Question by sonicfan: How can I politely explain to someone that their dog needs training?
My girlfriend, dog (Jane) and I are currently staying at a cousin’s (Sarah’s) house, and her dog (Penny) is horribly trained. While Sarah’s quick to tell Jane off for anything, Penny is never told off for anything.
For example, if Jane does a poo in the house (which only occurs if we leave Sarah alone looking after the dogs, Jane is house trained but obviously has to poo inside if she isn’t let out), she’ll be shouted at and put outside. If Penny does a poo inside, she just cleans it up and doesn’t even bother saying a word about it.
If Jane jumps up at someone playfully, she gets told off. If Penny jumps up, Sarah says OOH PENNY WANT TO DANCE? 
and praise her for jumping up by talking cutesy to her and ‘dancing’.
Stuff like this happens all the time, although she can recognize Jane’s (rare) bad behavior, she fails to address or even acknowledge that her dogs need training. She says Penny is a well trained guard dog, but hasn’t even been house trained yet despite being 11 months old (as well as the fact that when Sarah isn’t around, Penny suffers separation anxiety to the point where holding her collar makes her wet herself in fear). To have deluded herself this far, I really don’t know how to bring it up in a way that won’t make her think I’m just having a go or ‘jealous of her well behaved dog’ or something. On the occasions where I have specifically pointed out her bad behavior, she just makes excuses like “oh she’s just excited to see me” or “she’s on her period so it’s natural she won’t be perfectly behaved” (despite her keeping up the same bad behavior even when off her period). I feel something needs to be done to make this clear to her, but she gets stressy with people VERY quickly and isn’t well known for her ability to take any form of criticism. What do I do?
Best answer:
Answer by Chris
“she gets stressy with people VERY quickly and isn’t well known for her ability to take any form of criticism. What do I do?”
Think you’ve already answered your own question. My dad always taught me, “You can’t argue with stupid, son”.
Take note from that, if she has been that ignorant so far, then she’s not about to change.
Sorry to say it, but it seems like a lost cause. People living in delusions like that don’t WANT to change, otherwise they would have.
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