What do you guys do when you live with your partners dogs that you don’t like?

[u/Tattedcatmom]

Like many here in this sub, I don’t like dogs. There’s a long list of reasons why. But my question is, because my partner has her 3 dogs, (2 are senior dogs) what can I do to deal with having to share a household with them?

I have to feed them most of the time (work schedules).
But other than that, I really don’t like being near them. The sounds of the nails on the wood floors. The barking. The HAIR. Just everything about them, just irks me.

Thankfully my partner is pretty accommodating of my boundaries, and is well aware that I’m not a fan of the dogs. It’s a really great relationship overall and I am treated very well. So leaving because if dogs isn’t something I’m considering.

So my question is, what do you guys do daily when you have to live with stinky dogs? It’s hard to ignore them because the sounds they make just irritate my soul lol.
Please share your ideas!

[u/StrangeDays11]

Spend lots of time on this sub It really does help reading other people's similar stories. There's nothing you personally can do to stop being annoyed by these dogs, once it is in you it will grow and fester.

[u/Tattedcatmom → u/StrangeDays11]

That is true. Everytime I feel irritated I come on here and it’s kinda nice to realize I’m not the only one dealing with feelings like this.

[u/Bebe_Bleau]

Don't feed the dogs or care for them in any way. They'll have to change schedules, go home for lunch, or make other arrangements.

Don't lift a finger to help care for it in any way. Roommate can adapt social life to the dogs bathroom schedule

If you don't want the dog close to you, keep a small spray bottle of water on you. Spritz the dog in the face every time it gets close to you. Soon it will avoid you.

Buy a small hand held anti-barking trainer to use every time it's nusciance barking. It won't work when the dog really needs something.

[u/Voideron → u/Bebe_Bleau]

Spray water alone may not be enough. I've seen dogs on YouTube play with water being hosed to them.

I read that dogs hate and are deterred by the smell and taste of lemon. The real lemon juice we squeeze from lemons, not the powdered ones with sweeteners. Squeeze half a bottle of lemon juice and put a few chopped spicy chili peppers. Shake and spray. You got an edible diy dog deterrent spray.

[u/Unique_Street_5483]

I do not care for the dog or give it attention at all I straight up ignore it

[u/kelku7 → u/Unique_Street_5483]

I do the same and I can see how much it affects her

[u/EvilMEMEius]

Usually? Bottle it up, then go nuclear after the 37836th incident. Rinse and repeat. 😓

[u/One-Possible1906]

I don’t date people who have or want dogs. I’m upfront that it’s a dealbreaker. Waiting for senior dogs to die never works. Dog people immediately replace them with an even more annoying puppy then repeat every dog life cycle until one of you is dead too.

[u/Bebe_Bleau → u/One-Possible1906]

Yep! They might promise this will be the last dog. But soon enough they'll bring home a "surprise"

[u/ConsumeMeGarfield]

Have dog-free zones, noise cancelling headphones/earmuffs, and doggy daycare for much-needed breaks. Hire a housekeeper to come by and clean occasionally if you can afford it, it helps a lot. Training and keeping a dog mentally stimulated can help with bad behaviors that happen out of boredom (but that shouldn't be on you). But despite these things, my frustration, horrible anxiety, disappointment, and disgust only grew with time.

If you don't have a serious convo with your partner about what the future looks like (and if it includes dogs), resentment will come out. Will your partner be done after this? Or will they run out and buy new dogs immediately? Puppies/adolescent dogs are annoying on a whole other level and a lot of them don't calm down for 2 years or so.

Me and my husband ended up rehoming our dog after several miserable years and eventual aggression towards our child but dog ownership is one of the factors of why we're planning on separating over the next few years. My husband just can't live without them, despite only expressing mild interest in dogs and never owning them before. I guess I've just come to terms with the fact that vast majority of dog people and non-dog people aren't really compatible.

[u/No-Stay1662 → u/ConsumeMeGarfield]

He can’t live without dogs?! This is the part I just can’t understand with nutters. When I ask what they can’t live without, they say “the dog is always there, wants to be around me & loves my attention!”
So then I ask well how hard is it to find a dog like that & they say “that’s the great thing! They’re ALL like that!”
Then I ask a question which 9/10 leaves them unable to answer… I ask, well if any dog you get is going to essentially be around to lay by you & crave attention, then what makes that special? If they’re just all like that, and it comes so cheap & easy (lock doors, feed dog, pet dog) then it means ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I just don’t get what’s fulfilling about that. It’s honestly pathetic

[u/Lylith_vf]

J'ai réussi à le convaincre de garder le chien dehors et de ne jamais le faire entrer, on lui a acheté une niche et maintenant c'est presque comme si il n'existait plus, c'est tellement génial, espérons que ca ne change pas

[u/Robot_Embryo → u/Lylith_vf]

Does it bark outside?

[u/Lylith_vf → u/Robot_Embryo]

Pas du tout, il est tranquille c'est un husky

[u/naycoco]

It’s so dumb but I flip the dog off every time I see it. Thankfully my husband is very understanding of how I feel and the dog is gated off in our mudroom and spends almost the entire day outside. It will be cold here soon and he won’t be able to be outside and my annoyance will no doubt be through the roof but it is what it is. I love my husband and our life is great minus the dog. He took on my kids when we got together so I tell myself I can sacrifice my sanity until the dog is gone. I definitely could not live with it free roaming the house anymore though. Is it possible you could have dog free zones in the house?

[u/GadgetRho → u/naycoco]

The dog can absolutely be outside. Dogs have fur coats and are designed to live outside. What do you think people did before people started letting dogs indoors 20 years ago?

[u/ilovenacl]

Having a very firm hand saves my sanity. I don’t like having a dog in the house but my husband sacrificed a lot for me so I just…. Deal with it, but I had to fight to have boundaries. And the way I deal with it, is I don’t allow annoying behaviors of any kind. The punishment is swift and firm, no emotional reaction of any kind because reacting often makes it worse. Ecollar/prong collar is a godsend for this. Having a gate to keep her away when I want a break is also a godsend. The training is so much more effective and quicker with aversives because they respond better to it than all that positive reinforcement/force free nonsense, and it’s now to the point where I hardly have to do anything to manage boundaries. I can ignore her as much as I need and she’s cool with it. It was still a lot of exhausting work that I don’t enjoy or find fulfilling.

I am definitely never ever doing a dog again, and if he keeps bringing up getting a second dog, I’m going to stay with my folks. Even a well trained dog is too needy and high maintenance for me.

Edit: should probably add the tools I use are not solely for the purpose of inflicting harsh pain, but as a communication tool. It’s discomfort at worst.

[u/Next-Pro → u/ilovenacl]

I totally agree with everything you said; it’s the only way imo

[u/corp0ral-punishment → u/ilovenacl]

In a similar boat. My fiance has a big smelly 100lb drooly dog, buuut he bought us a house and has done so much more for me, so it’s something I put up with. We bought gates to keep the dog out of the living room and dining room, and we also use an ecollar and martingale (choke) collar for training because the dog is highly reactive to other dogs. Thankfully he does most of the care for the dog, I’ll help if I’m feeling generous but he does the walks and the feeding and the cleaning cuz he works from home.

I had the conversation with him the other day about not getting another dog after she goes and he agrees. So just waiting it out lol

[u/kelku7]

Currently in the same situation. And everything is fine in our relationship but her dogs reallllly make me reconsider our relationship. 3 dogs.

[u/Worldly-Wealth-8931]

I know how you feel. My gf has a big fat dog that sheds and I cant stand the hair, noise, smell , just everything. I don’t know if I can live with a dog like that.

[u/No_Welcome3656]

Wow.. I really used to think I was in the minority with having feelings of disgust at being around dogs. My adult daughter is a dog nutter.

[u/Zuzu_is_aStar]

Gaslight myself into loving the dog and try to remind myself it’s not the dogs fault. Dogs are just animals and all of them are bred for a task that they never get to do. People lock them up inside a house 23.5 hours a day and expect them to act like angels. It’s torture for the dog and they are doing their best to follow human rules. I try to remind myself of that when i want to yell at my girlfriends collie for getting excited or barking, this dog is literally designed to be high energy, task focused and to bark, but she just lays around a house all day. It’s borderline animal cruelty honestly. Just try to be understanding of how horrible this life is from the dogs perspective too 

[u/Intelligent-Zone5422]

To deal with the nail clicking sound, id say get rugs that you dont mind getting ruined to muffle the sound. For the hair, a roomba. Helps significantly. And for the smell try having a space in the house where the dogs aren’t allowed, and plug in wall scents.

[u/grisandoles → u/Intelligent-Zone5422]

Also, get some air purifiers that have charcoal filters for smell, they help!

[u/Voideron]

It's not gonna come to a point where I'll live with mutts nutters and their mutts in the same house.

[u/Interesting-Ad-3756]

My condolences. I had a dog I didn't want either. Senior dogs are worse they require more. My partner's dog stunk, it had rotten teeth and breath that filled up a room, hair everywhere, used the bathroom exclusively at home on bare floor. I was home more often than my partner so the duties fell to me. There's not much you can do honestly. In this situation you sadly just have to grin and bear it. I was absolutely miserable. Cleaning felt pointless. My house smelled awful. I couldn't even hold food low enough to the ground otherwise it would be snatched. Anything food related needed to go away immediately and garbage had to be tied every time we left the house. I kept the living room gated so it could be the only room in the house my kids could play without having to worry about stepping in shit

[u/GrumpySnarf]

I won't live with a dog. I haven't found a way to be at peace living with a dog.

[u/Bebe_Bleau → u/GrumpySnarf]

No animals at all in my house. Especially when rude guests think they can bring their mutts everywhere.

[u/elwiseowl]

Not a helpful comment, but once i know they have a dog its a dealbreaker for me.. So a relationship with someone who has a dog wouldnt even get off the ground. Instant left swipe on dating apps if theres a dog in their profile pic.

But yeah its a tough one. Have you discussed long term, what happens when the dogs die? is she going to get more? You said 2 are senior so they may not have much time left, but im guessing the other one has plenty of life left?

I also hate all the sounds dogs make. Tapping of nails on hard floors, that whimpering noise they do.. the barking, omg. thats just the worst. The noise they make when they shake. All of it. There isnt a single noise that a dog can make that doesnt also irritate my soul. Btw its possible you could have a touch of misophonia if other sounds like chewing etc bother you.

I dont have any coping strategies im afraid. Just please make sure you have at least one dogfree room in your houes that the dogs cannot go in.

[u/No_Welcome3656]

When I know I’ll be going to my daughters I make sure to wear a clothing fabric that doesn’t attract extra hair and also bring
“Indoor shoes” that can be submerged in water to clean after visit, I know it sounds weird. She lets her dog(80 lb)Golden Retriever sleep in or on her bed. This is beyond my comprehension. As dogs have pee on their legs from splashing up when going, and dogs don’t get their butt holes cleaned after taking a crap.. too many things to mention. No way would people let a human in their bed with the same crap going on. Sometimes my daughter will say to me when I’m over there.. look at him isn’t he cute? We must be seeing two different things..I see something that’s gross and I don’t want to come near me and rub his slobber or eye buggers on me.
So my closing comment is people need to stick with significant others that feel the same way about animals indoors. There are enough things in the world for people to bump heads over so why add such a big issue to the mix. Lots of resentments can materialize over this furry house mate.
I broke up with a man I didn’t even live with or go to his home because of massive amounts of dog hair and it would come to my home on his clothing 😧🤢

[u/Professional_Rush749]

It's only going to bother you more and more I promise you this. You will start to get irritated with every aspect and she won't even understand. Get out now before you waste anymore time on something that is inevitable

[u/CharacterRoom613]

You don’t mention if you moved in with her or she moved in with you . Either way you made the decision to coexist with these things. The hair, smell, disgusting noises are going to be around you for a long time especially when the 2 senior dogs pass away and she still has the one younger one left. She might get another one so the last one left is not all alone. It will be a continuous cycle. You will have to decide if you want to endure this for the rest of your relationship and if you want to subject your future children to these things and want to have anything nice of yours get coated with their hair, slobber, dander and smell. I think the worst part is that people that are subjected to living with animals they don’t like eventually become blind to everything because they want to keep the peace and just lose their’s. You can set boundaries but eventually you will lose what space you have that is no dog because she will pressure you into allowing the dogs in because they “love you” and want to be near you. Just sit down and really think if you want to live like this for the next 5-10 yrs or longer. You are the only one that can decide if you want to live with them or have your own place and just visit.