“She’s overweight! You should weigh her weekly and cut her diet if she gains 50 grams!” barked one Facebook commenter. Another berated me for not using organic shampoo. Yet another criticized my outdoor coat. Scroll through any pet-related post, and you’ll find a battleground of unsolicited advice, heated arguments, and outright judgment.
Let me be clear: I adore Dixie. She’s a nearly four-year-old standard short-haired dachshund and, like any loving owner, I want the best for her. But she’s not a toddler. She’s a dog. And increasingly, the hysteria surrounding pet care has reached a level that feels, frankly, absurd.
Over the past decade, prescriptions of fluoxetine—the active ingredient in Prozac—for dogs have skyrocketed tenfold. It’s perhaps no coincidence that over half of all dog owners now belong to some form of Facebook group dedicated to pet wellness. Like Mumsnet, these forums are equal parts helpful and hostile, offering both genuine guidance and a torrent of sanctimonious noise. With roughly eight million pet owners ready to leap on your every misstep, even a simple question can ignite a firestorm.
Take food, for example. After adopting Dixie three months ago, I turned to a dachshund Facebook group for advice on dog food. That innocent query unleashed a tsunami of condescension. A mainstream biscuit brand suggestion drew eye-rolls. “You can do better than THAT,” one user scoffed. Another proposed a weekly delivery of organic meals—at a cost higher than what my husband and I once paid for our own dinners.
One woman proudly declared, “We only feed ours raw and organic,” in the smug tone of someone who probably bakes her own dog biscuits. Which, she does. The whole vibe had me ready to hurl a stale Bonio at my laptop.
Growing up on a farm, feeding the dogs meant tossing them some kibble and leftovers and letting them get on with it. Twelve years ago, when my husband and I got our first puppy, Betty—a Jack Russell-Poodle mix—I briefly fell down the same neurotic rabbit hole. I was baking her meatloaf from scratch. That lasted until a holiday left her in my mother’s care. One look at my “feeding plan,” and she shut it down.
The trend isn’t new. My husband, in his youth, once drunkenly devoured a pot of stew from the pantry, only to learn the next morning—courtesy of his animal-loving stepmother—that he’d eaten the dog’s dinner. More recently, friends duped him into munching on posh dog treats at a pub, which he mistook for parmesan breadsticks. Now he’s the punchline in jokes about his “shiny coat.”
And let’s not even get into the gear debates. When a pregnant friend confessed she was overwhelmed by pram advice online, I laughed. “Try the harness vs. lead debate in dog groups,” I told her. Or the ever-contentious topics: crate or no crate? Co-sleeping—cuddly or unhygienic? Are dog shows empowering or degrading? Should you put your dog in nappies during heat cycles?
Even forums like Horse & Hound, usually reliable, can’t escape the spiral. A thread about judgmental dog owners quickly devolved into—you guessed it—more judgment.
To be fair, these groups do have value. When settling a rehomed dog, advice from experienced owners can be a lifeline—especially with vet visits costing £40 just to walk through the door, followed by unnecessary tests and overpriced vitamins. Peer-shared advice often beats marketing spin.
But there’s a darker side. Not everyone dispensing advice is an expert. Dogs Today recently highlighted how online communities can lead to overdiagnosis, misguided self-treatment, and even the abandonment of dogs wrongly assumed to be suffering from behavioral disorders.
Still, some of the madness sticks. The smug home-bakers with their Meghan Markle-style dog treats? My friend Julia tried a recipe recommended by Battersea Dogs & Cats Home. Dixie devoured them with gusto. Five stars from her.
But the truth remains: Dixie is a dog—not a toddler, not a wellness influencer, not a spiritual guru wrapped in fur. Perhaps it’s time for pet owners to take a collective breath and remember that a happy, muddy, biscuit-fed dog is just fine the way she is.