Sorry, college kids shouldn’t have dogs
Walking to class every day, I see a lot of dogs on campus. This makes me extremely giddy because my most precious furry friend, Ozzie, passed away two years ago. I miss him very much, so I get excited every time I see a four legged fuzzy buddy.
But as happy as this sighting makes me, these dogs are being walked by college students. Even though in certain housing residences pets are allowed, I don’t think that college students should have dogs.
Depending on what kind of dog a college student owns, the dog requires its own level of care. A chihuahua can stay inside the apartment all day and use a puppy pad without much thought to the college student other than changing the puppy pad and feeding the chihuahua daily, but small dogs are usually loud and college students have roommates and neighbors. It is also not guaranteed that the dogo will use the puppy pad accurately, which is an additional stress to the college-aged owner. Coming home to a doggy-made mess is the last thing a college student wants to deal with after class.
Conversely a large dog like a husky, needs to be let out to do its business multiple times a day. The extra responsibility of making sure to go back home between classes to carve out roughly ten minutes to put the dog’s leash on and go outside with it to go potty can get stressful with a full day of classes. But that’s not all a big dog needs. They need to get plenty of exercise, so that is extra time that needs to be scheduled in order for the dog to stay healthy. Ozzie was a black lab, so he needed to run around a lot, but it was easy at my parents’ house because my parents have a large fenced-in backyard. So while we as a family did other things inside of the home we could let Ozzie play and listen for him until he wanted to come in. I don’t know a college student with a fenced-in backyard.
These aren’t the only items that need to be considered when having a dog in college, the amount of food a big dog eats can be a considerable cost. A bag of food for a large dog ranges from $20-$50. If a student buys a bag of food once a month during the ten months of school, they’re spending $200-$500.
An additional consideration is the grooming. This can apply to small or large dogs. Long-haired chihuahuas and bichon frises are relatively small dogs, but require a large amount of grooming. The same can be said of huskies and Australian shepherds, which are large breeds and have double coats that require care. The undercoats shed twice a year to get ready for the hot weather in spring and to prepare for the cold come the fall. With the shedding from the large breeds, this means a lot of clean up, and as I’ve said previously, college students do not have the luxury of time to vacuum the dog hair in their apartment every day. Regular grooming is also required. These treatments can become expensive and time consuming. In a college students life, chill time is essential and on a Saturday, I do not want to be going to the groomers with my dog.
I know that the college students with dogs love them and do their best to take care of them, but now is not the time in our young lives to take on this responsibility. To those who have emotional support or service dogs, rock on.
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Anonymous • May 17, 2022 at 5:24 pm
I’d rather die than not have a dog. This article has my full disagreement.
Hannah • Feb 17, 2021 at 1:49 am
While I agree that not all college students should have dogs it is very naive to think that some students can’t handle the financial responsibility or the time commitment to a dog. My parents bought me a dog my sophomore year of college as a gift. I had always joked about them buying me a dog but I never thought they actually would. When I got my sweet boy, I honestly thought ‘how am I going to do this?’
He has turned out to be my saving grace and the best friend I never knew I needed. Even with a rigorous schooling program (biomedical science) he became my best friend, confidant, and stress release. Yes, of course it taught me responsibility. What I didn’t realize is how much he would help my mental health and over all being. It’s not normalized in my family to seek mental help. This is considered weak. But what they didn’t realize is they got me an outlet without even knowing it.
Personally, I think students who need/want dogs in college should not be punished or judged because you think that the general age group is irresponsible. Isn’t that kind of prejudice? College students are at the age where they can have children. I’m pretty sure they can damn well have a dog. Not everyone can seek mental health counseling for an emotional support dog. Just worry about yourself
Nat • Nov 13, 2020 at 5:32 pm
I probably shouldn’t say anything, but the first two comments to this article aggravate me to no end. I’m sorry Jess and Andy, but you two are thinking in a very narrow-minded way. You two are forgetting 2 very very important elements of owning an animal. ‘Can you actually afford it?’ and ‘Are you going to give them the stability they need?’ I work in dog rescue and I am also a college student. I can tell you right now, that I’m flat ass broke, even though I work 2 jobs. I still live at home and go to school, so my dogs are technically my family’s dogs and I do believe it is truly what is best for my dogs’ emotional health.
College kids in general, live very unstable un-consistent lives, whether we’re living at home, in the dorms, in Greek houses, transferring schools sometimes out of state, taking internships or new jobs that make our daily routine very different from what it was, or studying abroad. There’s so many different working elements to a college student’s life that some animals just are not emotionally stable enough to handle that. I see it everyday, people acting like dogs are these bulletproof beings that can handle all the whims and whimsy of their moron owners. Not to mention, let’s talk about the college kids that can’t even afford it, but get one anyway. Or how about the kids that never had a dog before and then just go out and get a dog without knowing a damn thing about the breed. I have a dear friend, though she’s well meaning she once told me something so stupid that I had to sit down with her for an hour to properly educate her. She, a person that’s only ever owned a cat, and from a family thats only ever owned a cat, she wanted to get a Chow Chow. She wanted one purely because she thought they are so cute and she saw on Instagram people dying their fur to make them look like panda bears. Now if she knew anything about the breed besides its look, she would have known that if Chow Chows are not properly trained from young puppyhood they can be incredibly aggressive and prey driven. Dear God, I did not want to imagine the horror of her getting one, most definitely not doing the proper training and what would happen to her innocent little cat. I know another person a little older than myself, that bought herself a dog because she was living alone and things were going wonderfully. However, as soon as her boyfriend asked her to move in but said the dog couldn’t come, she ditched the dog at her parents’ house and she doesn’t even recognize the dog as hers anymore. Or how about a stupid sorority that decides as a group the girls are going to get a puppy. That dog doesn’t have a true owner because each one of those girls has one foot out the door, because they’re treating the dog more like the ‘pants’ from the movie The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. You may think I’m exaggerating, I see this everyday with handling owner surrenders, abandoned dogs, and people looking to adopt a dog. It makes me despise my own age group.
If you two had great experiences having dogs in college then that’s great, that’s fantastic! You were truly blessed to have a job that not only allowed you to financially take care of yourself but also an animal. I’m so happy for you, but mostly for your dogs because they deserve good loving homes. However, that is not the NORM, you two are NOT the NORM. I genuinely wish you were. Unfortunately, my experience with college students getting animals is they do not think it through, frankly they see the animal more like a disposable thing and purely there to entertain them. Dogs deserve better than this, animals deserve better than this.
Lastly, and then I’ll get off my soapbox, I agree with practically everything this article says except for the very last line. Yes, those who have service dogs, have legitimate valid service dogs absolutely ‘rock on.’ However, the individuals that go online and pay a small fee to get a BS certificate that claims the need for an emotional support dog f-you. People that abuse the system like that, ruin it for those who legitimately need service dogs. A service dog is a highly trained animal, not a pet that you put a stupid ass vest on claiming it’s a service dog so then you get to take it wherever the hell you want. That’s another thing we get a lot in the rescue I work for. So many morons college age and older wanting to adopt dogs, and then actually telling us they plan on going on one of those BS websites to print out a certificate so then they don’t have to pay the fees for airlines, break the rules at their dormitory, and bring the dogs in eating establishments.
boadie • Apr 10, 2020 at 4:53 pm
i mostly agree with this article. College students are cheap as hell and can barely afford most things. unless you are using daddy’s credit card, theres no way you can afford to pay rent, eat, go out, pay for textbooks, and also pay for Vet bills, toys, dogfood all on your pathetic 10/hour campus job. dogs deserve better.
Andy • Jan 31, 2019 at 2:40 am
It’s clesr that this was written by someone who’s never lived outside of college. You do know that every adult out of college has even less time to spend with their dog and they can still effectively care for them, right? An 8 hour shift monday thru friday is f the r more of a time commitment than the sporadic class schedule a typical student has. So, the argument that a dog is somehow more troublesome in college when you, objectively, have less responsibilities, seems ignorant. If someone living alone can effectively own a pet and work a job (what every person with a pet does in the real world) you can make it work.
Jess Brown • Jan 30, 2019 at 9:39 pm
As a college grad who spent my own money to buy a dog, care for it, keep it healthy, and pamper it- i completely disagree with this whole article. My dog taught me so much responsibility, welcomed me with so much excitement every time I walked in the door, and loved me unconditionally. He added some expenses to my normal purchases, but I had a job that paid for it all without putting a burden on my parents and my roommate also had a dog. We would help care for each other’s dog when we had work or were in class and the companionship was so needed in our lives and our friends who would visit to play with the dogs after classes or work. Also, you have more time to train a puppy if you aren’t a graduate working 9-5.If a student can afford it-both in time and money- and they feel they can take on the new responsibility, dogs are an amazing friend to have and care for while in college.
I completely disagree with this WHOLE article.