‘She’s overweight! You should weigh her every week and if she puts on so much as 50g, immediately reduce her diet,’ one commenter said. Another castigated me for not using organic shampoo, and someone else told me off for my poor choice of outdoor coat. Under every post were furious debates, judgements and accusations.
I adore Dixie. She is coming up for four years old and I want the best for her. But she is, after all, a standard short-haired dachshund, not a human toddler – and frankly it all seems a bit much. The number dogs being given fluoxetine, the same drug used in Prozac, has increased tenfold over the past decade. Perhaps that’s because more than half of dog owners are now members of some kind of Facebook groups related to pet health and wellbeing. Like Mumsnet, they can be hugely useful as well as a minefield of canine dos and don’ts – and of petty criticism and bitch fighting. That’s around eight million people ready to jump in the minute you set a foot wrong.
Food is a particular topic of discussion. Dixie came to us three months ago and I joined a dachshund owners’ Facebook group to ask about a good brand of dog food. So began the onslaught. These groups are not about potential Crufts winners – the racehorses or supermodels of the canine world. They’re for your average dog. Yet a mild recommendation from one poster about a widely available biscuit brand was met with a sniffy: ‘I think you can do better than THAT.’ One suggestion was for a weekly organic fresh-delivery box that, when I looked it up, would have cost more than the one my husband and I once used for our human suppers. ‘We only feed ours raw and organic,’ chirruped someone else, in a kind of smug, Meghan Markle, I-actually-bake-my-own-dog-treats yummy mummy way – which, to be clear, she really does. It was the kind of detail that made me want to chuck a stale Bonio at my laptop.
I grew up on a farm and feeding our dogs was essentially ‘chuck a load of biscuits and some leftovers in a bowl and get out of their way’.
Twelve years ago, my husband and I acquired a puppy – Betty, the Jack Russell/Poodle cross – and like an over-anxious first-time parent, I adopted a bonkers food regime that involved baking a meatloaf for her. From scratch. Until we asked my parents to look after Betty while we went on holiday, and the look on my mother’s face when I explained the feeding schedule ended that one. The home-cooked feeding trend isn’t particularly new. In his teenage years, my husband once staggered home from the pub after closing time and, upon finding a large casserole dish of stew in the larder, proceeded to heat some up and scoff it. Cue much amusement the next morning when he came downstairs and his animal-loving stepmother informed him he’d eaten the dog’s dinner.
More recently, some waggish friends convinced him that the posh doggy treats sold at our local pub were actually parmesan breadsticks. He fell for it and is now the butt of endless jokes about his glossy coat.
She is, after all, a standard short-haired dachshund, not a human toddler
A pregnant friend was telling me about how utterly confused she was about what kind of pram to buy after asking for advice online. I told her that was nothing compared with the harness v. lead debate currently waging on my group. To crate or not to crate? Is co-sleeping acceptable? Are dog shows demeaning or confidence-building? Should you put nappies on your dog when she’s in season? A post on the Horse & Hound forum about whether other dog owners are too judgemental about each other provoked even more – yes – judgemental comment.
In their defence, I have found some of these groups very useful, particularly when it comes to settling a rehomed dog. And many first-time owners are obviously thankful for the advice of more experienced members. When a trip to the vet’s costs £40 before you’ve even managed to get a recalcitrant dog through the door – only to be told there’s nothing wrong but let’s give the little darling a £100 vitamin pill anyway – the online world of free opinion can be a godsend.
Owners with real-life experience of vets’ practices and pet insurance are also a lifeline amid occasionally misleading advertising. But some people on these groups are concerned that they might be taking advice from armchair experts who are offering opinions based on little or no evidence.
Dogs Today magazine recently ran an article warning that online groups are leading to a rise in owners self-diagnosing their pets with conditions and disorders – and as a result abandoning or rehoming them. Still, for all the madness, some of it sticks. Those Meghan Markle home-baked dog treats that raised such eyebrows? My friend Julia tried a similar recipe, suggested by the Battersea Dogs & Cats Home charity. Dixie gave them five stars.
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