The way my dogs have lived runs almost completely counter to this article. My dog has a doggy door, and we live on 15 acres. She can go out whenever she wants.

The way my dogs have lived runs almost completely counter to this article. My dog has a doggy door, and we live on 15 acres. She can go out whenever she wants. Her food dish is always full of dog food, but she gets scraps at almost every meal. We also work from home, though it’s not like we can give her much attention during the day. My other dogs we also free to run away at any time and chose not to. Any one of them would have given their life to save mine, and I’ve personally run into (some) danger to save our current dog. I do agree that people need to think more about what would be best as far as pet ownership goes. I know not everyone is rural so you can’t treat them like I’ve been able to. Still, don’t only give them pet food. Don’t get a big dog if you live in a small place. Don’t get an active breed if you’re not able to give them enough exercise. Some breeds straight up shouldn’t exist as is and you should feel absolutely terrible about buying one. The author’s is included in that (and I’d eliminate them all if I could), but at least they adopted. Mutts are best.