‘I made my daughter give up her dog so she learns life isn’t fair’

A dad has been slammed for making his daughter give up her dog because she was struggling to spend time with him while attending school and working a part-time job – with Reddit users saying ‘she was set up to fail’

Not only can having a dog teach children about responsibility, they also learn about heartbreak when their beloved pet is no longer around. While most children learn this lesson when their dog dies of old age, one man has gone to extreme lengths to teach his daughter about the reality of life.

Explaining how he made his daughter rehome her dog, he claims he is “raising her to be a responsible adult” who understands how hard life can be at times. Speaking to Reddit, he said: “My 16-year-old has a dog that she bought a couple months ago. Her mother and I said she could get one as long as she took care of him, paid for everything he needed and spent time with him.

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“She held up her end of the bargain for a while and everything was working out the way it was supposed to. She toilet trained him, took him on plenty of walks, paid for his vet bills and food – the whole nine yards.”

However, his daughter was no longer able to spend as much time with her dog as she would have liked when “school got busier” and she got a part-time job to be able to provide for her pooch.

“She works about 25 to 30 hours a week and spends at least two hours on homework every night,” he added. “Even though her dog never went in the house and seemed OK, I felt bad for him since she wasn’t home as much as she used to be.

“I talked to her about it at first, telling her that he needed more attention. I’ve raised countless dogs in my life and I know what is needed for a healthy, obedient dog.

“I was also worried she wouldn’t be his alpha which is absolutely necessary if she expected to take him with her when she moved out.”

Soon after, the man “put his foot down” and insisted she rehomed the dog if she “couldn’t be bothered to make more time for him”.

He said: “She argued with me for a long time about it, eventually giving in and finding him a new owner. She goes straight to her room after work and refuses to talk to me. My wife is upset but hasn’t really picked a side.”

While most users slammed him for making her rehome her dog, others pointed out how she was trying to provide for her pet by taking on the part-time job.

One user said: “You can’t have it both ways; making her take full responsibility for the dog, including bills, and then forcing her to get rid of him.

“It’s her dog or it’s not and from your own admission it doesn’t sound like she was anywhere near the point of neglecting him, which would have been the only reason to insist she get rid of him.

“The alpha stuff is also nonsense/the time spent away is not a real reason for it not to be ‘her’ dog. We’ve all seen videos of soldiers or college students coming home and the dogs going nuts.

“A summer job is not going to make the dog stop listening to her, and even with working more hours in the summer, surely it’s not more total hours than when she was going to school and working.

“She is going to resent you forever for this.

“You also set her up for failure by making her pay for everything but also thinking she works too much. How on earth is she supposed to pay for food and vet bills, not to mention her own clothes and school supplies, apparently, without that job?”

Another user added: ” It really reads like the dad never really wanted his daughter to have an animal and is ginning up an excuse to get rid of the dog.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, she’s already picking out the nursing home to stick him in when he is unable to take care of himself. Even if the dad ‘never goes in the house and seems OK’.”

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