommy if...you regularly cook your dogs human style meals and think it's "mean" to train them to do the simplest things like not piss and shit on your bed. *grandma, I'm lookin at you!* My grandmother has fur mommied her dog (Boston Terrier) into a sad state. The poor dog was so coddled it's afraid of everything, has no concept of how to be a dog when outside, has no training to speak of. WTF kinda terrier runs from birds and mice and when put on the lawn to go potty shakes in fear and hides in a bush???

MJJean; the last part of what you said about the Boston, that was quite sad to read. I don't understand how it's mean to train a dog not to pee/shit in your bed/house. What the heck.

I like Jazzy's post as well and yours.

My grandmother used to put the dog, when it was a puppy, on the bed with pillows around it like you do with a baby when it's asleep and you don't want it to roll off. Then she'd leave to run errands or visit. When she came home she would be all shocked and surprised to find pee and poop on her bed as well as pillows torn to pieces. I told her to get a crate and to work on potty training. She told me crating was terribly mean. Yeah, because a painful surgery for a blockage or premature death from said blockage is so much more pleasant for a dog *roll eyes*.

I could ignore the lack of training since it's not pissing and shitting in my house, but the fact that the poor thing barely knows how to walk on grass or any other surface outside of the house and is so used to being carried that it's terrified of the whole world is just above and beyond. It can't be mentally healthy for the dog to live like that. She's not afraid of people, but normal inanimate objects outside of the house terrify her and she just shakes and hides.

Love this post!

I like your post as well!

(And I'm just gonna exclude cooking my Frances her special home made kidney diet from the fur mommy category http://www.pitbull-chat.com/images/smilies/biggrin.png. We did it for 5 years, and ironically it was not chronic kidney failure that finally got her).

Cooking for a medical reason is totally different than just not wanting to feed a kibble or raw diet. My grandma cooks steak and eggs for her Boston at breakfast. She makes the damn thing deli lunch meat sandwiches in the afternoon and shares her dinner with it. Her not healthy for a human, much less a dog, dinner. She put kibble in a bowl daily and can't figure out why the damn dog never eats it.