Why do Americans love dogs so much?

[Anonymous]

Clearly you've never seen the signs in some pubs in the UK: pets allowed, no children.

I think it's the Anglo-Saxon culture, OP, exported across continents by the British: Americans, Australians, etc...

Continental Europe and Asia prioritize kids over pets. I assume the African continent does too.

[Anonymous]

My dog doesn't slobber, smell or shed. Her breath does stink.

People like dogs because they're really cute. They're like toddlers: silly, annoying, needy, pretty dumb but with moments when they seem like geniuses, playful, loving, and adorable. And they stay like that for life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s not to love? They love their families unconditionally.

So do babies? And also, a baby has never mauled its family

Children kill their parents all the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also children grow out of the mess and bad behavior into independent adults while dogs always need care.

Dogs die before children become independent

[Anonymous]

Agree that too many people get dogs because of the wrong reasons. I think all of our neighbors have dogs. Honestly, most of them probably shouldn't be dog owners -- they don't have the time, and their dogs are left outside barking for extended periods, and it's become a nuisance.

We lost our dog last year. With the spouse and I both working and kids in school all day, we've decided we don't have the bandwidth to get a puppy without high risk of it developing anxiety and other neurotic behavior like our neighbors' dogs. Maybe when one of us retires.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s not to love? They love their families unconditionally.

Fur, smells, barking, jumping up on people, sniffing crotches, eating poop.

There are a lot of similarities between raising children and raising dogs - even when poorly "trained", people still live them.

NP. Yes young kids and dogs are quite similar in their behavior. I guess I have more tolerance for my children since I birthed them. I didn’t give birth to the dog.

What an odd comment. What does birthing have to do with tolerating something? Is there something magical about your reproductive system? Do you think parents who didn't "birth" their kids are less tolerant?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like dogs perfectly fine, but I don’t get why it seems to be such a thing for Americans to be so enamored of dogs.
It seems like it’s more acceptable to say that you don’t like children than admit that you don’t care for dogs. This doesn’t seem to be as prevalent in other countries. Why is this?

It is just Americans most people all over the world love dogs. When I lived in Brussels there was an elderly man who wheeled his dog around in a wheelbarrow. The dog was old, partially blind a d could barely walk but the dog and the man were each other's family. Kipling said it best in his poem, "The Power of a Dog."
The Power of the Dog
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Rudyard Kipling
1865 –
1936
There is sorrow enough in the natural way
From men and women to fill our day;
And when we are certain of sorrow in store,
Why do we always arrange for more?
Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.

Buy a pup and your money will buy
Love unflinching that cannot lie—
Perfect passion and worship fed
By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head.
Nevertheless it is hardly fair
To risk your heart for a dog to tear.

When the fourteen years which Nature permits
Are closing in asthma, or tumour, or fits,
And the vet’s unspoken prescription runs
To lethal chambers or loaded guns,
Then you will find—it’s your own affair—
But… you’ve given your heart to a dog to tear.

When the body that lived at your single will,
With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!).
When the spirit that answered your every mood
Is gone—wherever it goes—for good,
You will discover how much you care,
And will give your heart to a dog to tear.

We’ve sorrow enough in the natural way,
When it comes to burying Christian clay.
Our loves are not given, but only lent,
At compound interest of cent per cent.
Though it is not always the case, I believe,
That the longer we’ve kept ’em, the more do we grieve:
For, when debts are payable, right or wrong,
A short-time loan is as bad as a long—
So why in—Heaven (before we are there)
Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?

This poem is in the public domain.

[Anonymous]

I’m American and don’t like dogs.

[Anonymous]

Mental illness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s not to love? They love their families unconditionally.

So do babies? And also, a baby has never mauled its family

Children kill their parents all the time.

I think you are kidding but this is actually incredibly rare.

Dog bites are super common, though. I like dogs but most dogs could be provoked into biting a human without that much effort (even well behaved dogs-- they are animals with an attack instinct if they are sufficiently threatened), whereas most children simply don't have the means to murder someone even if given a good reason to do so.

[Anonymous]

To me the key factor in OP's question is not why people who love dogs do so (I think this is self evident), but why it can be so unacceptable for a person not to love dogs.

Yes, people adore dogs in France and many other places around the world, for the same reasons as in the US-- companionship, loyalty, their generally uncomplicated nature, affection. But I agree with OP that increasingly it is simply unacceptable in the US to not like dogs, whereas even in France a person could not care for dogs and no one really cares-- to each their own.

I like dogs fine (I don't want one because they are high maintenance pets, but I enjoy interacting with other people's dogs in small doses) but one of my children doesn't like them, I think because she finds them a little gross, and this *horrifies* people. DD is a very loving, kind person, but when people find out she doesn't like dogs, many view her as cold and cruel (she is not, and would never harm a dog, simply doesn't to pet one or have one in her home).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s not to love? They love their families unconditionally.

Fur, smells, barking, jumping up on people, sniffing crotches, eating poop.

It's weird that OP singles out dogs but evidently gives cats (smellier and less compliant) a pass.

I understand preferring one set of disadvantages to another, but if your objection is smell, cats and their litter boxes are so much worse.

[Anonymous]

Last week, we had a speaker at church who was raised in Kenya, and he mentioned that he still finds it 'so weird!' that in the US, we let dogs in the house. That was not the norm where he grew up.

[Anonymous]

I had neighbors who freely let their dogs pee and poop on my front and backyard. The day I said enough and put out two “Private Property, No Tresspassing” signs, they got offended and talked trash about me with other neighbors even after having brief conversations about respecting boundaries.
I totally understand OP’s point.

[Anonymous]

Almost every person, mostly female, who insists on bringing their 'service dog' to restaurant has been defiant about it. I don't think they are well at all. This not well made them get a dog.
Maybe there's a connection between being put on medicine and wanting a dog. Many get those very small dogs so it's easier to have the dog on them as a accessory. Then it's all about buying clothes and toys for them.
I have a friend who has a cat and guinea pigs in the apartment. She built a tunnel for them along the wall. Her favorite thing is buying more cute stuff for them. She is autistic.