So you’ve got a spouse or significant other who doesn't agree that
adding a dog to the household is a good idea. It’s not that they hate dogs or anything,
you’d never want to be with someone who hated dogs, right?! It’s just that they dislike the smell, the
shedding, the chewing, the walking, the feeding and all the other chores that
go along with having a dog in the home.
My husband was one of those people.
I desperately wanted a dog and he most definitely didn’t! Well, here we are years later with two fantastic dogs that he loves as much
as I do!
How did I convince my husband to go from vehemently refusing to let
me bring a dog into our home, to loving hikes with our two dogs and happily giving
belly rubs 50 times a day? Here’s how….
When I was young I was a sales rep for a computer company. In sales they teach you how to overcome every
objection the customer comes up with to make the sale. To be honest, I wasn’t very good at
sales. Now I wanted a dog. Desperately. It was time to get tough, time to break out the big guns and sell the
idea of getting a dog to my reluctant husband, John.
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| Not everyone likes the daily chores associated with having a pet. |
When someone is vehemently opposed to getting a pet it’s often because
they’re thinking only of the chores and responsibility of pet ownership, not
the unconditional love or the FUN stuff. There may also be
another underlying reason why they don’t want the dog or other pet, like maybe they were
bitten by a dog as a child or perhaps their neighbor’s cat was mean &
nasty.
My husband grew up with 3 brothers, all close in age. Can you imagine a home with 3 high energy, mischievous
boys running around the house and no dog!? If ever
there was a household that needed a dog, their’s was it! They did have a neighbor with a nice dog, a
Collie named Major, which could be a plus in helping me make the “sale”.
During our many conversations, which basically consisted of me begging (no pun intended!) to get a dog. I knew
that one of the key reasons my husband didn’t want a dog was because he had
encountered so many “bad” dogs. As an
insurance rep, he often visited auto body shops in New York. Many body shops keep guard dogs on the
premises to help prevent theft. Sadly,
they train these dogs to be territorial and aggressive toward strangers. These
experiences affected John, his perception of dogs was that most of them
were unfriendly.
I was lucky to have grown up
with an amazing dog as my best friend. Although he had cats, my husband had
never known the joy of taking your dog for walks and hikes, playing in the yard
together, cuddling up on the floor to watch TV together, or a furiously
wagging tail and licks on your face as soon as you get home.
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| There are so many fun things to do with a dog, hiking is just one of them! |
Not only am I an extreme animal lover, but I also
volunteered at our county animal shelter in Phoenix, AZ. Can you imagine volunteering day after day,
surrounded by so many amazing dogs but never being able to take one home!? Let me tell you, it was pure torture. I just had to convince my husband to get a
dog! I began to formulate a plan.
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| Adorable dogs that were available for adoption at the shelter |
Knowing that my husband's main objection was thinking most dogs were mean, I
endeavored to show him how loving and wonderful dogs can be! I also had to let him know that I would
happily handle most of the chores like feeding, training, and walking the dog.
🐶 I started off by dragging him to every dog
adoption and dog friendly event I could find.
I would point out all the well socialized dogs and how sweet and well behaved they were. I would stop by all the dogs available for adoption and try to get him to interact with them.
🐶 I found excuses to bring him to the shelter I volunteer
at, where I would point out this or that dog, how sweet and friendly they
were and talk about their breed characteristics.
“This breed of dog doesn’t shed at all!” I’d say, or “That breed of dog would be a
great hiking companion!”
🐶 Every time we
went to the mall I’d even drag him into the puppy store pointing out all the different breeds of dog and talk about their breed traits to see if any particular breed caught his interest.
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| Getting a dog is a big decision, you and your partner should both agree that getting a dog is the right decision |
🐶 I watched lots of shows
on Animal Planet, especially Victoria Stillwell’s It’s Me Or The Dog. OK, so maybe that was just for me! At first he
couldn’t stand my non-stop Dog TV, but after awhile he started to watch some of the
shows with me and we’d have discussions about the family and the dog
in the show. It opened
up a lot of great conversations about dogs between us.
Instead of talking about how much I
wanted a dog, we were talking about dogs in general. He was slowly learning a lot about dogs, dog behavior, and how to properly train a dog. I thought that if he could
just be around more “good” dogs and learn more about dog behavior and training
he would start to trust dogs and agree to get one.
Months later we had gone to our local PetSmart for cat food and
litter. As with most weekends, they had a
dog adoption event in the store.
There was an adorable little Rat Terrier named Malcolm for adoption. The lady asked
if we’d like to take Malcolm for a walk.
I said “Sure!”.
Malcolm was super sweet and
friendly, and so cute trotting along beside us, walking beautifully on
leash. I asked John if he wanted to hold
the leash, fully expecting him to say no, but he said “OK” and began walking
Malcolm! It was the first time I had
ever seen my husband walking a dog, and it was a wonderful sight. We both really liked Malcolm a lot but my
husband still wasn’t quite ready to adopt a dog. I felt we had made great progress though, and
I was encouraged.
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| This isn't Malcolm, but this little guy looks a lot like him |
Slowly but surely John became more knowledgeable about dogs and more
comfortable around them. He started petting
and saying positive things about dogs we encountered and really started to enjoy
them! It took over a year for John to
agree to get a dog and when he did
I was thrilled - finally!
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| The time had finally come for us to get our first dog together! Here she is, our sweet girl, Icy! |
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| This is one of my favorite photos of John and Icy. The look of love is unmistakable. |
It took a lot of time and patience on my part, but being on the same
page about getting a dog and bringing home a dog that John and I both wanted
was worth the wait! Our Siberian Husky, Icy, is our first dog together. It was shocking to see that the guy who did NOT want a dog has so much love in his heart for her! I don't think either of us can imagine life without her now.
Two years after Icy came into our lives, I adopted Phoebe from the shelter I volunteer at and our little family grew by one more!
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| Our darling girl Phoebe posting in our front yard. She is such a joyful soul! |
Have you had to work to convince another member of the household to get
a pet? Leave us a comment and share, we
love hearing from you!
