Would you be prepared to put your dog before your job? There will be times when you will have to do this. Putting your wants aside - do you hand on heart feel that you can offer a dog - a lifestyle it will be happy with for the forseeable future?
Thanks again for all the comments posted so far. Is this a choice I really have to make? My feeling is, there are many things that make me me. That includes my personal thoughts, family, friends, artists and authors whoes thoughts, feelings and life experiences I share, education and knowledge, writing, contributing to society and humanity - these are some of the things that make up what my life is about, and they are all equally important to me. Some times I have to prioritise one over the other, but in general my aim is to have a steady balance of how all these factors fit into my life. In other words, there is not one that is more important to me than the others - they all count, I guess they serve the same need in different ways.
If I got a dog, it would be as important to me as any of the other aspects in my life. Not more. I wouldn't prioritize it over my job - that wouldn't be fair to me but I wouldn't prioritize my job over it - that wouldn't be fair to the dog. Sometimes I may need to do one or the other. But that would be the exception, not the rule.
What is the life style that is best for a dog? I volunteered with Crisis Open Christmas this Christmas (shelter for homeless people), and I had never seen more devoted, loyal and loved up dogs than those owned by some of the homeless people. They were extremely well trained and I can genuinely put my hand on my heart and say those dogs were happy. And their homeless owners had
nothing to offer them except love and affection.
Is the ideal lifestyle for a dog based on our idea of comfort as human beings? :roll:
And because this has been raised a few times I think I should address it briefly :wink: I don't ask for alternative opinions or arguments to my personal conclusions because I doubt them. :? It just makes me more sure of the action I take following a wide range of criticisms and appraisals. If I don't change my mind - I know even better than before what sort of challenges lay ahead of me and I know I am confident enough to attempt inspite of them. And if I do change my mind - then I wasn't ready to take up that challenge and needed to wait until I had the strength of conviction to either forge ahead with my plans, or make adjustments to the initial plan until I feel confident I can follow it through.
Your different views on the matter are very important to me. I guess you are all right about one thing - I have the make the final choice for myself :shock: I can't really leave it on your heads