Why Should Your Dog Live Indoors?

Video Transcript

"I'm Sylva Kelegian with Expert Village, here with Simone Luncher from Pet Mania in Burbank and we do rescue together and we're here to talk about today the importance of when you adopt a dog to make sure that dog is a part of your family and not an outdoor dog. A lot of people get dogs, they think they're going to be guard dogs and they put them outside but dogs can't guard your house if they're in the backyard. People are going to break into your house, the dog can't do anything about it. So I don't suggest getting a dog as a guard dog to begin with but if you're going to do that, please make sure that dog is living inside. Dogs are, even more than we are, very social beings, they have to be with a pack, whether its another dog or their human pack, they must be with a pack and to put an animal, a dog rather, outside by itself is one of the cruelest things you can do. Well it doesn't make sense anyhow, it's like if you have a dog, if you have a pet, it has to be part of the family and as Sylva said, dogs are pack animals and why would you leave your dog outside, it doesn't make any sense unless you know, you have a doggie door and then the dog can choose where he wants to be, in or out, and you know, it's very important that you also have your dog sleep inside. I know in Los Angeles, we don't really have extreme weather but doesn't matter, it could be the heat or could be the extreme cold, it just doesn't make any sense. A lot of people don't keep their dog in the house because it's not house broken, it bites, it chews, it jumps and all these kinds of things. But there's training out there. It's very very easy to train your dog to be house broken. Dogs are incredibly smart beings. The shepherds and the poodles and dogs like that actually have the mentality of a three or four year old child so a lot of people don't realize that, they look at dogs as almost pieces of furniture and they just throw them outside but I'm here to tell you, it's a horrible thing to do. They have feelings, they're smart and they can learn to do anything so if you have an animal, please give it the respect, train the animal and make it part of your family. And the other things is, if you don't have room in your heart, to leave leave the dog outside and you're not interacting, find a good home, find a rescue group who will take it from you, just don't dump him somewhere. Bring him to your local shelter rather than throwing him out on the street, at least he'll have a chance of getting a home from there. Or make posters and signs and put flyers up saying your dog needs a new home. Do a home check to make sure those people taking the dog are taking the dog for the right reasons and also charge a fee because there are a lot of people who get free dogs and they turn around and sell them to research labs, something else we'll be talking about in the next segment."