Marley Dogs

We recently watched the movie 'Marley and Me' for the first time. The narrator calls Marley "the world's worst dog." We have two dogs similar to Marley and watching the movie made us think about them - in both good ways and bad ways. You see, before we had kids our dogs WERE our kids. Once we had kids, life gets busy and changes and dogs become DOGS (it is the same for most of the people I know). Not everyone, but MOST. I know one family who still treats their dog like their kid after having kids. ONE. Everyone else I know that has small children is pretty frustrated with their dogs most of the time. Dogs need attention. Dogs cost money. Dogs wake up sleeping babies. Dogs get in the trash and spread it all over the place. Dogs need walking EVERY DAY. Dogs are a lot of work - which is fine - until you have kids. Then dogs become another thing that needs attention when all you want to do after a long day at work or a long day of watching kids is sit in peace for two minutes without a dog whining to go on a walk.

Anways, back to the movie. So we watched the movie and couldnt believe how similar our dogs were to Marley. Here we go:

1. Our dogs are nearly impossible to walk. One is 75 pounds and the other is 45 pounds and I can no longer walk them with the kids in the stroller. I have tried and I am done. D-O-N-E. They both bark at other dogs and pull and pull and dont stop barking - even if the other dog they are barking at is long gone. And we have a lot of dogs in this area so it is hard to NOT run into other dogs on a walk. Maya also likes to lunge at passing byciclists. Yep. They pull so hard and lunge away that the last few times I took them the stroller was close to tipping over multiple times. Not to mention my hand and arm nearly falling off. So I am DONE. Sorry Honey, but that is now your job. And honestly, when JR takes them I am worried about him. He often takes them rollerblading and a couple times in the past they have seen a skunk or racoon or cat and have pulled JR hard and unexpectedly and he has fallen. He is frustrated and tired and upset that they are now a CHORE to walk as opposed to a nice evening out of the house or a little exercise.

2. They bark. If you have a child with sleep issues then you understand how much you want to strangle the source of the noise that wakes your hard-to-put-to-sleep and easily-woken-up child. When the kids finally fall asleep and then one or both of the dogs finds something to bark at, believe me, you want to do things to the animal that you previously didnt want to do before you had kids...back when the dogs were your kids.

3. They get into things. Our dogs havent eaten the couch or pillows like Marley did but they get into the trash (and remember our trash has diapers in it). Maya has eaten a pair of shoes and two nice pairs of sunglasses. They do eat and tear apart their own dogs beds and we often find the fluff all over the place. And like Marley, Jagger eats drywall. Yes, we have holes in the garage from Jagger eating through the wall. Not sure if he is trying to escape (which is what I think Marley was trying to do) but Jagger has eaten holes right near the open doggy door, so not sure it is for escape purposes. We have had the holes fixed and yet there are more.

- I'm trying to get photos of the dogs next to their "work"


4. They cost money. Oh the dog food alone is expensive. Not to mention boarding if you ever go out of town. Plus, if your dogs get boarded at all then you need to be up to date on vaccines. Let's not forget vet visits for those things that happen unexpectedly. Like when Maya ate the neighbors dirt which had snail poison in it. Or the multiple visits Jagger has had to get his stomach pumped after he ate socks.

It makes us sad and it makes us feel guilty that the dogs have taken a back seat to our kids (and yet how obvious is that - OF COURSE our dogs are going to take a back seat to our kids). Everyone gets busy - I know it isnt just us. It isnt the dogs' fault. They dont know what happened. Kids made our lives busier than it already was. It doesnt help that Cannon is allergic to dogs either. But if these dogs were a little less like Marley then they would have a better life. I could walk them EVERY day with the kids while JR is at work. I could let them out in the front with the other dogs in the neighborhood if they didnt run away like Marley did. I could take them to parks and the beach with the kids if they listened and came back when I called them.

I feel bad but at the same time I am also upset with them. We cant seem to exercise them enough. Unfortunately everyone I know with kids has a similar story with respect to their dogs. In fact, MANY of the families I am talking about have considered getting rid of their dogs and a couple even have. The only thing stopping us at this point is guilt and feeling sorry for them. It isnt their fault but if they werent like Marley, then maybe things would be better for them (and us).