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All the things I wish I knew before I got my first ever puppy!
Why all the hate?!?: Image
So there used to be this saying, 'if you've got nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all'... but then the internet came along and that all went out the window!
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So as I mentioned in a couple of articles, I have a love/hate relationship with the Facebook Golden Retriever pages. Sometimes they’re a god send if you have a question or you are unsure about something. Other times I would genuinely rather go swimming in a pool of great white sharks with a cut on my leg than have anything to do with them.
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For me, opinion is opinion, and fact is fact. No opinion can be wrong, because it’s OPINION, so unless someone states their opinion as a fact, they are doing nothing wrong.
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It’s my opinion that Golden Retrievers are the best dogs, that’s not me saying that that’s right and a fact, that’s just me saying MY opinion.
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However on these forums, a select few people seem to be completely blindsided by this, and in their view, their opinion is fact, and if your opinion doesn’t match theirs, then you are wrong and they will insult you on a personal level for that.
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Obviously, if someone said ‘I think we should all beat our dogs up’ then yes, I’d say fine, they deserve it…BUT, if someone has gone through the effort of joining a group, and taken the time to ask for help or opinions on an issue, then the chances are they want the best for their dog and they shouldn’t be given abuse for asking the question.
What prompted me to have this little rant was a post today about harnesses. I’ve already done a post about harness vs collar and I’m still Switzerland. Both have pros and cons, some people prefer collars, some people prefer harnesses simple as… Well according to this post, apparently not…
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The first comment (referring to people who use harnesses)…
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You can’t fix stupid.
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I’ll leave it at that one because the other comments if reposted were relating directly to other people and I don’t think it’s fair to the people they were insulting to further post them.
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Another one I saw recently was another holier than thou breeder who was shaming some poor guy who she saw over the park for using a ‘cheap nylon lead’, she then went on to say that she’d never allow someone ‘like that’ to have one of her puppies.
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Firstly I thought, well to be honest, with that kind of attitude, I’d rather get a puppy elsewhere, I’m not sure how you can judge how someone looks after their dog based on a lead! Cooper’s lead is nylon, and so were 90% of the leads in the pet store- so yeah, I guess I’m a terrible pet owner!
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Then how about this for another hum dinger, a breeder had a complete meltdown over the fact that someone decided to get their puppy vaccinated with the L2 vaccine, which they told them NOT to get. They then went on to ask how they should 'proceed in dealing with this person'…
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I was a bit in awe of this post and I felt really badly for the owners of the puppy who were about to get a mouthful from the breeder. Thankfully the response was very much along the lines of what I was thinking…
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Once you have sold something, be it a car or a puppy, you have no say over what the owner chooses to do with it. I absolutely love my cars and when I sell them I want to sell them to a good home, I can’t however police how the new owners drive them, once they’re signed over to them, I lose that right. I know a dog and a car are not directly comparable, but hopefully you see what I mean.
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The family’s local vet had recommended the vaccination to them, so they did what I bet a lot of dog owners would do- listen to the vets advice! I appreciated every bit of advice that Cooper’s breeder gave to me, but when it came to anything medical, I’m going to trust someone who’s studied animals for 6-7 years over a breeder. Just because someone had 10 kids and they’d chosen not to vaccinate them, I wouldn’t take their view on vaccinations over a doctor.
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Then, a few days ago on the same page, someone posted asking for advice for their friend who had just got a rescue dog from Romania. The lady explained that the dog was having some tummy issues and asked for advice on what food would help. The first comment from someone...
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'I hope she has back up from the importers when it goes wrong and it doesnt become one more our rescues have to sort out.'
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Thankfully a lot of people jumped to this woman's defence. Including someone who worked doing home checks in the UK for European rescue centres...
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What an awful thing to say. All animals are deserving of a happy life. I understand there are scammers out there but there are lots of legitimate charities too. What the lady has explained is normal...
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As a volunteer home checker I do home checks for uk and European charities. Sadly a lot of the uk charities dont bother to do home checks. And the 512 rescues the organisation I volunteer for require that they have full back up for life. Maybe you should do a little more research?
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I'm so glad that she did end up getting helpful advice in the end. Especially as she was asking for a friend. The thing that really gets me online is everyone assumes your situation. The friend who she was asking for may have been Romanian and had just moved here with a rescue... who knows?! But regardless, it's someone's personal choice where they get a dog from and as long as they're doing their best to give it a good home, I don't think anyone should be judging them!
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I’m sure given a few more days of looking through social media I could find so many more examples of people been shamed over totally unnecessary things, but I’ll leave it here for now before I get too het up.
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Moral of the story, STOP JUDGING EVERYONE, and appreciate that OPINION IS NOT THE SAME AS FACT!
Why all the hate?!?: Sports Articles
Why all the hate?!?: Sports Articles
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