Is this cruel?.

[margaret*e]

Dressing dogs up in clothes or for Christmas.

Not something I've ever thought about.

in a radio discussion yesterday one of the presenters went off into a real rant about how cruel it was.

https://uk.search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A9mSs27C7XNWeqQA2URLBQx.;_ylc=X1MDMjExNDcxNzAwMwRfcgMyBGZyA3...

[suzieseaside]

I think it depends on what with and where the dog is.  

Obviously not nice for a dog if it is restrictive, and not if the dog is out in public and among other dogs.

An owner should know if their dog isn't happy. If they don't then they probably shouldn't have a dog in the first place.

I don't see any harm for example in putting a santa hat on for a few minutes at home if you want to take a photo.  Not that I have, but that would be something they could shake off if they didn't like it.

The only things that have ever been on my dogs was a ribbon on a collar when one dog was given to me when he was 10 because his owner wasn't interested in him once he retired as a gun dog (he had 5 happy years of retirement with me), and my last dog occasionally wore a waterproof coat when she was old and it was very wet outside when she wanted to go out for a walk.  It was clear to me that she didn't mind that at all.

[jd.linklater]

I wouldn't have regarded it as physically cruel unless something loose around a dog's neck could end up getting entangled in something. But according to the RSPCA the practise can be distressing for dogs and leave then unable to communicate so maybe that could be regarded as psychological cruelty. Difficult to prove I know, but of course you can't ask a dog how it feels about being dressed up. Personally I think it amounts to using an animal as a fashion accessory and to be honest most of the get ups I've seen do look pretty stupid.

  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/12056577/RSPCA-warns-pet-owners-not-to-dress...

[suzieseaside]

Some look so stupid it's hard to believe that the owners wouldn't be embarrassed, but then those who have the type of dogs they view as a fashion accessory probably don't even think.

Others, like these ridiculous dinosaur outfits I think are not only cruel and stupid, but potentially dangerous if out and about. I could imagine another dog might see this as a threat and attack one looking like this

[evoman3957]

Fortunately ( for Dogs ) they don't suffer from the same EGO issues that humans do, so they're not so self indulgent about their image.........or many other issues involving EGO either.

[023mjc]

When I was a kid, I dressed our cat in a dolls cardigan and bonnet and put him in my dolls pram. He slept contentedly for a while but decided to suddenly wake up, jump out of the pram and run off. I was about half a mile away from home at the time.  I slunk home and didn't say anything to my mum. Both my parents were astonished when the cat came home some hours later still wearing his new clothes. Poor old whiskey.

[tommy.irene]

..

[tommy.irene]

[bankhaunter]

I do know a lurcher that wears pyjamas when it goes to bed for the night.

But they are to keep it warm.

[dippychik312]

Yes I would say so but of course it really depends on the dog. I worked with a woman years ago who dressed her dog in the canine equivalent of designer label clothes. In her case she had no children, hence the dog was her child and she treated it as such, another thing I consider to be cruel as dogs are not children.

[vamo48]

My cousin and I did the same when we were kids, dressed my cat up in a woolly baby dress and wheeled him round the garden in a doll's pram!  He was a very placid cat and didn't seem to mind at all, and it was only for a little while.  We never dressed her dog.

I don't like silly clothes for dogs - the most embarrassed looking dog I ever saw was an afghan hound in a pink boiler suit.  My dog has a raincoat as he doesn't like rain falling on him, and it also keeps him cleaner if he decides to roll in the mud in the park, but that's a plain coat and not a silly dressing-up outfit.  A few of his little friends have Christmas jumpers, and really don't seem to mind, though mine's not getting one.

[margaret*e]