Other than that, I agree with most of what you and Ian had to say. Have you seen Magnolia? In the famous words of Frank “TJ” Mackey:

And, Phil, I will drop-kick the fucking dogs if they come near me.

-Tim

My husband and I never wanted kids but we love animals so we have cats, a cockatoo and a dog. As a child, when we had dogs, they lived outdoors, my mother did not want the stinky smelly things in the house and if my brother and I didn’t clean up the yard, you can guarantee the dog would be re-homed. At the time I thought this was incredibly mean and had my heart crushed several times but as an adult I know what she was going through. In my husbands family, dogs were treated like children and given table scraps while the family ate and “puppies never do anything wrong” and so I was chastised in front of the dog for saying no to it (you wouldn’t believe the power struggles this created). Did I mention the dog is bigger than me? He’s now an 18 month old, un-neutered great dane who thinks I’m his bitch.

Our dog is a disaster. We cannot agree on anything down to how much water we should give it in one sitting. I am strict, he is lax, the dog is confused and all we do is argue. It’s to the point where I am resentful all the time and hate the sight of the dog, mainly because if you can see the dog, you can smell it. I think we should rehome it, my reasons are many:

-Our yard is a sewage pit - my husband believed that the shit would melt with the snow and didn’t pick up any of it all winter.
-On average it eats a pair of my shoes per month. Every once in awhile, at night when we sleep, the dog will get one of my shoes and chew it in it’s bed. My husband, who stays up much later than me, will agree to tying him up on his blanket to prevent this but only does it for two nights max so it happens again… and again… and…
-It’s become aggressive toward me and growls at me because it rebels against discipline. He stares at me constantly.
-My husband kind of gets off on the fact that he’s got the biggest dog around and secretly likes it when people became afraid of the hound of the Baskerville yowling at them as they pass our yard. He’d never tell the dog to stop barking, he’d bark for entire minutes at someone walking by! I’m horrified!!! …and I know what you’re thinking but my husband doesn’t have a small penis.
-The dog has actually growled and lunged at children because he is treated like a baby and gets jealous of actual babies. Even more horrifying!!!

I’m at my wit’s end! I can’t go on like this. To someone who reads this post, you may think that I am not trying hard enough or am over-reacting but after living with this for half a year (we’ve had the dogs a year and a half) and my husband doesn’t see the problem and pretty much puts everything on me to change I just can’t help but feel that, one day one of us is going to leave home and I don’t want it to be me.

Good luck : )