I have always wondered, if you have a dog but leave it in a run/outdoors all day, never play, work or interact with it...why even have the dog in the first place?
My dogs are a part of my family; they live indoors with me and come with me whenever feasible when I go places. I enjoy their company; they are my companions. I would never just toss them outside and ignore them; if I'd planned to do that, I never would have gotten them to begin with.
I know, right? Especially a smart, social breed like springers (FIL's breed of choice.) FIL says he likes having a dog around, it's good companionship (although I doubt the level of companionship one can achieve with an always-outdoor, infrequently-played-with farm dog). But he also has that "animals are for food not fun" mentality. He probably thinks by feeding it Ol' Roy instead of letting it fend for itself that he's bonding with it or something.
Sounds like my mother-in-law. She doesn't like (or understand) animals at all, but growing up, she and her sisters had a dog. A dog that was chained up, all day and night, next to his dog house. I think they played with it, but it never came in the house or anything. When hubby and I got married, I awakened his long-dormant animal lover gene and we've had pets throughout our marriage. Right now one of them is a rescued greyhound.
We mentioned something about the dog, I don't know, taking over the couch or being in exactly the wrong spot on the floor (one of those "annoying" things doggies do) and she sniffed "I just think dogs would rather be outside." Yep, I know our dog would rather be chained up (can't do that with greys anyway) in the cold, and snow, and rain, with no human contact, and fending off the deer, coyotes, wild turkeys and foxes that we've seen in our neighborhood. Sure beats lying on a couch in between two people who love you and that you love and getting random scritches and maybe their leftover chicken.
