Getting a dog

Someone online was wondering about getting a dog, but was worried about the cost. Here's my take on the subject:

Dogs are relatively cheap, IF you take care of them.

Most people I've seen treat a dog like an entertainment device: only noticing it when they feel like it. When it breaks down, they take the dog to the repair shop, in this case to a vetenarian. A dog is not a television, or a shopping channel exercise equipment that you use when you have the time for it. It is a living being with feelings. The unconditional love a dog gives is the reason why people treat them like shit and ignore them: it still loves you no matter how you treat it, so it can be taken for granted.

If you pay attention to the dog's needs, to the dog itself and use common sense, you'll save a lot of money. Basically a dog needs food, shelter(a warm place to sleep) and company.

A dog can develop many problems if you ignore it, psychological issues may manifest physically like they do in humans, e.g. it may start gnawing its paws or maniacally scratching things out of boredom that may lead to infection or to injuries that may affect walking or other things, thus leading to other problems which will eventually lead to even greater ones.

Money is a numerical value of time and effort. When you go to work you'll exchange your time and effort for money. When you use that money, you're paying to avoid effort e.g. you use money to buy a coat, instead of making one.

This goes for taking care of a pet as well, you pay the vet to buy the time you spent ignoring the pet. People buy a lot of toys to the dog so it can entertain itself and people don't have to pay attention to it.

I myself took care my dog by noticing it, we went for walks, our toys were sticks and pine cones(she loved those), we ran, played tag and after the walk I checked her for ticks. I covered her ears during extreme winters, so there wouldn't be any frostbites, minor frostbites cause an itch, which leads to scratching. I didn't buy her those dry dog food cereal biscuit things, because I don't think a dog has access to those if there were no humans, so she ate what I ate (excluding milk and strong spices of course.)I adjusted my diet as much as I could to fit the both of us. I just used common sense, what would a dog eat if it lived naturally, I use that logic to myself too: I don't eat microwave dinners or food with random added ingredients. Then Venn diagrams, and BOOM we can mostly eat the same stuff.

Food is food, it doesn't need any additives, we put additives to food to avoid using time and effort e.g. improving shelf life so we don't have to go to the store so often or the store doesn't have to replace the products so often. But since additives aren't food, but something that you ADD to the food, and shove that stuff down the way(the esophagus) that was meant only for food, you'll start getting problems eventually. Food preservatives are meant preserve the food, not you. It's like putting something additional to your gasoline when you fuel your car, though it may take time before you start getting problems.

My point is: the lazyness and the avoidance of effort are the reasons why dogs might cost money. Those are the reasons why people are having problems as well. Love the dog, look after it, treat it as an equal and it'll cost you nothing.

But don't get a dog just to better your life, you should get a dog to better its life as well. It's not an entertainment device or a commodity. It takes a lot of effort, i.e. it doesn't understand nor perceive the artificial rules, boundaries and stuff humans have created around themselves. So you'll have to balance between being equal, being a teacher and being a leader, so basically you have to treat it as your own unusually hairy and simple minded child. But hey at least you don't have to worry about his/her grades:D