I (F22) have set boundaries with my mother (58) and it has become a disaster. My mother got a new dog who is about to turn a year old. This dog doesn’t listen and my parents refuse to train her. She gets into everything and chews it which is normal puppy behavior except my parents just let it happen instead of correcting her. The dog can’t be off a leash in their own large backyard because they won’t teach her recall. She gives us a constant headache with her barking because they think continuing to scream “No Bark!” at her over and over again will eventually make her understand what it means… news flash! She doesn’t speek english… she’ll never just understand it! The dog even gets into EVERYTHING from tearing up toilet paper to eating their ear plugs. Mom finds them in her poop and laughs because its “funny”. Every time I go home to visit I teach her “sit” and “lay down” and she does great. By the next time I come home she has forgotten everything because even though my mom stays home every day with her and doesn’t work, she refuses to practice her tricks with her. She has told me numerous times “she’s just my little lap dog, she doesn’t need to be taught tricks.” I honestly feel SO bad for the dog becuase she gets no stimulation in her life and doesn’t listen and my parents won’t listen to me.

Flash forward to now, I’m moving states in a few months. I told my mom that if she doesn’t get serious about training the dog to listen, that she can’t come to help me move. I refuse to listen to her constant barking and don’t want her getting into all my boxes that will be all over the place and eating my things. My mom is PISSED at me and is saying “I would NEVER talk to my mom that way!”, “if I had the chance to see my mom again, she could bring as many dogs as she wants into my home!” and “how dare you treat me like this”. I have explained to her that I’m not mad at her, I just can’t have a dog that doesn’t listen in my home with all of this comotion of a big move. ALL she has to do is at least TRY to train the dog or get a trainer to help. She thinks this is some big attack on her. She keeps telling me “she isn’t even a year old she needs time to learn”, “shes a dog. dogs bark” and straight up refusing to teach her anything. I don’t even know what to do from here and I’m so over it. I genuinly don’t understand why she is so against getting the dog trained and all she says is “its your dad and I’s decision and we don’t want to. she isn’t even a year old yet.” You can litterally start training dogs as early as 8 weeks old. She even said she would rather get a hotel during the move and have my mom and dad take turns dog sitting in the hotel and helping us with the move then just get her trained! That is SO irrational! And to top it all off… she has decided to get a SECOND DOG!!

I just don’t know what to do. Please give me advice.

tldr; mom refuses to train her dog and is mad about me setting my boundaries.

3 comments
  1. Don’t bend on this subject. In fact at this point don’t expect your mother to help at all or expect her to try and show up with her dog. Let your mother throw her fit and be firm. If she tries manipulating you any further with emotional outbursts about what she would or wouldn’t do say “that’s great I’m not you” and move on with it.

  2. I think you need to maybe ease off on the “dog training” stuff, and just accept that it’s their dog, not yours.

    Separately, it’s absolutely your call to decide if someone brings their dog (or any pet) to your house. Stand your ground there.

    I think if you separate the “needs training” from “my house, no dogs” that might help things. You mom might be getting defensive because she feels that you’re criticizing/judging her decisions/behavior. Which I think you are, and I agree with you… but maybe make the “no dog during move” not about her getting training, and just that you don’t want the dog there.

    Reinforce that you want HER there, just not the dog as too much is going on & there will be too much for her to get into. You should be able to phrase that in a way that doesn’t directly call out her dog needing training.

    Just my $0.02. I’ve always had a strict “no dogs” policy at my house. I love many of my friends dogs, but I can do that at their place just fine. 🙂

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