Saw this online yesterday and I cannot believe it has not been commented on yet....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2097506/Spaniel-owner-warns-Kate-Middleton-Prince-William-new-pet-dog.html

Amongst the rest of the ridiculous stuff in this article is the fact that she actually decided to get and then bought a puppy while on holiday.. disgraceful stuff. 

Maybe getting the dog on a holiday whim is not a good idea, but all in all it has worked out well, they haven't just got a dog and then left it for hours and gone off to work, the husband took the pup to work with him and for nice walks, he is much loved and cared for.

To me it points out the pitfalls of owning a dog, the time it needs, the weekends away needing to stop etc and the need of training him were also mentioned it shows that they both put the pup first so much so that the lady has given up her job as she missed him so much and wanted him to bond with her as much as the husband.

It's a nice story and Denver has two owners who adore him...........  :-)

The dog has a very happy home.

I read halfway through then got too annoyed to read anymore.

Read only half of this shallow trivia ! I wouldn't let either of them near my puppies. Note the immaculate wellies ! Selfish ,silly and pretentious  -pass me the sick bucket please !

Lets be honest, no one except ourselfs are the 'perfect' owner we would want for our dogs! lol

Geez, nice to know someone in this economy is so well off that they can afford to not work and play with their dog all day. I wonder what will happen when she has to actually work and ends up having a dog so engrossed in his owner that he has very little coping strategy for when he's left alone!

>nice to know someone in this economy is so well off that they can afford to not work and play with their dog all day.

Ideal, isn't it? Lucky dog. :-)

As I read it, although they both worked when they got the pup they'd made plans as to how it would be looked after during the day, which is more than a lot of people do. The article highlights that having a dog can be considered a fulltime job, just as having a baby is, rather than as a fashion statement. Makes a refreshing change.

Obviously missing the point here.

Has this turned into a class thing? :-( If so it is quite shameful.

With all the neglected and mistreated dogs out there, left alone all day miserable and not cared for how can anyone be so upset that a couple are doting on their dog?

Yes, it's mushy and the references to the royals are uncalled for, but good grief so many dogs have terrible lives, and how do we know it will have separation anxiety? Bit of a sweeping statement. I dare say the dog is left, the couple will go out without their dog, they will have friends and holidays, very unfair I feel.

I don't think it is class just seems to be jealousy.

I have a job which means I have the ability to work at home and enjoy my dogs but on the other side when I am in the office it can be very long hours and very hard work. My girls have never shown any signs of seperation anxiety which is down to the way I have brought them up.

I think if you want the life they are describing you either make sacrifices or you have to work hard to be able to afford it rather than it just be handed to you on a plate. I think good luck to them and of anybody said anything to me about the way I run my life I would just say mind your own business :-)

My all those poor dogs living lives of hell out there, and here we are blasting a couple  for daring to buy a pup on a whim, then making  radical changes in their life to  accommodate their beloved  baby.

What a shocking story it is when  they are fortunate enough to be able to work from home, to be with their puppy.

I'd love to work from home or do a job which allows me to take mine with me too.. If this woman's OH is a Dr, then i've no doubt he is on a reasonable wage, she prob was too before she quit and had/s(savings?), don't most breeders say they would prefer their dogs to go to people who don't work so they aren't left alone all day?

I say well done them.. Either way I wish I could be in that position or even do what you're doing Lucy, work from home :-)

hmm... My parents bought a pup while they were on holiday.. and horror of horrors.. it was for my 15th Birthday... without knowing the rest of the story, that would make us as bad (in your eyes) as these owners

What is so disgraceful about changing your whole way of life to incorporate a puppy into it.. Is that not what most of us actually do, some just more extreme than others?

Geez, nice to know someone in this economy is so well off that they can afford to not work and play with their dog all day.

Well some of us make the CHOICE to be less well off, always scrimp for money, never buy new clothes until the old fall apart etc, to enable us to stay at home and have dogs -I'd personally never have a dog if nobody was at home during the day. Hence my husband goes to work, I do not. Does not make us well off in any sense of the word whatsoever, quite the opposite. It's an individual choice, like some mothers go back to work, others do not. What's right for one person isn't necessarily right for another.

What I'm more concerned about is the fact this dog and the pup belonging to Catherine and William appear to be working cockers, not the show type.
Knowing the one my daughter's friend owns they are a very active breed needing loads of exercise and stimulation.  I wander how many more will end up in rescue when their new owners can't cope with them...

> Well some of us make the CHOICE to be less well off, always scrimp for money, never buy new clothes until the old fall apart etc, to enable us to stay at home and have dogs

This.  I don't have a partner so I have to rent out my spare room to make ends meet - I don't want to, even though I've known the person for over 10 years she drives me insane and is not a good tenant at all, but she helps me pay the bills so as much as I rant about her, I put up with her.

And I scrimp to get buy, don't buy new clothes - I've bought one top and one pair of boots in about 6 months to the grand total of £15 - and so on so that I can stay here with my dogs.  I'm in the process of restarting my online shop again, so I can stay here - however long that takes.

I would love to be well off, last time I had a full time job I was and it was nice - but the stress of it and being away from my dogs is something I don't care to repeat.  I'd rather be skint.  And had I not lost it then I would have now anyway as the place is shutting down :-P

What I object to in this article is the whim of it all - seeing an ad while on holiday and going on impule to see the pup.  That is just wrong - no research of the breed, no preparation for ownership, asking herself how they were even going to get it home FFS!  Ridiculous.

>no research of the breed, no preparation for ownership, asking herself how they were even going to get it home FFS!  Ridiculous.

We don't know that - they may have discussed puppies for ages, but thought perhaps the time wasn't then right. It says they'd both been brought up with dogs, so it's not as if they were total novices.

What I'm more concerned about is the fact this dog and the pup belonging to Catherine and William appear to be working cockers, not the show type.

Why? They both know dogs, they both shoot, they live in the countryside and she is about to be alone for at least 6 weeks, sounds a good idea to me.

And the family is rather known for working gundogs. :)

> last time I had a full time job I was and it was nice - but the stress of it and being away from my dogs is something I don't care to repeat. 

Can you really finance your life by renting out a room?

I gave up work shortly after getting our first dog when my husband came off shifts but of course, we did still have his salary.
However, it left us way down the level of earnings that other people we knew would say was impossible but, as others have said, different people have different notions of what is essential and we were perfectly comfortable with the economies we made. 
I missed work though and went back part time after about three years.

> And the family is rather known for working gundogs.

Our last Lab went back onto the royal lines..

>Geez, nice to know someone in this economy is so well off that they can afford to not work and play with their dog all day

A perfectly ideal situation, don't you think..

> What I'm more concerned about is the fact this dog and the pup belonging to Catherine and William appear to be working cockers, not the show type

erm, the family have been breeding and working gundogs for the last 60years or more, I would be more surprised if they had bought a show type lol...

Sorry I didn't explain myself properly, of course I realise that they would be used to working dogs, I'm worried about byb and puppy farmers breeding working cockers just to sell to the public so they can have the same dog as them. IMO they are a very high active breed that need knowledgeable owners.

I see where you are coming from but unfortunately that boat has sailed a few years back, backyard breeders are already flooding the free ads with Working Cockers, which people are mistakenly buying as Show types.

Fortunately, as far as I can see (but haven't read many mags and newspapers so may be wrong) working cocker hasn't been mentioned just Cocker Spaniel as their newly acquired pup.

As most people don't know the difference even from the photo's shown, hopefully those who jump on the Cocker band wagon to mimic the royals will have a splattering of both strains, probably no worse than before. ***fingers crossed***

It might hit the potential sales of other breeds as Cockers go up by those who wish to mimic, but who knows, it may not have any affect at all. :-)

Be interesting to see next year, if black Cocker ownership has risen. :-D

Well some of us make the CHOICE to be less well off, always scrimp for money, never buy new clothes until the old fall apart etc, to enable us to stay at home and have dogs -I'd personally never have a dog if nobody was at home during the day. Hence my husband goes to work, I do not. Does not make us well off in any sense of the word whatsoever, quite the opposite. It's an individual choice, like some mothers go back to work, others do not. What's right for one person isn't necessarily right for another.

Please understand I was being sincere! I would love to have that choice but unfortunately I don't because if I don't work, I don't eat. Right now I can't find work and I'm struggling, I was only saying that it must be lovely to be able to do that but some of us simply can't, and the article paints it like it's this simple choice to stay at home with your dog all day but in this day and age, like you say, some really have to spread their butter thin to achieve such a luxury.

Well personally I was annoyed just by the headline, "Cuddlier than a Corgi". Not that I'm biased or anything!

Anyways, Lorraine Candy's column was more ridiculous than normal this week. She informs us this week that if you don't walk or train your dog, it behaves badly! Who'd have thought.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2098424/LORRAINE-CANDY-Our-dogs-stupid-picked-puppy-instead-ball-ran-it.html

I read this yesterday and it made me so angry !!!
Like lots of people with more money than sense, they got in a dog trainer and low and behold it did not work.
It was them that needed the training !!! How many times do we here of this of course a dog will behave for a trainer but then not for the owner. The trainer has the knowledge and techniques !!! Just another example of lazy dog ownership buy a dog make no effort to train the dog, and then blame the poor dog when things go wrong.
I hope lots of people who are better at writing than me can reply to this silly woman, and show her up for what she is.

> Geez, nice to know someone in this economy is so well off that they can afford to not work and play with their dog all day

That'll be me and my dogs then.

Ive not encountered much separation anxiety when I do leave them - but then Ive being living this way for a very long time, we seem to have managed :)