When you are immersed in the dog world as much as I am, you see the changes, and this one is coming and is ramping up speed. The word owners is going out of fashion fast. Many dog trainers & pet professionals are choosing the words pet guardian, pet parent or family to describe what used to be owners.

The shift started coming a while ago. Many people stopped seeing dogs as possessions, as something you owned, and said that these animals are sentient beings. They have emotions, and they feel things; they have a legal right to be cared for. The rest of the things we own are inanimate objects. This is different.

This month we had a scenario where we had our car breakdown on holiday. Now, I’ll be honest: our car means a lot to me, and I have quite a strong emotional attachment to it. Many people’s dream car is a sports car. My dream car as a child was a 4x4 full of dogs. (See image, I got to live my dream!) Also, we paid for some of it with money my grandad left us, who I adored, and he loved his cars. We had also recently lost Jim’s Stepdad, who loved his four by fours. It felt very special.  Fast forward to now, our car broke down on holiday, and after looking at lots of options, the best was to leave it in Wales to be fixed and hire a car so at least we could get Izzy and ourselves home.

The conversation Jim and I had coming home was, well, this is a massive pain, but we will take this 100 times over to when we had to leave Oscar at the vet, driving home without him after a holiday.

Several years ago we were on holiday with Oscar, Louis and Belle, when Oscar had a horrible accident and ended up with a broken leg. He ended up in the Cave which is like the Willows but in Devon. They told us he’d be in for 3 days and then back out. He had some awful complications and a dodgy immune system, and they were doing their best, but he was in their intensive care touch and go for several days. Even now, I feel sick writing about it; it was just horrid. We extended the ‘holiday’ (by then, it really wasn’t feeling like one) to be near and visited him when we were allowed, but he was still in and not well enough to be discharged. Unfortunately, it got to the point where we had to come home with Louis and Belle, with Oscar still there. That journey, the emotions I can't describe. It was tough.  Fortunately, on day 12, he was finally well enough to come home. We headed back to Devon and brought our beautiful boy home.

I think dogs are becoming more important and the norm as part of our families. I heard about a study recently saying a top consideration for millennials buying houses is the suitability for their dogs. I know several Insight Hounds members who have bought new cars because of their dogs or because they got a second dog.

I'm not here to judge. If people want to call themselves owners or other people owners, they can; it’s been around a long time. My prediction is that fast-forward a few more years, owners will be one of those words you add to the list to spend time over Christmas trying to explain to a relative why it’s not appropriate for them to be saying it anymore.

For me, having left a broken car on holiday and having left a poorly dog, there are undoubtedly similarities. Both had an impact on the holiday, both we had to travel back to the holiday locations, and both cost a fortune. However, when I think about the emotions between the two, they are, without doubt, worlds apart. Even with an emotional attachment to our car, I’m certain, more than ever, that while we own our car, our dog is part of our family!