My mom had to do something totally boring. Since we no longer have cable TV, she plays videos when she needs to get through something tedious. Today she was watching Marley and Me, a video from the library.
The movie was a great escape but an awful example of dog rearing. These people were clueless. Even I could see that. Hey, I would chew up the household if my mom didn’t make me stay in a crate when she goes out. I would jump on people and knock them over, except she keeps me on a short leash and squirts me when I get derailed.
My mom is strict but fair. She read that an obedient dog has more self-esteem. I have awesome self-esteem.
Marley was just being a dog. He had ZERO discipline. Deep down inside, his owner thought it was cute to watch Marley destroy property and scare people.
But what got my mom was the way they left Marley with a house-sitter who wasn’t a true dog person. What’s wrong with a kennel where they’d also throw in some obedience training?
“I do admire Marley’s intestinal fortitude, though,” she said, giving me The Look. “Marley ate and ate. And apparently he never woke his owner up in the middle of the night, the way you do every few months.”
True. If I ate like Marley I’d be waking Cathy up at 2 AM every night. When I eat more than my official portions, my tummy starts doing the tango. Not good.
Oh yes…they also left their three young kids alone while they went looking for Marley after Marley escaped on a rainy night. Enough said.
Did you notice that in one of the early scenes, the puppy who played Marley lies on the kitchen floor with his legs splayed out awkwardly. I turned to my daughter and said “that puppy has hip dysplasia, I wonder how the film people or the trainer didn’t catch that?” In the movie, they say “how cute” about how he’s sitting. Months later I’m reading an article on John Grogan who ended up adopting that puppy after the film was completed and when the dog had trouble walking they took it to a vet who said he had hip dysplasia and that he would never be able to run and romp too much. I don’t understand how nobody picked that up during filming?
I cannot believe that by the time Marley and Me became a best selling book that the owners of Marley didn’t realize that not teaching a dog obedience endangers the dog, other dogs, and people. I was taught in the obedience classes my small dog and I took that if a dog runs up and confronts your dog, you should shout, loudly (we practiced in class) GET YOUR DOG UNDER CONTROL NOW! and mean it. This does help subdue some people, and they do apologize and maybe they start leashing their dog. But I’ve run into a lot of people who say things like, “He’s only playing.” To which I say, “I don’t know that, and what would you have said if your dog had snapped my dog’s neck and killed it. Would you have said, “He’s only killing” ? Unfortunately, you have to be the defender of your dog whenever you take him out on a walk…There are Marley parents around.
Great comments here. Barbara, I think Marley was gone by the time the book became a best-seller. But John was a popular coluumnist who wrote about Marley’s escapades. I’m surprised nobody wrote in with the same message you have.
Lisa, I hadn’t noticed the hip dysplasia and I am surprised none of the trainers did either. At least the pup got adopted by the Grogans. Hopefully he’ll get good vet care as well as lots of love. Philadelphia has one of the top veterinary schools in the US.