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Dressing up dogs-Torture or just for fun?

emeraldamykate

emeraldamykate

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Apr 27, 2012
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With a newly adopted dog, Halloween just around the corner, and some money burning a hole in my pocket I decided to get my dog a couple of clothing items. An adorable jack-o-latern shirt, and a Halloween costume. Just as a fun way to make him part of the festivities! Today I put a shirt on him for the first time, and he just sat there and let me slip it on him, like he does when I put on his harness. A few moments later we were playing fetch (his version anyways) and I decide it's a great idea to take a picture to show him off a little to my friends and family. (That term sounds horrible. But I'm like a mom with a newborn baby and I have to post pictures in every pose, position, outfit, etc..) Anyways, amongst the "awww's" I got one negative response telling me I am a horrible dog owner for doing this and how it is absolute torture to dress up your dog.

But is it really? Doesn't it just depend on their personality? My dog is pretty chill and didn't mind the shirt at all. If he hadn't liked it and given any "hey get this off me" cues, I would have taken it off. But he didn't even care. I know it's not exactly "natural" for dogs to be walking around in jack-o-lantern t-shirts, but clothes aren't exactly natural to us humans either.

Basically, I'm trying to figure out if I dress him up in his costume on Halloween if I am going to be causing him any psychological damage due to the "torture" I am inflicting on him or if it's just harmless fun.

What do you guys think?


Also, here's a picture of my tortured dog. He looks so miserable, huh? :D


Dressing up dogs-Torture or just for fun?
​
 
It's not wrong at all, unless the dog is uncomfortable with it or in warm weather.
In colder seasons my doberman mix either wears a fleece sweater or a winter coat, and she loves the warmth & protection against the elements.

Unfortunately, most brands of dog clothes don't think larger breeds can get cold, or that their owners don't like the cute & awesome clothes.
 
I'm involved with a lot of "phsycological" things with dogs. I do showing and obidience training and I want you to know that every year for Halloween and Christmas I dress my dogs up. And guess what, they absolutely LOVE it. Unless your dog is literally fighting you to get it off, or acting completely uncomfortable--don't worry about it! I even put a tinkerbelle costume on one of my rottweilers one year complete with a little hat and he didn't complain one bit. Dressing dogs up every day I agree is a little much, but my personal opinion is that they wouldn't make them available if dogs we're keeling over dead because of how embarassed they were.
You're dog is absolutely adorable by the way :)
 
My dog will not go outside in the winter with out his coat.
 
A lot of dogs wear coats. Once you get into the hats and heavier costumes there might be an issue with the dog being uncomfortable.
 
You are not a horrible dog owner in the slightest! I own a little Jack Russell Terrier and she doesn't like wearing clothes, so we don't put any on her apart from her winter coat which she wears on winter/rainy walks due to her being short hair and quite small, she gets cold easily. She doesn't mind that coat though funnily enough! I don't think it's wrong unless your only doing it for the dog's need or not for long and if the dog doesn't mind. We have a caliever King Charles called Charlie (Very creative name, I know:p) and he LOVES it! He will wear anything, everything, any day, any time. It really depends on the dog, though we don't put Charlie in clothes much due to his long fur.
 
If I put a shirt or hat on my dog he looks like miserable. He will stand there and look at the floor then very, very slowly lift his paw to try to get whatever is on him off. He knows I want it there so he doesn't want to take it off but he doesn't want it on him. He's such a sweet a dog. The only time I dress him up is Halloween. Normally he just wears evil fairy wings and he doesn't mind those, which is odd. Your dog looks happy in the picture. I'm sure he is just fine.
 
:eek: Are you kidding? It is so NOT torture! You can tell if the dog does not like it..like my dog. If I put that outfit on my dog, it would be torture for him but obviously not your dog! I wish we started dressing up my dog young. He's almost six now. :( How old is yours? My name is Mia, by the way. :)
 
My dog wears various polar fleece jackets, cotton tshirts etc most of the time it he'd freeze. If your dog's ok with it then it's fine.
 
It totally depends on the dog. Heck, I dressed my cat up in a hula outfit for my pets column, and even though he wasn't thrilled, I wouldn't classify it as "torture."

You might want to be careful if you live in Hillsborough County, FL, though. When Checkers had a promotion where you could dress your cat in a Rap Cat bag and take a photo of it, HC Animal Control said they'd arrest people for doing it and it constituted felony animal cruelty. Considering that's where I found one of my cats when he was chucked out of a car on the expressway, I'd think they'd have more important things to worry about. I say dress your animal with impunity, as long as the animal is okay with it. Someday I'm going to succumb to the urge to put a ribbon on Amy's spiky little head.
 
I almost bought that SAME shirt for Stormy! LOL! I ended up getting her the pumpkin collar with hat though. I'll have to grab a picture of it.

And no, it's not torture, some people are just a little TOO crazy when it comes to animal rights imo. Unless the dog is too hot, uncomfortable, restricted and can't move, or it impairs their ability to function there is nothing wrong with it. Besides, you're not leaving it on 24/7. If you want to dress up your pup in a cute shirt for a few hours for Halloween, have fun. As for that person, ignore them. Some people really think their extremist opinions are warranted over the tiniest of things.
 
ThePigAlchemist said:
I think it's a bit presumptuous to tell someone that they're torturing their dog by dressing them up without knowing the dog. I dislike when people just treat their dogs as dress-up toys and accessories rather than dogs, but it's quite possible to dress up your dog and not be just treating them like an accessory.
Click to expand...

Oh, I totally agree. Elliot is not an accessory. He's a dog that I think of a little too much as a human, so I like him to have cute clothes like humans do. :D


mufasa said:
It totally depends on the dog. Heck, I dressed my cat up in a hula outfit for my pets column, and even though he wasn't thrilled, I wouldn't classify it as "torture."
.
Click to expand...

I've dressed up my cats before. Attempted to, anyways. Didn't go over too well. Took them off the second I got the "Human, what is this you are putting on me? I'm beautiful enough on my own, and this is not a crown so what are you doing, human? Go get me some food and make up for your mistakes!" look. My cats are such divas.

Carissa6729 said:
some people are just a little TOO crazy when it comes to animal rights imo.
Click to expand...

^Agreed.


Thanks everyone else for the input. Glad to know I am in fact not abusing my dog by putting a tshirt on him. lol
 
Haha cute!! It's definitely not torture if the dog doesn't mind it!! I dressed my german shepherd up as a butterfly the year before last (...yes he's a boy) and last year he was a bumblebee :p I've been putting clothes on him since he was a baby and he doesn't mind at all. In the winter his feet get so cold I put boots and a jacket on him when we go for walks haha.
 
My dog LOVES clothes. She is a standard doxie so she has a coat for whens he goes outside if it isn't too cold. She also has a Halloween costume, She's a flower. lol
 
My two cents;

As long as the animal isn't in distress, uncomfortable or upset, it's totally okay.

When people put there animals into scratchy, uncomfortable costumes that isn't so nice. But a shirt? I don't see a thing wrong with it.
 
If it's torturous then I'm clearly guilty of the worst offenses.

Dressing up dogs-Torture or just for fun?


Dressing up dogs-Torture or just for fun?


Dressing up dogs-Torture or just for fun?


My victims actually need coats to stay warm because we do a lot of outside activities and work. That's my rationalization, anyway.

Dressing up dogs-Torture or just for fun?


Dressing up dogs-Torture or just for fun?
 
What I've come to decide is that it's completely up to the dog's personality and person to decide whether or not they get dressed up.
My dog doesn't care, and I think it's a fun thing for us to do, so I think this person and their comments were completely ridiculous.
I did notice though that my dog doesn't seem too happy about hats, so maybe if I had forced him to wear it, that might have been "torture" but if you think about it, making a dog wear something he doesn't care about for a few minutes so you can get a couple pictures isn't exactly the worst thing in the world a person could do. Because from what I've noticed, the people who dress their dogs up are the ones who spoil them. Better than the tortures of being beaten and starved if you ask me.

@Paula Your victims are adorable in their coats! The picture of the brown dog by himself(?) in the blue jacket has the cutest expression! lol
 
Sorry for any spelling mistakes I'm on my phone

I personally think it depends on why they are being dressed up. If someone is dressing their dog up as a fashion statement to hall around and show off I think that's bad. If you just dress your dog up every so often for something like Halloween than that's fine. It's also fine if your dog needs it for some reason like how my Bella nerfs it for the cold.
 
For me, it depends on the dog and the environment their in. Emma the pug has to wear a shirt that covers her belly when going out on walks during the summer/spring. She is terribly allergic to grass and it makes her belly get little itchy dots. During the colder days she wears her fleece sweater cause she gets all cold. These past few days she had to wear her sweater all day long, every single hour because she would get so cold. She wouldn't even let me take it off until this morning!

Now, costumes, I will not put Emma through that. I've put them on in the store for ****** n giggles. But she clearly does not enjoy them. And I won't waste money on something that will only be worn once a day/once a year.

Here she is in her ADORABLE sweater. I don't have one of her shirt cause she only wears it for walks. It looks just like her sweater....cept it's cotton not fleece xD
 
My dog hates to wear anything. Look at the horrible thing I did to him on Halloween day! I put a hat on his head! Oh the torture..

Dressing up dogs-Torture or just for fun?

Dressing up dogs-Torture or just for fun?

And this is just cute!

Dressing up dogs-Torture or just for fun?
 

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