It's NOT Funny!!!

[SunsetRose]

Ok this bothers me to no end, idk about anybody else.

But have you ever seen America's Funniest Home Videos? Or Planets Funniest Animals?

Well these morons send in these videos of their dogs that are spinning around insanely while barking for no reason, desperately chasing a laser light, snarling and snapping at it's own foot and they seem to think that they are funny.

There is NOTHING funny about fixations! There's NOTHING funny about serious psychological behavior problems that aren't healthy and need to be fixed! And here the owner thinks it's the dogs personality and instead of hiring a behaviorist to help the dog, they are wasting time taping it and laughing and then wasting postage to send it in to have it aired on national television for the rest of the world to laugh about a poor dogs behavior problem.

I see dogs with these issues every day when I walk my dog. There is nothing sadder than a dog who is cooped up in a yard and given no attention or exercise who has nothing better to do than to pace back and forth so much there is a path in the dirt or a dog who spins around in a circle before hitting it's nose against the fence and then repeating the process so much that it has created a little ditch in the ground. There's nothing sadder than a dog who does nothing but grab the chain link fence in his mouth and pull while snarling or growling.

[applesmom]

I couldn't agree more. These behaviors, particularly the spinning, are all too common in rescue dogs in the sporting breeds. Dogs that are bred to have energy and stamina and have never been provided with any healthy outlet for their energy.

[pitc9]

OMG I'm so glad it bothers other people and not just me!
Just the other night I was watching AFV and there was a dog that was snarling at it's own tail, then it used one of it's front paws to pull it's back leg closer to it to try to attack it's tail!!

It bothers me to no end that people think that is funny!

[Daisy and Delilah]

Not only are the pet videos not funny, neither are some of the human ones. I'm surprised some of the pet videos are even allowed to be shown. I've always questioned the validity of those shows anyway. In 85% of the films........someone just happened to have a camera filming it?

[Catlady711]

I stopped watching AFV quite some time back. They had started showing more videos of kids doing gross things (like stuff involving boogers and such ewwww), and showing kids being so mean and disrespectful (hitting and kicking adults) and then to top it off they pay these people for this trash!!!

I just can't abide by watching that kind of trash, and I think that people that find it funny are the exact reason kids are more increasingly having no respect for adults or authority in general.

[Lori Jordan]

I have to say some of the videos are cute.

But,Some should not be on Tv,Monday night i watched and they had 30 seconds of dogs.

Which they were flipping over backwards,Doing summersalts.

That is dangerous,All together AFV is funny,But some things i could go without seeing,I do not like seeing people get hurt.

As to Funniest Animal Planet,I can not stand that show,The Guy talks like an idiot,I have not seen a full hour of that show yet.

[Karen]

I have never had the stomach to watch that show. Most of it seems to be people getting hurt, or animals getting hurt. Maybe my sense of humor is flawed, but I don't see how a man getting hit in the privates by a football - for example - is funny.

[lute]

I agree SunsetRose! I'm hope that the people that do this with their dogs also see those episodes of The Dog Whisperer to show that their dogs are really just....crazy.

[cyber-sibes]

As to Funniest Animal Planet,I can not stand that show,The Guy talks like an idiot,I have not seen a full hour of that show yet.

Ack, I feel that way too, I can't stand that guy. It bothers me to see what some people consider "funny" in these videos. I think they're demeaning.

[Twisterdog]

I've only seen the program a couple times. Some of the videos I saw were so cute ... not ALL the animals on there were neurotic or in dangerous situations. Some were just plain adorable!

I can't comment too much, since I've never actually seen too many videos like this.

But I will say, our dog Rosie LOVES the laser pointer game. If I took a video of her chasing that little red dot around the kitchen like a complete maniac, she would definately look disturbed and neurotic. But, that's only ten minutes out of her day, and she LOVES it. Vanilla will chase a tennis ball until she can't run anymore, Rosie chases a laser light. Either way, it's fun and it's good exercise. The other 23 hours and 50 minutes of the day, she's a perfectly normal dog ... well, for a bulldog, anyway.

I think it might be a little quick to judge a dog's entire disposition and life by a 60 second video.

[SunsetRose]

Glad I'm not the only one

Twister, I agree that there can be some cute ones. But once you see a real fixation/obsession (like real life, not in a video or something like from the Dog Whisperer), you will be able to recognize it instantly from there on out. You can tell by the dogs facial expression and eyes and posture wether it's spinning is a psychological problem or wether the person behind the camera is signaling it to spin over and over again. You can tell wether a dog chasing a laser light is well cared, psychologically healthy and is doing it for exercise and enjoyment or wether a dog is totally fixated on that laser.

I sometimes enjoy watching AFV because of people's stupidity. But the ones that bother me the most are when people do something that can get them seriously hurt or when it involves children getting hurt. There was one a while ago where an adult had their child on a little sled. The child started going too fast and the adult was racing to keep up. The adult lunged and slid and grabbed the rope on the sled to stop it. Well the sled swung around and stopped, but the child kept going, hit it's head and flipped causing it to do a full head stand ( no hands) on the ground before falling over. That was NOT funny, that baby was no older than 2.

Here's one more that annoys me.....Videos of people scaring cats or something because their reaction is funny. Like a person was teasing a cat with a fake doll and the cat was obviously cautious and skittish. They then jerked it forward towards the cat very quickly and the cat went flying. Another is when a baby was on the floor playing with the cat and the cat was over half way inside a clear plastic jug. The child then started to bang on the plastic jug causing the cat to spook. The cat then went flying.

[cassiesmom]

I cringe when I see pet videos too - after reading this I think I'll write (or maybe e-mail) the people at ABC and ask them to cut back on the pet clips that are not funny. Some videos make me just want to ask what the person was thinking while holding the camera.

[SunsetRose]

That's a good idea Cassiesmom. I think I'll do the same. I may shoot an email to Animal Planet too.