[Namara]

Dogs are not humans, and dogs are not inanimate objects. Dogs are dogs.

I'm also going to go with "pet owner," although we do use the terms "mom" and "dad" occasionally only because they're convenient. (Our names are longer than one syllable :-P)

There are several similarities between having pets and parenting, but as a few have pointed out, with human children you're raising them with the goal of teaching them to be able to function and take responsibility for themselves someday. Not with dogs. I don't like dog outfits and anything that humanizes dogs too much. Anyone who treats their animals as if they truly were human is fulfilling their own wants, not the dogs', and are most likely ignoring what the dog really needs in the process.

The term "guardian" seems too passive to me... like you're just there to keep an eye on the dog while they do their own natural, doggie thing, and that we as humans should let nature be nature or something. The whole "they are free spirits that cannot be owned" attitude. I don't like this, personally. However, I do like the connotation that we have responsibility for our pets - not to abuse or neglect them, etc.

Dogs are not wild animals anymore, but they are still animals and have primal instincts that have to be fulfilled. And as such, we as humans have to take responsibility for that from both ends of the spectrum. We need to train them and raise them so that they can function in the human world, and we also need to make sure that they have exercise, things to chew on, and other things that take care of their animal needs. Dogs have been bred to live between the two worlds - that is their specific roll and our responsibility to make sure they fill it.

I love my dog and consider our dog a member of the family, but his roll in the family is that of the dog. The pet, companion (meaning they keep me company, don't read too much into that term!), and even a hobby (as in, dogs and training them, etc. is a hobby), but never a child or anything remotely human. I think it's unfair to the dog to think of them as anything different.