This blog is all about how to live your life frugally and enjoy it all at the same time, but sometimes, a not-so-frugal decision could be the best one for your family, as we recently found out.
This is one of our two bratty dogs. We've had her since she was 8 weeks old, and this December Chloe will be the ripe old age of 3. When we got her, we just wanted a pet. Nothing special - just a furry cute animal to love. But then again, when we got her, my husband wasn't in the Navy and we didn't have kids. This past Tuesday, I took Chloe to a local training facility that also trains police dogs. I took her in to be evaluated to see if she has it in her personality to be a protection dog.
For a good year now, I've been interested in having a formally trained guard dog. Not just a dog who barks when the mailman comes, but a professionally trained protection dog who has the capability to bite your arm off if given the command...and when given the release would love to play fetch with you all the same. And the reason isn't because I want to scare off all the neighborhood kids, but because for about the next two decades, my husband will be away from home for months at a time.
I don't want guns in my house, and even if we had guns, it requires a knowledge of how to shoot them, and an opportunity to reach them should trouble arise. And don't even get me started on the inherent kid danger factor. Alarm systems can fail, and they can be tampered with. Or you could just forget to turn it on. You can't forget to turn a dog on. There's nothing out there that has a mind of its own and can alert you to dangers that you don't even see. Except for a dog.
Protection training does not come cheap. Before you even begin protection training your dog has to have 120% foolproof obedience training in place. And obedience training doesn't come cheap either. Just to give you an idea...the first set of obedience classes are $150. There's probably about 3 sets of obedience classes to go through. When we finally get around to protection training, just one tease is $25. We're not talking about teaching Fido how to dance or sit pretty, we're talking about serious stuff that requires you and your dog to work as a team to pull off some controlled aggression.
When everything is said and done, we're probably looking at around $1000 involved in all of the training. Not exactly what you call a "frugal" decision to be spending $1000 on a dog. But I don't see it as spending $1000 on Chloe...I see it as an investment in our family and our safety. It just so happens Chloe fits the mold and we don't have to get a new dog.
To afford all of this, we'll have to give up other luxuries in our lives and cut corners elsewhere. And it'll take time. And at first, I had doubts about spending $1000 on Chloe when we have needs everywhere, but then I took a look at my daughter and knew that it was going to be worth every penny to have that peace of mind.
This is one of our two bratty dogs. We've had her since she was 8 weeks old, and this December Chloe will be the ripe old age of 3. When we got her, we just wanted a pet. Nothing special - just a furry cute animal to love. But then again, when we got her, my husband wasn't in the Navy and we didn't have kids. This past Tuesday, I took Chloe to a local training facility that also trains police dogs. I took her in to be evaluated to see if she has it in her personality to be a protection dog.
For a good year now, I've been interested in having a formally trained guard dog. Not just a dog who barks when the mailman comes, but a professionally trained protection dog who has the capability to bite your arm off if given the command...and when given the release would love to play fetch with you all the same. And the reason isn't because I want to scare off all the neighborhood kids, but because for about the next two decades, my husband will be away from home for months at a time.
I don't want guns in my house, and even if we had guns, it requires a knowledge of how to shoot them, and an opportunity to reach them should trouble arise. And don't even get me started on the inherent kid danger factor. Alarm systems can fail, and they can be tampered with. Or you could just forget to turn it on. You can't forget to turn a dog on. There's nothing out there that has a mind of its own and can alert you to dangers that you don't even see. Except for a dog.
Protection training does not come cheap. Before you even begin protection training your dog has to have 120% foolproof obedience training in place. And obedience training doesn't come cheap either. Just to give you an idea...the first set of obedience classes are $150. There's probably about 3 sets of obedience classes to go through. When we finally get around to protection training, just one tease is $25. We're not talking about teaching Fido how to dance or sit pretty, we're talking about serious stuff that requires you and your dog to work as a team to pull off some controlled aggression.
When everything is said and done, we're probably looking at around $1000 involved in all of the training. Not exactly what you call a "frugal" decision to be spending $1000 on a dog. But I don't see it as spending $1000 on Chloe...I see it as an investment in our family and our safety. It just so happens Chloe fits the mold and we don't have to get a new dog.
To afford all of this, we'll have to give up other luxuries in our lives and cut corners elsewhere. And it'll take time. And at first, I had doubts about spending $1000 on Chloe when we have needs everywhere, but then I took a look at my daughter and knew that it was going to be worth every penny to have that peace of mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment