Annoying Things People Do To/With Your Pet(s)

[Calamity.]

I definitely get fearful when children visit my home for the sake of my lop bunny Apollo. Apollo has a large custom accommodation, which has a door that allows access. This means when relatives come to visit with their toddlers, and said relative knows they will quickly say “want to go see the bunny?” and they run through to the room and start poking at him and all sorts, I’ve even had cases where they try to pick up the big lop which really makes me anxious as he is such a lovely sweet natured boy and I’d hate for him to be dropped or harmed. Definitely my biggest fear though is if they were to try to feed him some of their food, luckily this has never happened. It’s very stressful as 9/10 when this happens I’ve not had any idea and Apollo has been lucky. It’s just a very tricky situation as I don’t want to sound rude or anything and I would honestly be fine with it as long as I was asked/ was able to supervise and if my parents were on board and wouldn’t tell ever guest that they should handle him. In short, I’m a very protective rabbit mum 😂

[Scottish9]

So, I'll start with my older Scot, Mac. Mac is a big fluffy social boy and he's great with people, so I'm not worried about his social life. I am worried about his back. As a Scot, he is very prone to back problems and often times it is not a good idea to pick him up. I ask people not to, but sometimes they do and Mac is sore for days after.

Now Gus the younger Scot. Gus is fine healthwise, but is very shy and can be aggressive when harassed or approached in a large-group setting. Normally, he deals with it himself by holing up in his kennel. Everyone is prohibited from bugging the dogs when they are "crated", but some still do. And when he's out, we ask people to let him approach them, not vice versa. But some ignore and we have a grumpy and bitey (rarely) Gus.

[AtlasHyperion]

Ugh, people (especially my parents) keep screwing up Nina (my collie/cattle dog)'s training. My dad is poisoning all her commands by saying "come" and "sit" over and over and being too harsh. Nina lived in a terribly abusive household for 6 years until we got her and yanking and scolding won't help at all. And now I'm teaching her all of her commands in French, and teaching her that when someone asks her to jump up she should lie down and take a nap. No, my dog isn't "too stupid to listen", she's too smart to screw over her own training.

It's just frustrating that when I tell someone not to train her bad behavior or that they can't do something with her and they brush it off because "she's friendly" (and totally doesn't try and maul every dog we see, thanks for throwing a lawsuit into my lap along with other problems) or "she'll listen if I yell at her". No. She takes after me. The more you annoy, scold, yell, or ask for something, the less likely she'll do it. Just... ugh. She's my dog. Listen to me. Just because you want her to learn a trick doesn't magically make her your dog - and she's so stubborn about learning tricks from me that she'd never learn to backflip from a stranger, thanks.

[Gristle]

Kindness, some of the time really isn't that, 'good intentions' mean nothing if they result in a bad outcome. My mum in particular always tries to 'spoil' my dog, then tells me I'm being harsh for correcting the bad behaviour she reinforces, and for not feeding my dog into obesity, ruining her manners, and probably giving her whatever health problems in the process. Dogs don't eat icecream, they don't eat biscuits, crisps, or oreos. Quality dry dog food isn't gross to her because she is a dog, it is healthier for her than tinned soup that she wants to substitute it with.
If she doesn't like you then she doesn't, don't try and sway her with junk food, that just makes two of us.
She's a perfectly healthy weight and naturally slender built, not rotting away. I can not understand how people think that an obviously overweight dog looks more healthy and appealing, but dogs do take after their owners.
She is my best friend but also still a dog, not a spoilt brat of a child, so don't try to turn her into one or treat her as such.

[AtlasHyperion]

@gristle - If your mother is feeding your dog oreos, she has to stop. Chocolate is deadly poisonous to dogs, and even in small amounts it adds up and can make them really sick. I spent my last birthday in the emergency animal hospital from after dinner to three in the morning because my dog unzipped my bag, ripped open a plastic package (like the strong ones that need scissors), and ate about a pound of dark chocolate hershey kisses, including wrappers. That wasn't fun at all, and you should stop her from feeding her chocolate if you don't want that heart attack.

And definitely insist a lot more than she can't feed your dog junk food. Chips and cookies and whatnots are full of unhealthy fats that mess with your dog's diet and make them chubby. Only a sled dog or a dog that runs tens of miles a day could stand to have a few of your chips occasionally. Also, ingredients like onion, garlic, chocolate, the artificial sweetener Xylitol, raisins, salt and paprika can make your dog really sick. Those foods can make her throw up, give her seizures, and even kill her. Also, those foods aren't made for dogs, so they just gain fat and don't get the high amounts of protein they need. A lot of these foods are super sugary and salty, and both of those are bad for dogs in those amounts. Dogs can get extremely sick from that kind of stuff, it can give them major dietary and health problems, and it can even kill them.

In summary, tell your mom to stop if she doesn't want to kill your dog.

[Gristle]

Tankie, I know how bad it is, thankfully she hasn't fed her the chocolatey things, yet at least, just suggests it all the time. She's fed a of couple crisps and peppery crackers and things before I was able to stop it happening. I tell her constantly not to, and why, but she passes it off as me being too strict and 'just a little bit is fine', and that she's just trying to be nice but like I said kindness is not always that. Just have to keep a bit of an eye I guess. I don't know how her old Weimaraner lived to almost 15, but that's another excuse of hers.

[Mistfox]

My cousin is the worst ever! My cats hate her, so do my dogs and my horse! The cats Zara and Ruby are both very shy little Siamese kitties and my cousin grabs them! She shouts at my dogs Tiffany, Bella and Lucky for hiding from her and my sweet black mare Ivy hates her because my cousin tries to shove carrots up her mouth and tries to hit her with my dad’s whip, it’s not a painful one, he just uses it because he has to give an occasional tap when his horse Barley tries to eat grass, but anyway, atleast I always turn Ivy out in the fields when my cousin comes so she can run away

[AtlasHyperion]

I am so DONE with the SUPREMELY ENTITLED JERKS that occupy EVERY SINGLE HOUSE on the street down the road. I take my aggressive dog on a walk wearing a front-clip harness to stop her pulling and a 6-foot leash to keep her close, because she's my responsibility, and lo and behold, what a (non) surprise, and for at least the fourth time this week, two dogs are running around and barking. I call Nina away and walk her back home, but they keep barking and snapping, and I'm yelling "Back off!" hoping it'll do anything. I'm absolutely furious. Almost every time I walk down that street there are dogs running free, barking at my girl, WITH NO LEASH OR OWNER IN SIGHT! I'm ticked off!

This has gone way too far. The amount of times I have to drive to a nearby park and deal with overexcited friendly dogs and get kicked off the premises (yeah, that happens when your dog is aggressive, remember responsibility?) is ridiculous. I can't walk my dog in my own neighborhood without fearing for her, my, and my financial safety! What if she bites someone's dog? Then it's her fault, when the other owner is nowhere to be seen and their dogs are attacking mine! She's not as strong and fierce as she thinks, and I can't have her hurt, or worse, put down, because someone's aggressive dogs run wild!

Now, my plan is to either call Animal Control so the entitled jerks (for lack of a child-friendly word) can pay the fine that I'm sure they must have paid before and pick up their dog and be warned that aggressive dogs go on damn leads. That, or I'm walking up the street with a handful of leashes and walking roaming dogs up to their owners' doors. Yes, I know I have to be nice. It infuriates me, but I know. I'll politely tell them that my dog (who is NOT to blame, thanks jerk) is a cranky old jerk who might bite their dogs (but she won't, because I'm familiar with the concept of putting my dog on a lead), or that their beautiful (jerk of a) dog could be hurt or even killed in traffic. I'll probably go with the first one, and then call Animal Control if it keeps happening. Mind you, this is a frequent occurrence, and it's not just one owner. I see at least four different dogs wandering and barking at my girl a week. And I've never seen a single person on that street to respond when I hold my forty-pound dog back and fend off a couple shepherds and bulldogs and yell at whatever entitled jerk (seriously, I wish I could swear right now) can hear someone yelling at them to leash their dogs, barely audible above all the barking and snarling, and does nothing, to call their damn dogs.

I am absolutely furious right now, but I need time to think so my emotions don't cloud my judgement and make the problem worse. Any opinions or suggestions as to what I should do? This is a huge problem in a neighborhood with so many small, old dogs that can't go anywhere near a central street near their homes because someone won't leash their big and aggressive dogs. I'm frustrated beyond belief, and I can't let this go on.

[Ja984]

When people call my little tortuous shell cat named Fire, a "cat devil"
Just because I had a friend sleepover first time ever having a sleep over in my life and my cat's life.
And when my friend was walking towards me Fire who was next to me started to hiss and growl, And even started to walk towards her hissing. And every-time the my friend got near me. Same thing
And in the morning she was totally fine, letting my friend pet her and everything.
Thus my friend called her a devil cat in the morning ...
My cat is protective of me!
And when ever a delivery man comes (U.P.S., Fed Ex, ETC) She'll growl, jump off my bed, sit down, and stare at the door for a few minutes.
People think this is kind of weird because Cat's don't normally do this.
Also Dad, please stop saying you'll throw her out the backdoor. I know she ignores you most of the time. But that is because she was a stray, on our driveway nearly starved.
So it takes her a while to fully trust people.
Here is my little kitty

[Lexi.]

Definitely my biggest fear though is if they were to try to feed him some of their food, luckily this has never happened. It’s very stressful as 9/10 when this happens I’ve not had any idea and Apollo has been lucky.

Yeah, unfortunately for me, like 10 kids came over to my place for a family barbecue. they came up from Colorado for like a family trip thing. I have no idea how I'm related to any of them, I think they were just random church friends.


I told them they could play with the bunnies If they're gentle. They were pretty gentle with them., I had like 11 young bunnies. They asked me if they could feed the bunnies cotton candy. I told them definitely no because sugar is bad for them. A few days later, all of the bunnies died except the one that I had with me the whole time. They fed them cotton candy while I wasn't looking.

I couldn't do anything becAuse they flew back to Colorado the day before, and I never heard from them again. =( I heard shortly after, they got a bunny of their own. I hope the poor thing is okay.