Are Dogs Better off than they were 100 years ago?

Do you think that dogs are better off than they were !00 years ago? - Are they generally happier ? Have breeds progressed or been meddled with beyond the call of duty? What does everyone think?

I think they lead a very different life, have no idea if they are happier but there is no doubt life is different for dogs in today’s world at least in the UK

100 years ago only the rich could indulge in the fancy, showing their dogs or keeping them as companions, other dogs were kept to work and if the ‘man in the street’ wanted a dog it would almost certainly be a mongrel.

Dog were not kept in house as they are now, often left to wander and many found food on the streets as they still do in parts of Europe to day. When dogs became part of the family as they are to day I don’t know, they are given every consideration and I think there are those who totally forget that they are animals.

I agree with that last part - i dont know as you say, if dogs were any happier or not in the past, but i think the over-humanising of the dogs is as detrimental a factor now as maybe the disregard of dogs in their treatment perhaps may have been back then.

Personally I think they were probably happier 100's of years ago when they could just take themselves off for a walk whenever they fancied, coz people left their doors open and the dogs just went in and out as they pleased - I'm sure they did???!! I could be wrong, but that's how I imagined it was anyway Most of them didn't know what a collar and lead was, they had absolute freedom, so wouldn't you be happier like that? I suppose there was no need for rigourous training either in those days if the dogs took themselves out most days? As for the hounds, they must have been in heaven all that hunting that went on to catch the dinner. Did we have big shows like Crufts in those days then? Just curious

and i wonder if - taking into account statistics like dogs per population head etc, whether there were more or less dog attacks back then...

probably less....as they prob respected the animal side of their behaviour more!

can you expand on that - you mean the human behaviour was modified around a dog to respect a feral side of them i.e. their kids were taught to keep them at arms length? Or that they were treated more like say a cat would be, food down and pretty much get on with it?

I think they would have had much more freedom years ago, which they would be happyer with, but poss they were less well fed,

You may be right but they did not get medical treatment and most if unable to work would have been shot, they were not fed as now and the sick or older dogs would have gone hungry, they were free to procreate at will and hundreds of puppies would be drowned or left to stave, poisoning was common. But the dogs would not have known this and probably lived for the day as they do now. Some days in heaven and some in hell, I suspect there was far more cruelty, there was even within my memory, in fact, when I think about it I am describing what I know from 60 years ago rather than a hundred.

Yes Crufts was there but only the rich and those who worked their dogs would show them and it was more like a livestock market, you displayed your dogs for sale or as studs or breeding bitches, I have seen a catalogue from the 1930s that has if the dog was for sale or not and it's price. In the front of the Illustrated Breed Standards book there is a painting of an early canine meeting dated 1855 and it was held at Jemmy Shaws tavern, it shows mostly terriers except a dog that looks like a CKCS, one that may be a Boxer and a couple who may be Bulldogs. Charles Crufts started dog shows in 1886 but Crufts its self did not start till 1928.

On the plus side, I think they get better training and food these days. I would say that in the past neglect and cruelty were more common and I'm sure alot of dogs in the past died earlier from injury and disease.

However, they certainly had a lot more freedom then, than they do now and I should imagine that 100 years ago, more breeds were doing the job they were bred to do than they do now.