Hi guys,
First time on the forums. I have a slight problem which has brought me here in search of advice. I would really appreciate if you would take the time to read my problem and hopefully contribute your thoughts. Thank you.
Here's how the story goes...
We are a family of 4. We are currently living in a rented house. We bought a new house, and are moving into it next week on the 18th August. We also currently own a 6 year old male Maltese x Shitzu. In our current house, he lives indoors with us and when he needs to relief himself, he either goes into the toilet where he does it on the newspaper or he signals for us to take him outside into the backyard to do his business. All his life, he's been an indoor dog and he doesn't like being outdoors for long periods of time.
He is very well part of the family and we love him lots. He isn't perfect and has a few flaws. Since he has long-ish white hair, he occasionally sheds his fur and they drop on the carpet. He also might smell a bit...but hey what a dog doesn't?! He is also toilet trained from young, but within the last couple of years, he has urinated in a few places indoors - on the carpet, on plastic bags placed on the floor, at the corner of door frames, etc... Sometimes I think he can be a bit forgetful and does it. It has become more frequent recently. He has also done #2's on the floor instead of on the newspaper or outside. He knows he's not suppose to do all these, because when we scold him, he goes all sad and shows his sad face and tries to walk away with his tail between his legs...so he knows! But through all these faults, we still love him for who he is. When he's in the house, we occasionally play with him during the day, but he's always 'around' us when we are watching TV, eating dinner, surfing the net, etc...
Now my mom's saying when we move into the new house, he is strictly going to stay outdoors and not to come inside. (I think mom doesn't really like him as much as my dad, brother and I do, as she sometimes has to clean up after him when he mistakenly does his business on the floor). That's the thing that bothers her the most, because she wants to keep our own house clean.
She has made it very clear that he is not to come into the house. I feel like if we put him outside, he will feel like he isn't as loved and part of the family like he used to be and he will be less sociable and sad and i just can't bear to see him like that.
I told mom that we (dad, brother and I) agree not to let him upstairs on the second storey, as we will place one of those gates at the bottom of the stairs. But she still insisted that he is to be outside.
Right now, I just feel so so depressed how she can have no feelings for him and can just blatantly insist that he lives outside. He was born to be an indoor dog...putting him outdoor all of a sudden will be a massive change for him, I'm not sure how will it affect his health, feeding habits, etc...
I'm sure this has come up before...does anyone have a good suggestion and advice that I can use to support the case for having the dog in the house?
I would really appreciate your input into this, as I'm sure a few of you have been in the same situation with experience you can share.
Thanks in advance,
Josh
First time on the forums. I have a slight problem which has brought me here in search of advice. I would really appreciate if you would take the time to read my problem and hopefully contribute your thoughts. Thank you.
Here's how the story goes...
We are a family of 4. We are currently living in a rented house. We bought a new house, and are moving into it next week on the 18th August. We also currently own a 6 year old male Maltese x Shitzu. In our current house, he lives indoors with us and when he needs to relief himself, he either goes into the toilet where he does it on the newspaper or he signals for us to take him outside into the backyard to do his business. All his life, he's been an indoor dog and he doesn't like being outdoors for long periods of time.
He is very well part of the family and we love him lots. He isn't perfect and has a few flaws. Since he has long-ish white hair, he occasionally sheds his fur and they drop on the carpet. He also might smell a bit...but hey what a dog doesn't?! He is also toilet trained from young, but within the last couple of years, he has urinated in a few places indoors - on the carpet, on plastic bags placed on the floor, at the corner of door frames, etc... Sometimes I think he can be a bit forgetful and does it. It has become more frequent recently. He has also done #2's on the floor instead of on the newspaper or outside. He knows he's not suppose to do all these, because when we scold him, he goes all sad and shows his sad face and tries to walk away with his tail between his legs...so he knows! But through all these faults, we still love him for who he is. When he's in the house, we occasionally play with him during the day, but he's always 'around' us when we are watching TV, eating dinner, surfing the net, etc...
Now my mom's saying when we move into the new house, he is strictly going to stay outdoors and not to come inside. (I think mom doesn't really like him as much as my dad, brother and I do, as she sometimes has to clean up after him when he mistakenly does his business on the floor). That's the thing that bothers her the most, because she wants to keep our own house clean.
She has made it very clear that he is not to come into the house. I feel like if we put him outside, he will feel like he isn't as loved and part of the family like he used to be and he will be less sociable and sad and i just can't bear to see him like that.
I told mom that we (dad, brother and I) agree not to let him upstairs on the second storey, as we will place one of those gates at the bottom of the stairs. But she still insisted that he is to be outside.
Right now, I just feel so so depressed how she can have no feelings for him and can just blatantly insist that he lives outside. He was born to be an indoor dog...putting him outdoor all of a sudden will be a massive change for him, I'm not sure how will it affect his health, feeding habits, etc...
I'm sure this has come up before...does anyone have a good suggestion and advice that I can use to support the case for having the dog in the house?
I would really appreciate your input into this, as I'm sure a few of you have been in the same situation with experience you can share.
Thanks in advance,
Josh