# Cujo, the sad, abused, neglected chained dog has a visitor...



## selzer (May 7, 2005)

Yep, Cujo is a Chained Dog. The old people that own him, see no problem with chaining dogs. Their daughter (a breeder) removed the spiral tie-out that the little English Setter sometimes got loose from the earth, and put in a big dog tie out before giving them the dog. 

The tie out is set up so that the end of the chain reaches the back door. The dog can watch the cars go by in front of the house, or on the nearby side street, and he can also watch people going into the insurance company.

Today, when Mom went down to let him in, some lady is out there feeding him treats. "Is that ok?" 

Cujo could be on a special diet. He could be allergic to nasty ingredients sourced in China. He could be guarding the house and property he is chained to. He could be getting plenty of goodies and treats inside the owner's home. But whatever. 

Someone sees the poor chained dog and thinks he is neglected. "Poor Cujo" could use some neglecting. The boy is the crowned prince around here. They set the TIMER when they put him outside. He has more toys than we did growing up -- they have a MUCK BUCKET in the Foyer for HIS TOYS! Treats are 100% chicken, but he also gets to lick out Jello, apple sauce, and pudding cups, and his primary function is Pre-Wash and Leftover Management. 

A month or so ago, someone came to the front door because Cujo had been out longer than usual: 1/2 hour in the morning, ten minutes the rest of the time, and as my folks are "getting-on" the lady thought my mother maybe fell or something. 

Cujo is a house-dog folks. They let him out on a chain to smell the grass and do his business. I just hope no one feels they need to steal him to protect him from his life of chained captivity. 

I told my mom that if that lady got bit by him, they would be liable. She said she was throwing the treats to him. My cynical mind thinks its poison. People should really not feed or give treats to dogs they do not know without permission. It is odd.


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## Germanshepherdlova (Apr 16, 2011)

Very good point, never give a dog treats or food without the owners permission FIRST.

I have a neighbor who doesn't have a fenced in yard, and so they tie their dog out for short periods of time so that he can relieve himself. Their dog is spoiled rotten, it is not an active breed either. He eats whatever they are having for dinner, has his own spot on the couch, chooses who's bed he will spend the night in (they have children), and he is 15 years old! To each their own I guess, whatever works for them.


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## Lmilr (Jan 12, 2011)

Aw poor Cujo....sounds like a horrible horrible life. :crazy:

Can I come live with your mom?


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## Lilie (Feb 3, 2010)

I catch people feeding the horses over the fence in our side pasture. They actually stop their vehicles in the road and walk over to the fence. Therefore, I never leave the horses in that pasture unless I'm home. When I'm gone (at work) they are in a back pasture that butts up to other pastures.


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## vat (Jul 23, 2010)

I so agree! I found out that my neighbor feed Max a prime rib bone one night. I was freaking ticked when he told me. My hubby being the nice guy told him to please not feed our dog and I know he will not again. But...I was freaked by what could have happened to him.


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## ponyfarm (Apr 11, 2010)

I think it is good that people do check to make sure the dog is not out all the time. Everyone here would complain if there was a dog chained out all the time. You don't always know the situation.


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## Daisy&Lucky's Mom (Apr 24, 2011)

Cujo sounds like he has a great life. I dont feed other peoples dogs w/out asking first.If they say no.then I dont. Daisy and Lucky have been with us at lakes mainly where there no picnic are. They have chains to keep them in the area my husband is fishing around. I think the ASPCA has raised awareness of the plight of chained animals however both Cujo's owners and the dog who has the same dinner that his humans have obviously are not who the campaign is targeted at.


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## Lilie (Feb 3, 2010)

I wonder if I stand in the yard with a chain around my neck, if someone would bring me some snacks and perhaps even an adult beverage.........


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## Catu (Sep 6, 2007)

When I lived more in the city I discovered a bone that had been given to Diabla over the 6 foot fence. I encountered the neighbor the next day and told him how Diabla had been SO SICK all night whith diahrrea and vomiting and feeling so miserable that the only reason we didn't rushed to the ER was because my roommate was a vet.

It wasn't true, Diabla enjoyed the bone until I removed it, but at least I didn't find more of those in the yard.


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## wyominggrandma (Jan 2, 2011)

I am so sorry Lilie, don't think you can wag your tail as fast as an english setter. Probably don't have those long silky ears either.

I don't have an issue with a dog being chained as long as they have most their time inside the house with the family. Sounds as if Cujo has a wonderful life with lots of folks that love him.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

See that's the thing, until we switched to our current food, we were having some nasty skin problems with Cujo, thus the 100% chicken treats, etc., and never any scraps. But that has been seriously relaxed, at least for human food. Dog food and treats I am still pretty anal about. People really should ask before they start throwing stuff to your dogs. They have no idea if the dog has EPI or SIBO or food allergies, or need to be on a strict diet because of a tendency for obesity. 

Since Dad is out, Cujo is on his spot on the landing 3/4 of the way upstairs, overlooking the vestibule and foyer, and next to the window overlooking our driveway. He opened the shop with me, and will close it with me, and we spent some time on the front porch hanging out.


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## katieliz (Mar 29, 2007)

when dogs are left unattended, whether it be on a chain or loose or even in a fenced yard, for a short period of time or a bit longer or all the time, the fact is if they are unattended you have no control over who does/gives what to them. it only takes a moment for the unthinkable to happen.

and if only the world ran on what people "should" do. what an awsome thing that would be, huh???


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

LOL, Cujo is a GSD, Pippy was an English Setter. He was working lines, a Llewelyn, nowadays he would be called a Llewelyn Setter. But yeah, I do not think humans in chains gives people that same sorry for you feeling as dogs. So I think you would be out of luck looking for treats or adult beverages that way.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

katieliz said:


> when dogs are left unattended, whether it be on a chain or loose or even in a fenced yard, for a short period of time or a bit longer or all the time, the fact is if they are unattended you have no control over who does/gives what to them. it only takes a moment for the unthinkable to happen.
> 
> and if only the world ran on what people "should" do. what an awsome thing that would be, huh???


True, but people should respect people's property right and stay out of other people's yards and keep away from their dogs. Pip and Cujo shared the chain for about two or three years, Pip was ok on this set up for nearly 15 years, and Before Pip, we had Princess for fourteen years out there in the nineties, and before there was Tramp here in the eighties, there was Perky in Cleveland back in the seventies. 

People didn't bother your dog when it was secure in your yard years ago. And not that many years ago. We have had dogs in the seventies, eighties, nineties, oughts, and now. This was not a dog chained out for the day, he was chained to go potty. And there is nothing wrong with that. The dog does not FEEL left out or isolated or whatever it is everyone says. Actually he acts kind of how people describe their dogs acting when they pull out the prong collar -- I suppose that means he LOVES to be chained in the back yard. Or maybe he just really has to go. I dunno. I think this is a rather new thing.

Scary people would stop their car and feed your horse though. My people might do something drastic if they cought people doing that.


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## wyominggrandma (Jan 2, 2011)

oops sorry. Okay I regress, Lilie, there is NO WAY you can be a cute as a german sherpherd and I bet your ears are not half as long.... No chains around your neck and no adult drinks. Sorry


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

It is the eyes, GSD eyes are masterpieces when it comes to begging. A human can't possibly hold a candle to dem eyes.


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## wyominggrandma (Jan 2, 2011)

We have had people stop and feed our horses grass over the fence. One is a half draft horse and by the time he sticks his big fat head into their faces, they usually leave.
I don't worry too much about the horses being fed anything bad, horses usually spit out anything that doesn't taste good, and mine tend to be picky: won't eat apples, carrots or things like that, they like horse candy.
My Berner would eat anything handed to him, in one big gulp. He is in the back away from the front of the house. Holly isn't usually outside that much.


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## katieliz (Mar 29, 2007)

i actually agree about what people "should" do, but i've seen and heard about absolutely tragic things happening to animals that are left unattended, even for a short amount of time. and yes, things are much, much different in the current world than they ever have been (or maybe it's always been so terrible and we just didn't have the means to know everything that happens everywhere, like we do now). i know everybody wants to keep on doing things like they've always done them. i've seen such awful consequences of that mindset.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

I was reading some book, where the kid was told to never eat anything that the horse would not eat, that way they would know if it was something good for eating, I cannot remember the book though.


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## katieliz (Mar 29, 2007)

:spittingcoffee:


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## Germanshepherdlova (Apr 16, 2011)

selzer said:


> True, but people should respect people's property right and stay out of other people's yards and keep away from their dogs.


:thumbup:


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## DCluver33 (May 27, 2010)

I had my neighbor feed my dogs when I wasn't home and Molly is on a special diet not treat's unless it's green beans or 100% chicken or something healthy. I was so mad when I found out, I told my neighbor to never every feed my dogs without asking me first and if he wanted to feed them something fine, I will give you something from my stash to feed them. I don't understand why he felt the need to feed my dogs when I wasn't home to begin with, he had no right to be by my gate. Oh well it's done and I already talked to him about it.


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## katieliz (Mar 29, 2007)

i am confused...you say "i had my neighbor feed my dogs", but then go on to say you told him to "never ever feed my dogs without asking me first", and "he had no right to be by my gate".

but that is the point of my post...that if dogs are left out unattended you simply cannot control other people's behavior, regardless of what they "should" or shouldn't do.


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## Rerun (Feb 27, 2006)

Think the person was saying..."I've had my neighbor feed my dogs without my permission previously...'


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## Rerun (Feb 27, 2006)

Thankfully, I've not had this happen. That I know of anyway. The worst one might do is give them a dog biscuit, and really now if I ever have a dog that keels over and dies from being fed a dog biscuit, it was probably that dogs time to go anyway.

I am thankful, however, that my elderly neighbor across the street was smart enough not to toss over the cooked bones of the remains of him grilling out last year. A couple days in a row, I found a bag of cooked bones with some chunks of meat left in a zip lock baggie on our mailbox. I knew it was coming from a neighbor as they are all good people, but wasn't sure who until I talked to one in regular conversation. I thanked him so much for his thoughtfullness, but explained they couldn't eat cooked bones. I was worried if I didn't say that, that he might toss some over the fence one day if he thought they were safe. He was just trying to be kind. And I'm glad in his kindness he was also smart enough not to do it himself.

I do agree people should leave others pets alone, and stay off their property. My comment above regarding the biscuit was in regards to the comments from others about allergies, etc.


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## Rerun (Feb 27, 2006)

And by the way, one of mine does have EPI and allergies. And even she can eat the cheapo dog biscuits with no problems.


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## Germanshepherdlova (Apr 16, 2011)

I have never had a neighbor feed anything to my dogs, they learned their lesson before we moved in. The 89 year old man that we bought the house from had a dog, and one day the neighbors had a barbecue and gave his dog a bone. The owner of the dog had no idea that this had occurred and apparently the dog swallowed a large chunk of the bone and it cause an obstruction in his intestine. The neighbor who gave the dog the bone hadn't seen the dog around for a few days and so he asked the dogs owner about the dogs whereabouts and was informed that the dog had stopped eating and passed away. I do not know all the details but I know that when we got our dog the neighbor who had given the dog the bone wanted to get this story off his chest and told us what had happened and he said that he had never told the dogs owner the story but that he had felt terrible about what had happened. 
This same neighbor would knock on our door every so often and hand us a bag full of steak cut up in small pieces for our dog, but he never gave Brutus anything himself, he'd give it to us for our approval.


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## Rerun (Feb 27, 2006)

wow, the guilt he must've felt. What a sad story for all involved.

What's sadder is that it takes time to die from an obstruction, and the owners never took the poor dog to the vet.


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## crackem (Mar 29, 2006)

and yet another case where people think they know better and feel it is within in their right to interject themselves into the lives of others.


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## holland (Jan 11, 2009)

The flip side of it-is they also seem to be keeping an eye on the owners recognizing that they are elderly and may have fallen in the house-and check on them-don't think thats a bad thing. My friend went away to Florida and while she was gone the house next door which is empty the pipes froze and burst flooding the house-people walked by and saw it but did nothing-wouldn't want that to happen either


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## DCluver33 (May 27, 2010)

katieliz said:


> i am confused...you say "i had my neighbor feed my dogs", but then go on to say you told him to "never ever feed my dogs without asking me first", and "he had no right to be by my gate".
> 
> but that is the point of my post...that if dogs are left out unattended you simply cannot control other people's behavior, regardless of what they "should" or shouldn't do.


how was my post confusing? he was by my fate with no one in my house home feeding my dogs when he had no buisness being there in the first place. my neighbor is a little strange and knows better than to feed strange dogs without asking first, he's like a 50 year old man and supposedly watches his sisters dogs so it's not like he doesn't know how to act around dogs. there was absolutely no reason for him to be standing outside my gate befriending my dogs when I wasn't home. Molly, my BC mix, is on a special diet because of her weight issue. she doesn't get treats very often and if she does it's healthy things like green beans or chicken. when I found out he was feeding my dogs, without permission, I asked him to stop feeding my dogs when no one was home (I thought that was strange to begin with why not feed them when someone's home?). he could have been poisoning my dogs without me k owing it because who knows what he was feeding them. other people should k ownthat you never ever feed other people's animals without permission.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

It's funny though because, while I call my mother Elderly One, they are NOT elderly quiet yet -- neither of them are even seventy yet -- getting close though, 50 years married in October.

Still, when you are 20 something, Sixty something might seem _elderly._ I am not all that upset at the neighbor timing how long the dog is out there, and then checking to see if my Mom is ok, but the stranger feeding the dog in the back yard. Yes, a crappy store bought biscuit is not going to kill him, but what if the dog was going in for surgery that morning. You did not let the dog eat or drink after midnight to prevent the dog aspirating or choking on something under anesthetic. 

People should just not feed other people's dogs without permission. And people should be able to feel comfortable putting their dog out in their back yard to potty without standing right out there with them. 

I feel sorry for the guy who gave the bone to the dog that died, but he still should not have done it. Sad. That is a hard lesson to learn.


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## Jax's Mom (Apr 2, 2010)

selzer said:


> People should just not feed other people's dogs without permission. And people should be able to feel comfortable putting their dog out in their back yard to potty without standing right out there with them.


I think this is why people think it's "safer" for them to cram their dog in a crate alone all day long. 
If I wasn't afraid of meddling do-gooders, I could do a lot more things with my dogs (like leave them in the car while I run into a store or if i could tie them up in front of a store, they'd get more walks).
Just last week I had someone in a parking lot next to my truck waiting to tear my head off for leaving my dog in there so long... she said in another few minutes she was going to break the window or call the cops... I was confused for a moment, thought maybe she was talking about someone else's truck? We clarified that it was my truck she was talking about, I told her there are no dogs in there. She replies "oh yes there is, I heard it."...I'm not sure if she was just calling my bluff or schizophrenic, I had to open the truck for her, show her that the crate was empty before the nutcase relented. I guess I should consider myself lucky that this "kind, caring and compassionate credit to the human race" didn't bust my windows for no reason?


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

While I am not a fan of crating for long periods, I do have them in my house and use them for eating and sleeping. My parents do not even have a crate. They had one when he was a puppy and got rid of it. 

When my sister started bringing her adopted one year old's over, she brought over a large pet-yard. My mom would not hear of Cujo being confined in it while the kids were there, which is what I suggested. Cujo lives here. Instead the kids' toys were put inside, and they found refuge from the dog in the pen. 

Cujo is not stellar with children, the one year olds are now four, and we have a new one year old -- fresh baby for him to love on. The four year old's say Cujo is Their dog. 

This is not a matter of tying the dog out back for nine or ten hours while you are away at work. 

I am glad they did not break your windows. I keep dog crates in my car all the time. And, after the sun goes down, there are often dogs in those crates. But I am nervous about having dogs in my car while the sun is up. Someone could come by and shut the hatch. So, I usually leave windows down too, and run and check on them but mostly I only take one (that can be with me) or leave them home when the weather is bad.


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## Germanshepherdlova (Apr 16, 2011)

I don't crate my dogs at all and never have. When I am not home (usually 7 hours a days 3 days a week) and then other days to run errands, my dogs are left to roam the house. They do not break anything and I put anything up that could harm them. When they are puppies I do confine them into a small area of the house with safety gates, until they are house broken and until they stop chewing things.


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