How idiotic is this...

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prosefullstop

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Have any of you seen the trailer for the new J-Lo film? It's been running here for weeks, and features a rather cute BT in a canine wheelchair. I've never seen a Boston in one of those chairs--a few dachshunds here and there, and a Yorkie--but didn't think much of it.

Until today. My husband sent me an article and it turns out the dog is able-bodied. How awful for the poor thing to have its legs strapped up like that!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbi...ed-Nubbins-dog-The-Back-Up-Plan-premiere.html
 
I'm afraid I don't see the problem. Dogs don't have human worries, fears or prejudices about disability. As far as the dog is concerned it was just one more learned behaviour for which he would be rewarded. I doubt if the dog cared whether it did this behaviour or some other, as long as it was not expected to spend an excessive amount of time in the doggy-chair (which I suspect it did not as animal welfare rules in the US are pretty strict).
 
Well he looks in fine fettle and whilst I agree its a bit stupid, I'd place a good guess he's much loved.

When you think of all the things we ask our dogs to do thats unnatural, provided the dog was actlimatised to wearing the aparatus and rewarded well, I can't say I see the problem.

Collars, harnesses, clothes (!) rugs etc all appear very odd and scary to the dog at the start, but we perservere because these things are deemed as normal and usual for the dogs to wear.
 
Just to add, regarding the training issue, I doubt it took more than a day to train. Dogs that are trained to try new behaviours are very willing to experiment. I would imagine you start with targeting the doggy-chair and build up to having it, then having it on for longer periods of time, then having it on and moving around.
 
I'm more bothered about the actual use of those carts in the first place

(Runs and hides)

No offence to anyone who uses them, they obviously suit small, light dogs better, but as the owner of a large, weightbearing dog, once the hind legs start to go, then that is it for me. Sorry if I sound like a heartless cow.
 
I agree CC, when my lab x springers legs went, that was it for her. Her quality of life had gone, her life was spent bouncing and running and searching. What a life to be curtailed to waddling in a chair. Wasn't for her.
 
CaveCanem said:
I'm more bothered about the actual use of those carts in the first place

(Runs and hides)

No offence to anyone who uses them, they obviously suit small, light dogs better, but as the owner of a large, weightbearing dog, once the hind legs start to go, then that is it for me. Sorry if I sound like a heartless cow.
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I agree about big dogs. I saw a Boxer once, and my heart bled for it. Not saying it's something I would consider for Stella, as she loves to sprint after the ball and be chased, but the 10lb dogs really zoom in those carts.

Still not loving the wheelchair. I've seen that BT expression before and the dog looks royally cheesed off.
 
I don't agree with carts/wheel chairs or whatever they are for dogs either, it looks dreadful, once when I was at a dog show I saw a long coated shepherd on one, the bloke stood for 2 hours in the beating down sun with the dog strapped to the cart effigy, an able bodied dog would have chosen to lie down in that time, this poor dog had no choice.:(
I agree it's not particularly cruel in the short space of time the film was produced but I do thinks it cruel to strap disabled dogs to them for however long it takes for the rest of the body to catch up:confused:
 
I have a book on rehioming dogs, which gives some care studies. One of these is a cocker spaniel paralysed in its back end from a traffic accident. TBH given the extent of its injuries I would have had the dog PTS, but it now lives with a pack of other dogs and is pictured zooming along with them in one of these carts which has been modified with fat tyres for off-roading, keeping up with the others just fine.

It is a very difficult one. I don't like the idea of a dog being confined like this myself though. I don't think I could put Henry in one:(
 
I hate those carts! I know people who have used them for GSDs but to me it is just taking away the dogs dignity, and when they are not in the carts they are dragging themselves about:( Having had to put a few of my beloved dogs due to CDRM it never crossed my mind to give myself a bit longer with them with a cart. I did discuss them with my vet once and he agreed that he didn't like to see dogs in them.
 
I would consider using a dog wheelchair as a part of rehabilitation, but not as a permanent solution.

I'm sure that dogs that lives with a dog wheel chair in real life, makes the best out of their situation, but I still feel that we keep them alive for our sake and not theirs.


About the movie, was a normal cute Boston Terrier not cute enough?

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I feel they're more cute without wheelchairs. :D
 
Mum has a wheelchair westie!

The funniest thing i have ever seen is mum in her wheelchair taking the wheelchair dog for a walk!

He has been in the cart since he was 18 months was supposed to be just for rehabilitation from a car accident but his back legs never got better. Had he been in any way unhappy i know mum would have had him PTS.
But as it is he is a holy terror and (even though i don't like him :D) a very happy little chap.

I agree that it doesn't work for most dogs but it can for some!

ps. he came from a rescue with his sister already in the cart.
 
Yes I can see that lightweight dogs would cope better, it is the sight of big dogs like Shepherds in them I hate. It sounds as if your mums westie isn't totally off his back legs if he can get around the house. The one particular GSD that made me shudder couldn't move at all without her wheels, in the house she just lay there or dragged herself round by her forelegs. In cases like that I feel the owner is putting themselves first.
 
MurphysMinder said:
Yes I can see that lightweight dogs would cope better, it is the sight of big dogs like Shepherds in them I hate. It sounds as if your mums westie isn't totally off his back legs if he can get around the house. The one particular GSD that made me shudder couldn't move at all without her wheels, in the house she just lay there or dragged herself round by her forelegs. In cases like that I feel the owner is putting themselves first.
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Yes i understand totally with big dogs it being such a stress on them.

He uses one back leg in the house sometimes but most his drags himself around at top speed on his little rug. Its hard to explain but he is perfectly happy with it!
 
I don't think I could make a decision on this in advance. I would want to try everything I could for the dog as long as he was happy, so I think I would give it a chance with any dog and see how it went. Just out of interest, some of the people out there making doggie-chairs do claim to be able to distribute the weight properly, take basic physiology into account and correctly design their chairs, but I wouldn't know if their claims pan out in practice.
 
I admire that Booboos but my mother made me promise, when I was a little un, never to keep a dog alive for me, or just because I could, her old bitch was probably kept on two years too long and she has never really forgiven herself for it. Was CDRM, which once attacks the back legs, then the front, then the rest of the faculties.
 
I always dreaded my beloved Chaka getting CDRM, as her mother developed it at 8. She was so special to me I sometimes wondered if she would be the one to make me consider "wheels". As it turned out the decision was never needed as she developed cancer, whilst ironically remaining strong on her hindlegs, so I cannot honestly say what I would have done. I think though I would still have had her pts rather than resort to wheels, the thing is even if a dog is happy trotting about in the wheels, once out of them it cannot get about. So unless you are with them constantly they would have to lie there, quite possibly in their own urine or worse, until someone came along to lift them.:(
 
I think the incontinence issue could seriously complicate the question. Being incontinent itself could upset a dog that knew it should be going outside, the urine and faeces themselves could cause sores and infections and it would (let's be honest) be difficult to live with.

I suppose what I think is that I don't find the doggy-chair inherently objectionable or against the dog's dignity. If a particular dog was depressed, sore or in pain in it, then I would never do it. I would imagine that bigger dogs would be more likely to have more strain and stress problems so statistically less likely to be able to cope, but in principle I don't find the doggy-chair upsetting - more pleasing because it does enable, the dogs that it does suit, to have a longer, active life.
 
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