There are few things more relationship-ending than trying to enjoy a tense horror scene while a tiny dog launches itself across your face like it’s competing in the Puppy Olympics.

For this pregnant woman, what should’ve been simple quality time with her boyfriend had slowly turned into a recurring annoyance. Every time they sat down to watch their favorite horror series together, his high-energy chihuahua somehow became the main character. Tug-of-war on the bed, loud growling, nails digging into skin, stepping on remotes, blocking the screen—it was less “cozy TV night” and more “survive the chaos.”

Normally, she says she can tolerate the dog’s antics. But pregnancy, overstimulation, and the dog repeatedly peeing and pooping on her clothes had already pushed her patience to the limit. So when her boyfriend once again started roughhousing with the dog during the show instead of just watching with her, she snapped and accused him of ruining their quality time together.

AITA for being upset that my boyfriend is playing tug of war while we are watching a show together?

This dog is about 7 yr old and is a chihuahua so I don’t mind playing on the bed with the animals. But my issue is that it was during a show.

This show has 45 to an 1 maybe even 2 hour long episodes so we might as well be watching a movie.

And its a horror show, and ive been loving the show we’re on episode 6 or 7 and have been watching an episode each week or 2 weeks but it always ends in me turning off the show because he can never know boundaries on bringing the dog into the mix.

Dogs and TV shows just don’t mix.

If she was a quiet tug of war gal maybe no problem, but she throws herself all around the bed to tug the toy and remote gets pressed, volume gets turned off or she gets her nails dug into my skin as im the next best thing to a stool or chair.

I’m pregnant and im pretty sure I just have an aversion to her because she is high energy, very attention seeking and pissing and pooing on my clothes.

So im overstimulated.

Fair.

Today was just my breaking point, we ate while watching finished eating, still had the show on and actively watching. Then she wanted to play after being told to lay down.

Pretty sure she was just trying to get out of laying down on her bed. But he brought her up here to play, and she went straight to doing the running around to tug and her growling real loud, I gave up watching tv and laid down and played an idle game waiting for her to tire out.

Doing both just isn’t an option.

I told him it upset me he decided to rough house on the bed while we were watching something together and the excuse was whenever they played tug of war I usually also played with them. And I told him I’m not going to play with the animals while we are watching something together.

I dont even play with my cat when im watching something or even let him get on the bed because he is a big boy that blocks the tv. I got so overwhelmed because he started getting defensive and moody and i called him unsavory names.

Am I an AH for that? Am I wrong for getting upset over the tug of war during quality time together?

Reddit actually leaned more toward YTA, though there were a fair number of ESH votes mixed in. While many people understood that pregnancy, overstimulation, and an energetic dog can be an exhausting combination, commenters felt OP’s reaction became disproportionate to what was actually happening.

A lot of people pointed out that her boyfriend wasn’t intentionally trying to ruin quality timeh,and several commenters also noted that OP admitted she already has growing resentment toward the dog, which likely made the situation feel much bigger and more irritating in the moment than it otherwise would have.

Those voting ESH agreed the boyfriend probably could’ve been more mindful once it became obvious she was overwhelmed, but still felt the name-calling and intensity of the reaction escalated things unnecessarily.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a young woman who didn’t expect closing her door to study to lead to a sibling blowout.

This person makes the point that she’s all her dog has.

This person wants to know why the dog isn’t potty trained by now.

And this person offers a YTA, albeit a “soft” one.

Some couples fight over cheating. Others fight because the dog keeps body-slamming the remote during demon scenes.