Oh, they definitely tried - in the Grogans' first house he was left in the garage when they were gone, which he destroyed many times over whenever a storm rolled in (my parents' first dog was storm-phobic as well, but fortunately she just climbed into the bathtub rather than trying to tunnel through the house. Later they brought a huge steel crate, which Marley managed to break out of half the time.
I mean, of course the trailer emphasizes the humor in it, and the book does as well to some degree. But he was their dog and they were his family. Lots of people love their destructive pets (there's a chapter after Marley dies, where John Grogan writes a column about him and receives thousands of emails from people who go "You think that's bad? Let me tell you about my dog," that I'm hoping made it into the film). They're part of the family ::shrugs::
It all makes me feel a bit weird about the whole pet/owner relationship - I know a woman who has two purebred dogs, and she's a big proponent of breeders that know what they're doing and the fit of a pet with the people it'll belong to. All the layers of responsibility involved are, yes, beyond my personal experience. It still makes me feel odd, because to say "it's just his nature" or "it's just how he is" comes off as indulgent - at least when it's a dog that didn't suffer any trauma or issues in its early life.
Understandable. It's something I take a bit personally because I've had people look at me like I'm crazy when I explain Ralphie's problems/treatment. They usually say, "It's just a dog," which makes me feel like I'm being judged for loving my pet. The problem pets are the ones aggressive enough to be dangerous (which is usually the owner's fault anyway), and the problem owners are those who neglect, beat, or abandon their animals. The rest of them aren't a drain on any part of society but their own families, which is more than you can say for a lot of humans.
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I mean, of course the trailer emphasizes the humor in it, and the book does as well to some degree. But he was their dog and they were his family. Lots of people love their destructive pets (there's a chapter after Marley dies, where John Grogan writes a column about him and receives thousands of emails from people who go "You think that's bad? Let me tell you about my dog," that I'm hoping made it into the film). They're part of the family ::shrugs::
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Which is why I have rabbits.
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