Pretty sure I wouldnt be able to function without them.
Even having them not be in the house for so much as like, 2 hours will start to get to me (this being whenever they're at what my stepmother calls "doggy daycare", which is once a week).
I have two dogs, Cooper, and Dingle. They are definitely a handful. Cooper is the bigger of the two and is pretty passive in a lot of ways, but also doesnt listen very well despite professional training. He's the sort of dog that will try to eat basically anything. He'll also grab things that he shouldnt have just to get attention... you can tell when he's doing this because he'll grab whatever it is, hop up and down and shake it, and then just stare at you, and if you arent paying attention to this display, he'll come closer and do it again. He's always safe for everyone to be around, and in fact if he's got something he shouldnt, you can just go ahead and take it from him. Well, you can try, anyway. He likes the ol' tug-of-war.
Dingle, his sister (well, not by blood, but I usually refer to them as brother/sister, they're both Wheatens) and the smaller of the two, is the opposite of Cooper in so many ways. Cooper is passive and friendly, Dingle is aggressive, and absolutely not safe for strangers to be around, she has bitten people before (dont worry, they were fine, and didnt get mad about it). Cooper is extremely social around other dogs (he freaking *LOVES* going to the daycare for that reason), Dingle usually doesnt seem interested. She is extremely clingy and tends to follow me around the house. Very high-maintenance... and she does make messes, generally if she's displeased about something (usually someone being out of the house, she seems to have a lot of separation anxiety).
So, put both together, and you've got quite the handful all the time, yeah? Also they are *LOUD*. Typically it's doorbells that set them off. They can definitely be a source of stress at times... particularly when they're outside, I always get a bit nervous about that, particularly with Cooper. Is he going to find something to eat that he shouldnt? What happens if he spots a frog? And there's ticks in the area, including in the yard... he has an anti-pest collar and whatnot but his bizarre sister occasionally pulls that off of him (???) and in all honesty I dont trust the anti-pest stuff... collars or otherwise... to 100% work. Maybe that's just me being paranoid. But I have found ticks on him before, and yes, he got Lyme's disease from it once awhile back.
But even with all of that... yeah, I could not go without them. The very thought is horrifying to me.
View attachment 117452
That's Dingle in the front there, watching me very carefully to make absolutely certain that I dont randomly blink out of existence, and Cooper in the back, kinda tired after a daycare trip.
Why he often chooses to lay on the slate tiles, I dont know. They are allowed on all of the furniture, they could lay on any soft thing.