Honestly, I think it has a lot to do with how a person was raised. Personally, I always had a dog in the house growing up, and I was very much involved in the training, feeding, walking, cleaning up the backyard, etc.
DH was the same way so when we decided to get a dog (or 2
) we knew exactly what we were getting into.
But some people never grew up around animals. They never learned about the love and respect and joy and responsibility they can bring, so the new owner has to figure it out on their own later on. Some never do
, but everyone is different.
I know someone who got a dog when she moved out on her own, simply because she was never allowed to have one as a kid. I think she got her dog for all the wrong reasons, bought her from a BYB and didn't do any research about the breed, nothing. Everyone thought she was doomed to fail, but she really fell in love with the dog and wanted to learn more about how to take care of it better.
Whether your an experienced dog owner or not, there's bound to be difficult times no matter what the breed is. The point is, some people have it in them to want to do better, and some people don't. All we can do as a society is try to help them because it's the dogs that obviously suffer in the end as a result.
A lot like general parenting when you think about it....
