Quote:
Originally Posted by livingdustmops  I sure would like to see the statistic's of how many college students still have their dogs after college...I doubt very few from my experience with rescue and a University town. While it can happen I am guessing many of the dogs are given to the parents or turned into shelters or worse..left to run loose. It happens. Many of the dogs also end up pregnant. The other piece is after college and starting a new job...and finding apartments who will take the dog.
I hope the ones responsible don't encourage ones who are not...call any shelter in a college town and they will tell you what is really going on. |
This IS very true; it's a good point to make. I've seen a few old friends on Facebook who get dogs with their boyfriends, etc and I just cringe. Because I know they are the kind of people who, if the dogs were tying them down or they break up with their spouse, would just drop them off at a shelter. It's definitely a big problem. I see so many dogs given up because people have kids, etc. It's totally unfair to a dog.
As a college student, you've really got to write out the pros/cons of owning a dog. For me, the pros FAR outweigh the cons, and I will
never ever give Jackson up in a million years EVER. I would not move into a place that did not allow him, and neither would my family. My entire family (parents, stepparents, uncles, aunts)
all look at Jackson as a part of the family so even IF I wanted to (which I never would) they wouldn't even allow it to happen. In our family, dogs are family and would never be given up to a shelter. That's just not what we do. We've had some bad behaved dog (all because our lack of training knowledge) and not once has any dog in this fam been brought to a shelter, we just dealt with it. My aunt has a Pit bull, Max who she has had for 8 years now and just had a baby with her husband. Max is JUST as much her baby as her real child is, nothing changed. When she takes the baby for stroller walks, Max comes along too, she takes both baby and dog to the beach and pays MORE attention to Max (baby is too young to even know-6 months old) because that was his beach first and that's his fun time... that's how it always should be, IMO! A baby is a huge change in your life obviously and needs to be catered too but the dog should never be pushed aside and should be included in everything.
There is too many college students who think a dog will be a cute
accessory and it's SO wrong. On the flip side, college students dogs often times have a better 'DOG' life than a dog that just lives inside all the time with a family with young children who are busy with school, after school sports and activites, work, etc because college students often have more free time (some only work part time or only go to school etc) and get taken to beaches, roadtrips, dog parks alot more than an average dog would be. I often see a family who loves their dog dearly but they spend all the time in their house and let out in a backyard to potty and that's it. And it's mostly because people have busy schedules these days and there's just not enough time in a day for extra activities for the dogs.
I would definitely say that 90% of college students probably shouldn't own a dog but it all depends on the person. I just wish people would think the decision through a little better before owning a breathing, living thing that needs exercise, attention, food, love, disipline, etc.