The Backyard Dog
You see them in every community, a dog tied day after day to a back porch or fence. He's lying there lonely on bare, packed dirt. The water bowl is usually empty or just our of reach.
Abandoned, but chained up, backyard dogs cannot move to comfort, shelter, or companionship.
Forcing dogs to live alone outside, away from their human pack, is one of the worst things you can do. Being alone goes against the dog's most basic instinct. If you doubt this, think of all the whining, barking, clawing dogs you have seen tied alone outside. Dogs are social, pack animals that need the attention of their human families.
Even the most well-meaning people who keep their dogs constantly tied outside do not spend significant time with their animal companions. Under the best of circumstances, the backyard dog gets a bowl of food and water, a quick pat on the head and maybe a few minutes of contact with another living being each day.
Dogs can offer people steadfast devotion, love and joyful companionship. Unless people accept their offerings and take the time to return them in kind, it would be best for them not to get a dog. A sad, lonely, bewildered dog tied out back only suffers.