We would not trade our dogs for anything, and we will still admit, quietly, that some days they drive us up the wall. Forbes put a number on that feeling. In a survey of 10,000 dog owners across all 50 states, people ranked their biggest frustrations from a list of 18 common gripes, and the results are oddly comforting: whatever makes you grit your teeth, thousands of strangers are gritting theirs about the exact same thing.
What is more interesting than the ranking is the pattern underneath it. Sort the top complaints into buckets and they stop looking like ten separate annoyances and start looking like three or four recurring tensions between dog ownership and modern life. The single loudest one is not what you would guess.
The real winner: what do I do when I leave?
The number one gripe nationwide was not mess, noise, or expense. It was finding a dog sitter, named by 37 percent of respondents and the top complaint in every state but seven. (If you want easier luck lining up care, the holdouts were New York, Pennsylvania, Maine, Delaware, Oregon, California, and Florida.) Close behind sat the sibling problem of finding dog-friendly hotels, which was Georgia’s single biggest grievance.
Put those together and the headline writes itself. The hardest part of dog ownership, for most people, is the logistics of being away, the sitter, the boarding, the room that will actually take a 60-pound Lab.
The sitter panic people describe is really separation anxiety wearing a scheduling costume, and it runs both ways. Owners worry, and dogs pick up on it. The fix that helps most is boring and preventive: build a short list of trusted care and let your dog have low-key practice separations long before the big trip, so leaving stops feeling like an emergency for either of you.
— Dr. Lena Park
The grind: time and money
The next cluster is about the daily cost of keeping a dog thriving. Walking and exercising the dog was the top peeve in six states (New York, California, Washington, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Delaware), a fair complaint from anyone juggling a demanding pup and a full calendar. The overall price tag landed near the top too, named the second-biggest annoyance in 11 states and the third-biggest in 10. And the vet run stings on both counts: it is nobody’s idea of fun, and it is pricey, with 29 percent of respondents calling it their second-highest pet expense (food took the top spot). Forty percent of Floridians flagged vet visits specifically.
The mess: fur, waste, and muddy floors
Then there is the physical fallout of living with an animal. Shedding ranked sixth overall and hit Vermont hardest, where 28 percent said the fur drives them nuts. Picking up waste came in seventh, a chore 15 percent singled out and one that residents of Indiana, Montana, and Oregon ranked as their second-worst. And dogs tracking dirt through the house bothered 11 percent nationwide, though only about 4.5 percent of people in Washington and Florida, who apparently have unusually tidy dogs.
The manners: noise and enthusiasm
The last cluster is behavior. Excessive barking ranked fifth, and Utah reported it more than anywhere else. Jumping up on people rounded out the top ten at 10 percent, least bothersome in Washington and Hawaii, where only about four percent minded. Both are trainable, which is worth remembering the next time your dog greets a guest like a linebacker.
The good news buried in the data
Here is the part that rarely makes the headline: most of the classic “annoying dog stuff” barely registered. Dogs lounging on the furniture or the bed, trips to the groomer, drooling, and tick checks all landed near the bottom of the list. In other words, the things we grumble about most are logistical, the sitter, the schedule, the bill, while the everyday intimacies of sharing a home with a dog mostly get a pass.
What’s new since this was written
The sitter problem has only sharpened as more people return to in-person work, and the market has noticed. Pet-care apps and on-demand boarding have expanded, but so have their prices, with overnight sitting in many cities now running well above what it did a few years ago, which is part of why “who watches the dog” keeps topping these lists. On the brighter side, pet-friendly hotel policies have loosened at several major chains, and a growing crop of dog-forward travel services has made the “where do we stay” half of the problem a little easier to solve than it used to be.
None of it changes the bottom line, though. Every gripe on the list is the tax you pay on a very good thing, because at the end of even the most exasperating day, a dog is still there waiting for you. That is a trade most of us would make again in a heartbeat.
References
- Forbes Advisor. “Pet Ownership Statistics and Survey.” https://www.forbes.com/advisor/pet-insurance/pet-ownership-statistics/
- American Veterinary Medical Association. “Separation Anxiety in Dogs.” https://www.avma.org/resources/pet-owners/petcare
