Just wondered if anyone on here ever has people thinking it is ok to pass comment on the number of dogs they have ?. My neighbour (not the one we fell out with) decided the other day to pass comment when we (the family) were returning from our local field where my 2 cav's love a good run around. He decided to blurt out "oh here they are with more dogs than crufts" !!!! why do people think it's ok to blurt things out like that. OK they are a non pet family and choose to have no pets at all but each to their own and all that

I don't see a problem. There are people in the village who call out to me "Got the whole pack out?" (I've only got three dogs now) and I just smile and call back "Yes, it saves time taking them all at once." or something like that. It's no big deal. :-)

Do you only have two? If so that was an odd remark as two is not many. I have a few more than that and I tell my kids that if the neighbours ask how many dogs then to say four.....(this being a lie of course.) My friend next door but one has 7 ands gets paranoid about them making a noise in case the neighbours cause a problem. I work very hard at keeping mine to a respectable noise level.
People do think you are odd if you have a few. Someone told me 'that people today want to live in silence' and I think thats true. Neighbours have an opinion on everything.......oh what I would give to live in the middle of nowhere.

well i only have 2 but would have more just OH non too keen to adding to them, the cavs come in 4 colours and i would have one of each !!!

I always get 'You've got your hands full there' type comments.  Well yes, I do in that I have a lead in each hand generally but I only have two dogs and they walk nicely at my side on the lead so aren't really a 'handful' at all.  Doesn't really bother me as we don't often get negative comments, just stupid ones.

I have a nice neighbour(not joined) who if manages to catch me, comments on anything..eg when am I going the tip, if I have put something out and it is there more than a day. If my car isnt there he wants to know why, and whats wrong with it. I dont really mind but I wouldnt dream of commenting on his lifestyle and arrangements. I had awful neighbours prior to the one I have now, who is a slight improvement. I think this is probably the price we have to pay for living in suburbia.

Some people think I have one, lovely when the dogs all look the same!  They cant tell who is Casie and who is Cher. 

The people who know I have more than one (right now 7) think I am absolutely crazy.  When I say 4 are mine, and 3 are my moms, they still think I am crazy.  They are sure to make comments on my mental status all the time.  If I could keep them all I would, but that isnt the case.

One person, when I said I was going to go down to 4 living here, was like "Thats still a lot of dog!"  I said, not really, only 24 lbs worth!!!!!  LOL

Usually, though, the ones that make comments either arent dog people, or only have one very unruley dog! 

my own family do this and i reply nobody moaned when my sister had yet other baby and shes got three!!!!
that soon shuts them up.LOL

Yes neighbour who commented have no pets at all, so arent pet like. The son would die for a dog but it is a firm NO i think. Yes had the odd comment which is oh got your hands full and thats me with only 2 and they are small, well yes as someone said i do have my hands full if they are on lead and i hold one in each hand. I would love another 2 but hubby would move out i think (mmmmmmm that's an idea HA). Mum has dog sat for us when we have been on holiday but not since we got the new additional in december, and up to now said she wouldn't have 2 dogs for me when i go away, so if we go somewhere that's not doggie i dont know what i would do, i'd have to hunt and hunt for a kennel that i would trust

yes newf3 my mum passed comment when i was getting the pup. but she does that now and then and still thinks i'm a kid i think, not married with 3 kids 2 dogs of my own !! you know the "what do you want another dog for" comment

i dont have any kids and mum's now calling my three her Grand Sons as my sisters three kids are all girls.
Now im 38 shes given up asking when are you going to have a baby?
My boys are my babys (but are treated as dogs not kids).
I also get the odd got your hands full whats that comment but useally i just smile and walk on.

My neighbours think I'm just taking the same two out over and over........very typey cavs in my house. I've lost count the number of times folk say they can't tell mine apart.

I don't mind them thinking I'm completely bonkers :-)

Yes i get comments like yours from my dad,what on earth do you want more dogs for,have you not got enough animals.

Ive been married 32yrs and he still says it.....the funny part is he loves them to bits.

When im out walking them,the only thing people say me is how lovely they are together.

I get the 'you've got your hands full' comment nearly everyday, it drives me mad! if I'm in a good mood they just get a smile but if I'm feeling a bit moody!!! they just get ' no they are not they are all trained thankyou. One time I did get 'have you got enough enough dogs' and this person didn't mean it in a joking way I just replied ' no and this is only two-thirds of the dogs I own' that shut em up. I think I'm known as the crazy dog lady in my village!!!!

Sometimes I think people say such things when they are trying to be friendly but don't understand your interest, so they just blurt out something. 

Every morning when me and OH walk our 5 through the park we pass a couple of really nice but very drunk guys and every morning we get the same comment, 'here comes best in show'. I think it's quite sweet, as we walk past they nod and smile at the dogs and then finish with,' look at little uns'.

Yes i get funny comments, people think im mad! they are probably right though :) i walk mine seperately unless we go to the fields, as pup needs the one to one at the mo....lead and manners etc, Roxi gets walked seperately if we go to busy dog areas (fear aggressive) And Dex is just a pleasure. So i am always out with the dogs!! people just think i'm crackers :):)

tooolz, can i ask how many cav's you have, and what colours etc, yes true i dont care what people say, my dogs and i love them to bits etc

dexter i'm lucky that i walk my 2 together, they are great, as 8 month follows 2 year etc all over the place, we have a massive field by where i live so am lucky and they get a good run off lead every day. is 3 much more hassle than 2 or do you recommend ? tempted with another one but hubby would hang me i think

Recently found out the local force knows us and our house as the ones "with afew dogs and wear hi viz jackets at night" :-D (Would like to point we haven't had a police officer in the house for over 10 years since my bro fell off his bike after a car swearved into him!)

So although not so many comments apart from "my thats alot of dogs" we are more knowen then we think.

Also we have started a trend and now see more dog walkers at night with hi-viz jackets! :-D

ice queen, how many dogs do you have ? and if you can say what type?

4 setters.

and do you find that 4 are no more trouble than 2 or 3 or would you say stick to 2
i would love another cav, OH doesnt but could convince, i am home all day and lots of ime love etc to offer more dogs, i know my mother would have something to say ! but she doesnt live here so ..................

once you go past two it's no big difference and we had 6 last year.  However we have 5 people in the house and the most difficult thing is walking more then 2 per person. (Easily solved in our house!) 

We will go upto 5 again this year. However it's all down to the individual people.  We have 3 people who can train the dogs for show and obedience and 2 others who can spoile the dogs and like to teach the tricks too.  We don't have holidays together, someone is always around for the dogs etc etc each dog has training away from the others aswell as getting training as a group!

I keep telling my mom that the only grandkids she will ever get from me is the dogs.  I think she is ok with that, as for the past couple years I have been begging the doctor to "spay" me LOL  My sister can have the kids, and the cats, and I will have the dogs!!! 

well there is 5 in our house, me hubby and 3 kids, so if i had more dogs then we could take one each and have a spare hand on a child LOL, we are lucky that we have a 2 minute walk to a massive field where we can let hem off to play, roam, and run, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm thinking and looking at puppy sites. seen a 22month old that needs rehoming, mmmmm

crespin, you might be surprised one day with a human addition !

>do you find that 4 are no more trouble than 2 or 3 or would you say stick to 2

I'd say you have no problem until the combined bodyweight of dogs is is more than your own bodyweight.

well hopefully i wouldnt have any trouble with cav's then !

Oh Crespin you sound so similar to me!  Luckily neither my parents or OH''s prents want grandchildren and are both happy with grand puppies insted! :-D

I've just got my 3rd dog, and was asked by someone had i not got enough dogs. Just told him that dogs are like Pringles 1 is never enough. My dogs are more than pets, they are my hobby and my stress busters. There is nothing like the feeling I get when I work my dogs and it all goes right. But I guess some people will never get that and I feel sorry for them.

blackandgrey i think you said it all, my dogs are my stress busters, they come and sit by me of a night and curl up to me, they ask no questions love me and follow me everywhere etc and i love them to death, oh god i'm talking myself into getting another !!!!

I dont tend to walk where other walk, priviledged to have a lot of land to myself.. but if going into town.. only 1 comes with me.. if walking in wildlife park etc.. only 3 or 4 at a time... no-one comments anymore lol

it's funny but when my three children were very little people were always telling me i had my hands full and it used to get on my nerves 'cause i loved taking them out and about and mostly they were brilliantly behaved.they are all grown up now and i have a lab who is young and bouncy and when i'm out with her and she's pulling,people tell me i've got my hands full!babies and dogs,dogs and babies,people can't help having their say especially when you don't want to hear it.

I sometimes get comments like "you've got your hands full" when I am out with three of ours. But when people comment why we have so many dogs (4), then I just say that "why have people 4 kids when 1 would do"... Most then agree...

someone said to me recently you have your hands full, and i only have 2 well behaved (when he passed the comment) medium dogs and have no idea why he said it!

I live in the country within a row of 8 houses. My lovely next door neighbour is always teasing about getting a pair of roller skates, or skis, depending on the weather ;-) I have 4 dogs and walk them together most of the time. 5 minutes after leaving the house they are running loose, but I do need haltis for 2 of them before they are let loose. I do get the 'that's a handful' type of of comment, but I get that even if I only have one dog with me. Then I also get the 'where are the others?' I rarely take them into town, or if I do it is just one of them for training purposes. Then I usually just get the 'what a lovley dog - what is it?' comment.

Ha... yes the 'you've got your hands full' comment... get that all the time! Especially when I've got the first string of 4 dogs and the double buggy with a baby and a toddler!!

The response they get depends on the mood I'm in and whether I can be bothered to get in any conversation... it normally shuts them up when I say it's not even half of them!

Mums at my toddler group are tearing their hair out with one child and no pets and to be honest I do wonder what all the fuss is about!

Kay

We've just got our 3rd - OH only told his Mum last night after we'd had him a week (OH is 45!). She thinks we are mad - his sister has 3 sons but I bet she never once said 'why do you want another baby?' to her, lol :-D

I wouldn't have 3 if it was all down to me to look after them, same as I wouldn't have 2 horses, but OH and I share our hobbies, we both ride and compete the horses and we both train, walk and eventually will compete with the dogs, so our lives revolve around them, but I still think they are less reponsibilty than children!

Luckily we drive 10 mins and then walk ours off lead, which means we can also take the puppy and carry him - yesterday we were walking along in the woods, 2 big dogs running around, OH carrying pup, and we heard a little girl say 'look at the puppy with its mummy and daddy' - don't know which of our boys was supposed to be the mummy, lol! But they obviously don't see many people with 3 and assume its a family????

Took me years to persuade OH to get a 2nd, 3rd was easy, now he's talking about number 4! I'd never go back to one, though, I love to see them interact and play, and they actually need less attention from me as they go off and amuse themselves.

I would NEVER say a similar thing to anybody about children - I know several people who have 3 children and wouldn't dream of passing comment, but as other posters have said, some people just don't understand what our dogs mean to us. Maybe to them it's the same as asking 'what do you want another car for? ;-) - they compare a dog to a possession rather than a child or family member :-(

Actually walking five of mine and on occasion 6 if I have one visiting I get the hands full and why have you so many, and I do the same ask why do some people have  ore than a couple of children?

I also get the 'How do you tell them apart', answer same as telling people apart.

i have had the odd comment especially when walking one of the big ones and a little one together, but i just tend to smile,
i always walk in a hi vis jacket, and i also put it on when on the bike with the dogs,
but the other weekend we went to the woods with my two grandhchildren 4 adults and 12 dogs all different breeds not all mine but what a sight to be seen
but the amount of people that said wow, they are so well trained as when anyone was aproaching us they where all made to lie down and wait until
the person had passed the only one we had a problem with was the new puppy wanted to say hello to everyone and thought it great
that all his buddys had to lie down and he could run around,
but the biggest laugh we got we where aproaching the local cafe and there was people sitting outside  etc
and the dogs where lolliping around playing as we came around the corner i just shouted WAIT, and they all stood still but what got the laugh was
my grandchildren stood still in amongst the dogs and we all said sit who where walking with them and the kids sat as well, this man applauded us and said
can you please come and teach my kids to behave as well.
for such a large pack of dogs that could of been intimedating for anyone everyone that we met was so pleasent to us and we where proud of the dogs and
the kids as well.

Loucan,

Hi, I have 5 blenheim bitches and 2 blenheim dogs all pretty much marked the same - just like this one--->

I'm showing two unrelated bitches (both bred here) with only 6 weeks between their ages and I've been amazed that hardly anyone can tell which is which.

I always wanted 2 dogs once i had my own house, so after lots of research i got my 2 dogs, after a year i decided 'one more wouldnt hurt'...ha what statement....it then crept up to 5, we out grew the house, moved and 7 years on and i now have 13 all large breed...i wouldn't have it any other way and as for the OH well he dont really get a choice. We dont have children, just the dogs...they are all the children i want :)

> thinking and looking at puppy sites. seen a 22month old that needs rehoming, mmmmm

Please take care with 'puppy sites', these are often the dumping grounds for BYB and for every pup bought from these places leaves a space for the 'breeder' to have another litter from the poor bitches.
Wait until a pup from a much longed for litter is born from healthy parents who's owners has loved and cared for them all their llives and intends to keep one themself......a really important factor.
People who routinely have whole litters for sale are 'product producers'.

A 22 month cav from a 'puppy product site' will probably be a breeding cast off......better to contact your local CKCS rescue co-ordinator.

Sorry if I'm preaching to the converted and for going off topic but you will not be the only ones reading this post and CKCS are one of the most exploited breeds on these sites.

I'll wind my kneck back in now :-(

I've had third dog for five weeks now and still haven't told my mum or best friend - they wouldn't understand :-(

I find myself making excuses to people who see me out with new one and I never walk all three together.

That's sad.... why on earth shouldn't you have as many dogs as you can reasonably give a happy healthy life to?

You don't have a guilty secret :-)  you own 3 lovely dogs. The Queen owns considerably more :-)

> One person, when I said I was going to go down to 4 living here, was like "Thats still a lot of dog!"  I said, not really, only 24 lbs worth!!!!!  LOL
>

so proportionatly less than 1 big one :)

> I'd say you have no problem until the combined bodyweight of dogs is is more than your own bodyweight

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!! then how am i to have my many mastiffs?? i shall have to get even fatter!! Tios more than half my weight by himself!

tooolz, thanks for the advice, yes when i got my other 2 i waited and waited until the right breeder came up with the right pup for me, and i travelled many hundreds of miles to collect her, pup was much nearer. 22 month cav that needs rehoming they say because they are opening boarding kennels ?????? new one on me though cos cant you have your own dog, mmm strange maybe

I get the 'hands full' comment all the time - even though I only walk two of my dogs, and they are really no trouble at all!

When we go out with our dog walking club though that's always fun - there's usually anything from 5-12 dogs with us, ranging from Chihuahua puppies to fully grown St Bernards - it's rare that we pass someone and don't get a comment.

I often meet people with small dogs who say to their own dogs "careful as he may eat you for his dinner"
I,ve just learned to grin and ignore it now but it can rub you up the wrong way especially as he is a female and more often than not its the small dog thats being a pest.