[postscapes1]

Dogs - I know they are good for humanity with getting their owners for walks, loyalty, etc. But have no idea how people get hooked on them with the picking up hot feces and 25% chance of getting a barking/jumping lunatic that you have to rearrange your life every 6 hours around their bathroom habits...

[sci_prog]

You need to have one to understand the unconditional loyalty, love, and the bond. You come to appreciate it even more once you lose them. Having a dog is the best and worst thing in the world. Just lost our fur baby a week ago...

[wesleyd]

A joke I read recently: "A fortune teller told me I was going to experience the most terrible heartbreak in twelve years time. This totally bummed me out, so I got a dog to cheer me up."

[sneak]

The unconditional loyalty and love is what disgusts me about dogs. Unconditional renders it meaningless and worthless.

[mpalmer]

Don't sell yourself short, I'm sure you could alienate a dog.

[throw_away_623]

It's actually not that unconditional, and is something you have to work for. They will of course be happy that you come from work and show affection as they are social animals, but there are definitely different levels of affection even within a single household.

[autoexec]

Try cats.

[nchagnet]

The same reason people generally don't regret having kids even though the commitment and overall change of your life are much greater than what you described for dogs.

[bananaflag]

Expressing regret about having kids is, in addition, a strong social taboo.

[lnenad]

You're comparing actual humans to a pet?

[whaleidk]

What are you asking? Nchagnet is just acknowledging the existence of people who regret having kids, not making a value comparison

[missingdays]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speciesism

[lnenad]

How is saying that your biological offspring is different to a pet discrimination/unfair treatment?

[MrJohz]

Yeah, a few friends of mine have dogs, and they fall very much into the "nice to visit, wouldn't want to live there" category for me.

[S_Bear]

Other people's dogs are my favorite dogs.

[catcowcostume]

From your description, I will assume you never had a dog as none of what you said happens like that

[socalgal2]

I'm mixed. I always wanted a dog as an adult because I grew up with dogs. But, maybe because it was a different time, the dogs didn't run our lives. Serially, they lived in our backyard. They had access to a dog house in the garage. And we gave them food and played with them. I was also a kid so no idea what my parents went through but I certainly didn't see them fretting over the dog and we rarely if ever took them for a walk.

But now I see any of my friend and family that have dogs re-arrange their lives around them. One friend will never stay out more than 2 hours because "gotta get back to the dogs". So, dinner and a movie is out since that would be more than 2 hours. A family member is similar, gotta get home for the dogs. This family member would also not be ok to check them into a dog hotel for a longer family vacation so we haven't had one in 10 years.

So, seeing examples like these and others, I haven't been able to convince myself to do it. I kept waiting until I had a house with a yard like I grew up in but that never happened.

[brazzy]

You don't pick up your dog's poop? You don't take them out regularly? I mean sure, there are scenarios where these aren't true, but for the vast majority of dog owners, it very much does happen like that.

[lazyasciiart]

I have never had a dog and I have still picked up hot dog poop just from walking a relative’s dog. I assume you have yours toilet trained.