Why do some people own dogs? Or have no interest in grammar?

This is such an issue of mine. People who own dogs but don't act as if they even ~want~ them. We have some neighbors who live a few houses down behind us (open alley, so I can see into their backyard) who own two dogs. These dogs are ~always~ outside. Always. And the smaller of the two, a cute little black/brown chihuahua), constantly barks. Being an open alley and having a chain link fence, the dog gets to bark at just about every type of visual stimuli, which is awesome.

Now, I don't mind when dogs bark. They are dogs. If something is going on or someone is walking by their property, the barking doesn't bother me in the least bit. But if you are going to leave your dog outside to bark constantly, why own a dog? Dogs are pack animals and want to be with their pack. And unless your name is Cesar Millan, your dog's pack is probably your family. They want to be ~with you~, not outside in the backyard for every waking moment. I love the people who treat their dog as family, because that's how it should be. Dogs need outside time, sure, but just locking them in the backyard all the time? Ugh. That's horrible.

While I'm on my venting trip, can I please urge the entire internet to understand the difference between 'lose' and 'loose'? Hey, I'm not the smartest one on the planet. I'm far from it. And you all know I have some terrible grammar usage myself - I'll be the first to admit it. But hopefully I use the correct word for the one I'm going for. I just don't know why lose/loose seems to be the most misused word out there, nor why it bugs me so badly. It's probably because it ~is~ my pet peeve so it is simply blaring to me.

Lose is a verb. ie: "don't lose your keys!" or "I would really like to lose weight." After you lose something, it's lost.

Loose is an adjective. ie: "These pants are really loose on me" or "I really need to tighten this knob, it's too loose."

People rely too much on spellcheck is what it is. There should be some sort of am-I-using-the-wrong-form-of-a-word-check. That would rule. A homonym check. But I don't think lose and loose are actually homonyms. To be a homonym, they would have to have same sound and spelling, ie: bear (animal) and bear (carry). A homograph have the same spelling, but not necessarily the same sound, ie: read (present) and read (past). A homophone has same sound, may be spelled the same, but have different meaning, ie: to, two and too or muscle and mussel. So I guess lose and loose are just two different words that people just fuck up a lot.

Ha. I just was googling and found http://www.loseloose.com/ which quotes "If someone has referred you to this page, you've probably confused those two very similar words. Don't be a looser." ~giggle~. That's fucking hilarious. A little excerpt:

• You lose your job when you get fired for making silly mistakes.
• You don't loose your job unless you release it from a cage.
• You let your belt loose after Thanksgiving dinner.
• You let your belt lose when it races with your tie.

In thinking about this pet peeve of mine, it would really suck to have this issue. There would be no way for you to know if you are using the right word or not. Spellcheck is cool, so it lets it go and you would have no idea. Really? How would you know if you were using the wrong word? I just did a little search and came up with a list of the most common ones. Are you guilty of having issue with any of these? I know I screw up affect/effect all the time. Hrm, and maybe stationary/stationery.

• accept (receive)/except (leave out)
• advice (recommendation)/advise (recommend)
• affect (influence)/effect (result)
• angle (geometry)/angel (spiritual being)
• allude (suggest)/elude (escape, avoid)
• allusion (indirect reference)/illusion (something not there)
• born (given birth to)/borne (carried)
• cite (mention)/site (place)/sight (vision)
• cursor (computer marker)/curser (a person who swears)
• dessert (food)/desert (abandon/hot place)
• elicit (to draw out)/illicit (illegal)
• eminent (noteworthy)/imminent (impending)
• forth (forward)/fourth (after third)
• forward (to the front)/foreword (the preface to a book)
• gorilla (an ape)/guerrilla (a fighter)
• heard (through an ear)/herd (cattle)
• its (possession)/it's (it is)
• lose (misplace)/loose (not fastened)
• miner (of gold)/minor (a young person)
• principle (rule)/principal (main person)
• stationary (not moving)/stationery (what you write on)
• than (comparison)/then (time)

What words do you confuse? Or what words drives you nuts when other confuse them like my own lose/loose annoyance?