# Do you use "family" words with your dogs?



## Emoore (Oct 9, 2002)

Do you refer to your dogs as each other's brother or sister? Do you call yourself Mom or Dad? 

People are always surprised when I refer to Rocky and Kopper as brothers and ask if they're really related. So far I haven't had anyone ask if I'm really their mom.


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## 1sttimeforgsd (Jul 29, 2010)

Yes, I refer to Mandy as the big sister.
Baby is referred to as the little sister.
Ace is referred to as the nasty little brother.(Even though he is the largest)

Husband and I call each other mommy and daddy.

Had to laugh at your comment about not being asked if you were the mom yet.


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## Good_Karma (Jun 28, 2009)

Yep, we are family. My parents call my dogs the grandpuppies. They ask people if they want to see pictures of the grandkids, and then whip out pics of my dogs.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

Let's see I refer to the sisters as sisters, the nieces and aunts as nieces and aunts, the cousins as cousin, and the mothers and daughters as mothers and daughters. I rarely refer to myself as Mom. I am The Susie. They are all my babies, the mangies, pookerbuttkins, etc.


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## JustMeLeslie (Sep 15, 2010)

For some weird reason I don't call all the dogs brothers and sisters I don't know why I don't. Hubby and I are mom and dad though.


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## King&Skylar (Jun 3, 2010)

Yup, I go all-out LOL.
My brothers are "Uncles," my brothers dog is her "cousin", Kayden is her brother (except that's true, lol), my parents are grammy and grampy, and I'm "Mom"

Pretty embarrassing, especially when i say it in front of friends/family hahah..


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## liv (Sep 1, 2010)

We don't call each other mom/dad - the dogs know our names  Funnily enough though, my parents are grandma/grandpa and they call the dogs their grandpuppies. 

Our dogs are cousins, so that's what we call them


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## Chicagocanine (Aug 7, 2008)

I only have one dog now but when I had two I didn't usually call them brother and sister out loud, although I would sometimes write it, such as on their websites. When I did I usually put it in quotation marks "brother" or "sister"... I don't usually call myself mom but I did call my Golden my baby. I would jokingly tell my friends 'shhh, she doesn't know she's adopted...'

I used to call other Golden Retrievers my dog's cousins. Like if we met another Golden I'd say "Hey look Ginger, it's your cousin!" For some reason I don't do that with my GSD though.


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## lisgje (Sep 3, 2010)

Chance is my "baby". My best friends Linda and Kim are his second mommies and my neighbor Anthony and his dog Marco are his "buds". I have no immediate family, so my friends and neighbor make up our "family". If I tell him his buddy Marco is coming over he gets really excited, same if I mention Linda, Kim or Anthony. He knows their names and is happy when I let him know if they are coming over!


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## Good_Karma (Jun 28, 2009)

I'll add that both Niko and Rosa know me and my husband as Mommy and Daddy. I can say "Go get Daddy!", and they will run to my husband, and vice versa.


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## lisgje (Sep 3, 2010)

I say whose your mommy? and he comes running to me. Love it.


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## webzpinner (Mar 7, 2011)

Nope. Never could break the anthropomorphic barrier. I actually get a twist in the gut whenever I'm at the petstore and some lady is baby-talking her chihuahua... "Who's a pwetty pwincess? Yes you ah! Who wants a snackie-wackie?" If the dog is also dressed up (little pink skirt, or a leather jacket, etc), then I just think the person has some level of mental illness. 

I love my dog, but he is an animal I chose to bring into my household. He's not my child. I have two boys who are have a totally different relationship with. They are in no way equals. Buuuuut... that's just me. To each their own.


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## GSDGunner (Feb 22, 2011)

Yep, Gunner is even listed on Facebook as my son.  He has his own page ya know! 

I refer to my cat Nikki as Gunner's sister and Buddy as brother. And vice versa.
They are all my babies. My husband will tell Gunner to go find Momma and he finds me. 
And of course my husband is daddy. When he gets home from work I hear the truck coming down the street and tell Gunner "daddy's home" and he goes wild.


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## GSDGunner (Feb 22, 2011)

webzpinner said:


> Nope. Never could break the anthropomorphic barrier. I actually get a twist in the gut whenever I'm at the petstore and some lady is baby-talking her chihuahua... "Who's a pwetty pwincess? Yes you ah! Who wants a snackie-wackie?" If the dog is also dressed up (little pink skirt, or a leather jacket, etc), then I just think the person has some level of mental illness.
> 
> I love my dog, but he is an animal I chose to bring into my household. He's not my child. I have two boys who are have a totally different relationship with. They are in no way equals. Buuuuut... that's just me. To each their own.


I respect that. It is absolutely a "to each their own". There's no right or wrong in it. It's a personal decision.
I don't, however, talk baby talk. I draw the line there. 
I fully understand that they are animals, but to me they're family. They have personalities and distinctive ones at that. I love them with all my heart and I know they feel the same.


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

I actually don't refer to myself as "mom", my username is just to make fun of the fact that none of our neighbors actually know my name, they just know me as "Jax's Mom".
My parents refer to themselves as "grandma" and "grampa" though... even though technically that would make their dogs my dogs... when I bring this to my dad's attention he tells me, "they're dogs, you know!"


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## Wolfiesmom (Apr 10, 2010)

Wolfie knows us as Mommy and Daddy. He has two human brothers and human sister. His grandparents are called what the kids call them, and when my son speaks to his baby girl about Wolfie, he calls him " uncle Wolfie" lol


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## Lin (Jul 3, 2007)

Yep, I refer to them as the kids and call them sisters. I've also had people ask if they were actually sisters, the funniest is when they ask their ages first and I say Tessa is 6 and Emma 2 and then they ask if they're really littermates :crazy:

My dad refers to the dogs as the grandkids, and his dogs as being my dogs aunt/uncle LOL.


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## Heidibu (Jul 22, 2008)

Count me in...Sister, brothers, 'Lil Bruder (german for brother). I'm mama, DH is daddy. I can say where's daddy, and they go hunting him down. I have a grand-dog too.


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## missmychance (Jan 20, 2011)

Yep, my husband and I are mom and dad. And my son is Frodo's brother. It doesn't matter if I say, where's Shawn or where's your brother, he looks for him.


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## Dogaroo (Mar 4, 2003)

Yeah, I tend to indulge in shameless anthropomorphism. When it comes right down to it, though, no matter how mushy gushy I might be with them sometimes, I never, ever forget that they are _dogs _and should be cherished & respected as such. Actually, I'm more likely to forget that I'm _human_.


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## CarrieJ (Feb 22, 2011)

Yep, it's silly. I'm mom...and DH is dad. And when Alice is being a poo-face...she's Dad's dog.

When Zoey's being a poo-face....it's my mother channeling in from the other side.


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## vicky2200 (Oct 29, 2010)

I am mom, my mom is grandma. I also say brother, when referring to Dakota (when talking to Daisy or Ditto) and Sister or sissy, when referring to Daisy or Ditto (when talking to Dakota.) I think they understand fairly well.


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

we refer to our dog as mom and dad.
we my children are here i'll say give your brother
a treat or give your brother some water, etc.
when my neighbor is here i refer to as aunt with my dog.
our neighbor has helped us with our dog from day one.


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## Castlemaid (Jun 29, 2006)

I didn't vote, because the answer is "sometimes". In general I don't think of my dogs as my kids, nor do I think of myselve as their mom. I think of myself as the person responsible for them. When I signed up on the site way back when and was trying to think of a Screen Name, I thought of "Keeta'sMom" or something similar, but it just didn't sound right to me. And there were already so many "mom" names, I wanted something different, and an identity apart from my dog. 

Not to say that my life does not revolve around my dogs, EVERYTHING revolves around my dogs, LOL! 

But I think of them as "my dogs", not as my children, and not as siblings, but as friends to each other. 

The "sometimes" part from above is that when I tell a story and give them voice, then they call me "Mom", because, what else are they going to call me? Actually, "She Who Must Be Obeyed" would work too . . . hmmm.


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## Texas_Eva (Apr 10, 2011)

I am Eva's Alpha and dad. And I refer to my two cats as being brothers (always have) and Eva is their canine sister


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## Dainerra (Nov 14, 2003)

the boys are brothers "go play with your brother" and when I'm talking about the pair I refer to "the boys" I have never called myself "mom" but I do refer to Ronnie as "daddy" lol


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## KZoppa (Aug 14, 2010)

i'm their adoptive mom. we're a family. i have skin kids and fur kids.


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## starrluvsjackson (Feb 24, 2011)

any pets i have are my babys..im always mum


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## kiya (May 3, 2010)

Since I have no "skin" kids my fur kids are my babies. My husband and I refer to ourselves as mom & dad and they are all brother and sisters. The people I got them from are grandma & grandpa and of course aunts and uncles. 
But don't get me wrong I do know the importance of not humanizing them and dog rules apply (for the most part).


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## Rerun (Feb 27, 2006)

Ok, in the grand scheme of things I consider myself the "owner."

But, at home, we jokingly refer to ourselves as "mom and dad" and our 8 month old human son has "fur siblings." AKA, Akira is is fur sister.


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## Lilie (Feb 3, 2010)

Yeah, hubby and I are mom and dad. All the animals (including the horses) are brothers and sisters. "Hondo, get your sister's head out of your mouth!" "Maggie, stop licking your brother's tongue!" "Scooter (horse) stop teasing your brothers!" 

My skin daughter calls the animals her brothers and sisters.


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## Klamari (Aug 6, 2010)

Yes, we use mom, dad, sister, and grandma  But it's all in fun, they are definately family, don't get me wrong, but I don't consider them on the same level of importance as my actual sisters. So we use it as terms of endearment.


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## kelso (Jan 22, 2007)

Emoore said:


> Do you refer to your dogs as each other's brother or sister? Do you call yourself Mom or Dad?


nah. Maybe once or twice in conversation but not really. Never on the mom and dad thing..know many people do and I respect that, but just not for me....at all.  I do say they are "best friends" and they are our "best friends" though. 

My parents do refer to our dogs as their "grandpups" though. That's their own thing!


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## aubie (Dec 22, 2008)

Oh yes, they are brother and sister, we're mom and dad, my parents are granny and pawpaw, my sister and her husband are aunt and uncle, their dogs are their cousins and so on! 

I talk about my kids all the time...when people ask me how many kids I have, I say five! It always gets a look!:rofl:


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## Stosh (Jun 26, 2010)

I'm with webzpinner- Stosh is a dog, we're humans so I see familial relationships as species specific. Even though my bond and relationship with him is closer than it is to most humans I just don't see myself as his 'mom'.


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## Dogaroo (Mar 4, 2003)

Sometimes I jokingly refer to myself as their "mom" & of course they're brother & sister to each other, but I don't consider them the same as human kids or even substitutes for them, though I don't have any of the human variety myself. That realization became glaringly clear when one of my friends lost her daughter & just a few years later, her son. That pain was off the charts; in comparison, losing my dogs-- including my "heart-dog" Gunnar-- didn't even register on the Richter scale.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

So I had this problem, I was telling Babsy that I was going to do something for her uhm sister uh in law Odie this morning. 

So, if Bab's Sister's Daughter's father is Odie's half-sister, does that make Babs and Odessa sisters in law? Or are just Jenna and Odie sister's in law? Or since marriage is a union between a man and a woman, would I have to say, Bab's niece's Aunt?

I am confused now.


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## GSD07 (Feb 23, 2007)

webzpinner said:


> I actually get a twist in the gut whenever I'm at the petstore and some lady is baby-talking her chihuahua... "Who's a pwetty pwincess? Yes you ah! Who wants a snackie-wackie?"


 I was the same way as you are. I cringed when I heard mommy/daddy and baby talk. Then Anton entered my life, and changed my perception. And yes, I will baby talk :wub: and spoil him rotten. Will I do it again to another dog in the distant future? I am actually not so sure...


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## MissCherry (Mar 16, 2011)

Castlemaid said:


> the answer is "sometimes".


Same here. Sometimes I feel like he is my child, but other times he is more of a friend.


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## HeyJude (Feb 2, 2011)

Yep, we are mom and daddy! I'll tell Harley to go get daddy and he does. In fact, he just unlaced daddy's slipper and he isn't too happy! Time for Harley to go to bed... LOL


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## Germanshepherdlova (Apr 16, 2011)

I also used to think that it was ridiculous for people to refer to their dog as their child, but once we brought home our first puppy, all that quickly changed. Before I knew it, he was part of the family. I now feel like he is one of my kids, a very ornery one.


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