Pets are good to have in any household. There are many factors to consider before bringing or purchasing a pet. These include pet training, pet food, pet sitting, and pet walks. These factors have brought to significant disputes in couples having different opinions on the factors mentioned. For instance, couples must engage themselves in discussing their favorite pet they agree together to bring home. A partner may bring in a pet that doesn’t favor the other party brewing up a dispute.
However, the last ten years has witnessed an increase in pet disputes. Besides, more divorcing couples are reported to have tried getting legal judgment over their pets. This essay aims to outline various pet disputes globally. Discussed below are a few pet disputes;
1. Training the pet
Bringing a new pet into a house brings some excitement. Pets have some maintenances, just like any other private property. These include feeding, pet walks, sitting up the pet, and training. However, most couples have been having a dispute over who to train the pet. A times the husband may want the pet to be trained, but the wife doesn’t, or vice versa. Pets might have been trained before purchase, but it needs to be trained to enhance tricks and skills. These arguments end up in both couples failing to train the pet and hiring a coach to train their pet.
These arguments are caused by the insufficient time to have and sit up the bet for training. This is because of heavy work both in the workplace and at home. Often, pets need to be trained some tricks, but couples end up not training and leaving the pet loose from attention. When couples find pets still and well behaved, they find ease in training.
2. Who takes the pet for a walk?
Often, pet owners have to lend some of their time from their schedule to walk the dog. Studies have shown that taking pets for a walk is good for the pet. It helps to lower the pets’ blood pressure, stronger bones and muscles, improves cardiovascular fitness and decreases stress. Taking pets for a walk regularly is vital for your pets’ health too. But who will do the role?
Deciding on who will take the role is not fair, mainly when one works from home. Of course, the one who does the office work will be in haste and cannot take the dog for the morning walk. During the day as well, the one who went to the office would not be home yet, so the same person who took it for the morning walk will do the midday walk too. This will overburden one partner and thus making it one of the significant causes of conflict.
3. Who will watch over the pet?
Conflicts often arise when it comes to keeping an eye on the pet. Say both of them have been out all day and in the evening, both of them got other plans. Who would cancel the plans and watch over the pet? Solving this improperly makes one partner overburdened and might cause conflicts.
Keeping watch at the pet also comes in when the couple goes out with the pet. For example, when out with a dog, the burden of ensuring that it doesn’t chase people around, running out of open gates, and tearing off things around should not surprise the pet owner. Conflicts often arise when it comes to keeping an eye on the pet to avoid such and when taking the liability if there are damages.
4. Giving the Pet Too Much Attention.
Pets need attention and care to make them healthy, happy, and feel secure. Having one will prove to you that they are exciting beings to hang around too. However, giving too much attention to the pet spoils the broth. Giving your pet too much makes one develop a bad habit and may bring separation issues.
For most couples having a pet, conflicts often arise when one feels that the other put the pet’s needs in front of his/her partner’s. Humans often crave attention from their partners. Therefore, if one partner sees that the other gives divided attention, jealousy steps in and might cause conflicts. For example, when in the car, one partner might say that the dog seems happy to be in the front seat. This will cause conflict if the other partner has a contrary opinion.
5. Taking care of the pet.
Cleaning, feeding, and veterinary services are among the care that pets need to be given. These roles require resources such as feeds, cleaning agents, and also veterinary medicine. Dividing these roles has been an issue for couples who own pets. When deciding on who should take the role, the partner who spends most of the time at home takes most of the roles, and the other will be a free rider.
Insurance is also one of the ways of caring for the pet. It is essential to have an insurance cover for your pet because it allows one to choose your pet’s treatment based on your best option available but not based on your finances. However, picking out a favorable insurance policy is never that easy; deciding on the company to go for, adding a wellness package to the insurance, amount deducted for the insurance cover, etc. Little misunderstanding of these factors might lead to conflict as they affect the monthly bill significantly.
6. Pet Ownership
In recent times, it has been reported that there has been an increase in pets brought to the household. Couples may also seriously disagree about pet ownership. Pet ownership dispute is common both at home and when there is a divorce. Couples might be living together but still having on pet ownership. In the current world, pets are recognized as private property. They are recognized as a personal product, just like home furniture.
Therefore, couples must have a joint decision on pet ownership. In case they don’t reach a mutual decision, courts intervene. If there might be ownership proof, then the courts will go in their favor. The ruling is based on not who had more time with the pet but who made the purchase.
However, there is an exception to this; this is when the pet was given to one of the partner as a gift. After a ruling, the legal owner has no right to give the non-legal owner access to their pet. Before a ruling is made, there are some vital things to consider, including the pet’s provider, the name to which the pet was registered, the name on the tags, and who bought the pet.
There are cases where both parties own the pet communally, and both can give proof of ownership. Here, the judge can consider some factors, including;
Who spends most of the time with the pet?
How is the environment that each partner can give for the pet?
Who can pay for the pet’s upkeep?
Is there a bond between the children and the pet? If yes, the judge is likely to keep the children and the pet together.
Has there been a case of drug abuse and domestic violence by one of the partners? If so, the judge may term this as an irresponsible pet parent.
7. Who feeds the Pet?
For years, couples have been having disputes about feeding the pet. This is based on a dispute over who to feed the pet, which time to feed the pet, and the type of food to give the pet. They might be having different opinions about who to feed and what to give the pet. Nutrition has been an important thing to consider on a pet, just as humans forego healthy nutrition. Pet food should have fewer ingredients. Some pet owners find this so tedious. Choice of pet food is another common pet dispute. If a couple has a different pet food preference and that both like the pet, they end up in a disagreement.
Pets need regular time intervals for feeding. This, therefore, is affected by day-to-day activities, especially for couples who are working. They fail to attain the right feeding program for their pet. Less attention is given to the pet because the available time is evening and weekends only. One partner may also be interested in feeding the dog packed food while the other prefers raw food.
8. Where does the pet sleep?
Choosing a pet’s best sleeping position by a pet owner should be considered before bringing in a pet. Pet owners may choose a pet’s bed based on age, type of pet, sleeping habits, and lifestyle of their pets. One of the couples might prefer a different place from the other partner’s preference. It takes time for a pet to be trained till it knows its bed. Some pets piss anywhere they can, while some learn to piss at a specific place trained by their owner. In some cases where a pet pisses anywhere, it may bring discomfort at home because of the awful smell.
Some pet owners prefer their pets to sleep on their bed. This becomes a challenge if a couple falls asleep, forgetting that there is a pet in bed with them. The pet might be startled and may be injured. Again if it might be injured, he may bite. Crating pets at night might be for some pet owners. However, some are contrary to this, although it is done for the pet’s safety and health. Cats walk all over at night, and crating helps in maintaining pets at room temperature. It also prevents pets from being rained on, therefore keeping the right pet’s health.
9. Pet habits
Pets have different habits varying from eating habits, sleeping habits, and walk habits. Face licking is typical in many pets. If one partner doesn’t like this pet habit while the other does like it, it will eventually result in a dispute. This is because the pet will still remain in the household with the same habits.
Another habit is befriending other pets. For example, a couple may like a dog, and not that both will like a cat. Incase their dog befriends a neighbor’s cat, and one partner may find uncomfortable with this resulting in a dispute. Some pets also snore while sleeping. Pets may be good when awake but annoying when they start snoring.
If one of the partners finds this bringing discomfort, they end up in dispute. When dogs see a stranger or something unusual, they bark. If one is taking a nap ad a dog barks outside, you will wake up. If a partner arrives from work exhausted, taking a nap isn’t the right decision to make if a dog is barking carelessly, resulting in a dispute.
Burying food is another typical pet behavior. This is mainly common for dogs and pets in households having more than one pet. When you feed your pet a time, it might be not hungry and may want to take the food at its own time or secure the food from the hungry mouths of other pets. Pets do carry their food and bury. Some might find this habit not comfortable for them.
Conclusion
As discussed above, pet handling on its own has attached challenges. We have seen that pets need their own time to walk, training and habit changing. Training pets to live together is a challenge among many couples. Pets have some strong emotional bond to the owner and vice versa. This means that a pet can recognize the owner. This bond attached to the pet is the key factor to why couples find it hard to leave behind their pet and end up in courts to fight for it. Pets are handled just like any other property by courts. However, courts have tried to establish the best approach to pet disputes.