Bringing a dog to crowded public places

In My Humble Opinion
41

I love dogs but if the sign says no dogs, then no dogs! I perform at and attend festivals and outdoor concerts where people should know better than to bring their dogs and what usually happens is the dog won’t stop barking at all the interesting things or he wants to jump on people or snatch food. I don’t care if it’s a big dog or a little dog, it’s annoying.

What really gets me is when dogs are allowed, but signs are posted that say to keep their dog leashed. I see this all the time at my favorite park where we meet and perform every Sunday. We all sit in a shaded area where a sign sticks up right in the middle of our drum circle that says “keep your dogs leashed”. I have NEVER seen a dog leashed there and I usually see about a dozen or so people with their dogs there. If anything, the dog is on a leash when the people first arrive but then release the dog so it may run wild with the other loose dogs. It’s not a dog park. At the very least, pick up after them…

Ughh. I guess this is a sore spot for me :stuck_out_tongue:

42

Sure, just blame the Scotsman for everything :wink:

43

Maybe the police overreacted but it’s hard to know for sure. I’ve been in many situations where dogs have displayed threatening behavior which the owners ignore or deny. When a dog ripped my pant leg while I was delivering papers (I was actually walking away from the house at the time) the owners were sure I must have done something to provoke their dog.

This dog had committed a seriously violent act against another dog and had bitten his owner – oh, sorry, the owner “cut his hand inside the dog’s mouth,” clumsy owner, totally innocent dog.

Is it as Shar-pei or a pit bull? The story says Shar-pei “mix” and pit bull is a somewhat generic description. Whoever is spinning the truth, one thing is for sure – the news reporting on this was awful.

44

OK, I give up. What does this mean?

45

It means we’re great big giant fat people.

46

I am a dog lover and have a corgi mix. We were both brutally attacked by a German shepard several years ago that first attacked my dog, then bit me repeatedly on my hands when I intervened. I couldn’t bring myself to insist the dog be put down when asked about it by animal control. Then I found out the dog went on to attack two other dogs in the neighborhood. The owner, though a nice guy, was clueless and insisted his dog got along “great with people”, so he would sometimes forget to close his gate with apparently disastrous results, and eventually he was forced to put the dog down.

This sounds like the owner of the dog in question. And indeed, I have been at plenty of dog parks where an asshole shows up with a large dog that attacks many of the smaller dogs and somehow dismisses it as “a good people dog”. Meanwhile, his lameass attitude doesn’t change the damage his dog has done. This dog caused a decent amount of damage to the other dog, and had that dog’s owner intervened, they might have been bitten just as I was by the German shepard. I’m guessing the owner of the aggressive dog was having trouble controlling their dog because it really wanted to keep attacking the second dog. Apparently it had even bitten it’s own owner in an effort to keep doing so, which is when the cop intervened. I somehow doubt the dog suddenly became ‘submissive’ when the police officer put a knee down on it either, as even my dog will struggle wildly if you try to hold her down, and doubly so if it is a stranger doing it.

In short, this guy was wrong to bring his (aggressive towards other dogs) dog to the event, and likely couldn’t control it. The cop probably overreacted, but under the circumstances, I’m sorry, but I am totally siding with the cop on this one. The cop comes across the scene, sees blood, and dog struggling to get free from the tenuous hold of the owner (who almost certainly didn’t have a knee on the dog for fear of hurting it), and he takes action. Result? Dead aggressive dog. My guess is the dog probably hauled ass up the stairs for the purpose of attacking the other dog again rather than the cop, but there was no way for him to know that.

47

Ah, well, alrighty then. Thanks for clearing that up. :smack:

48

Could you answer the question I had when reading the story: was the dog on leash? The way the cop threw it around seems to say to me that it wasn’t. If he was on leash, controlling it should have been fairly simple, not involving putting ones hands in its mouth.

49

When I was younger, my dad would always bring our dalmatian to street fairs in the neighborhood. He was one of the friendliest & most sociable dogs you could imagine, and *loved *kids. He would always draw a crowd of people wanting to pet him. My dad used to joke that we should have charged 25 cents to “pet the dalmatian” and we would’ve made a fortune. :smiley:

50

My daughter went to school in Germany for a year, and is back there now teaching. She thought it very cool that you bought bus fare for your dog, and never seems to have seen any problems.

We raised guide dog puppies, and frequently brought them into crowded places, including Farmers Markets. The point was to get them used to noise and crowds while still young so that they could handle it when working. I’d bet that dogs in Europe get acclimated to crowds when young also. I wouldn’t want to bring an older dog there for the first time unless I was very sure he’d handle it well, and even then I’d make sure he was under control.

51

Why did the cop throw the dog down a stairwell? It really sounds like the cop is in the wrong. That poor dog. :frowning:

I bring my dog everywhere he is allowed to be. He is highly socialized and has never been in any sort of altercation and we play with other dogs at least 2x a week. I’ve brought him to the Ren Faire, farmer’s markets, etc. and he’s never had a problem. We’ve been through Canine Good Citizen training which includes training for situations with crowds, wheelchairs, walkers, noises, etc. When I do bring him places I keep my attention on him, and I don’t assume everyone likes dogs. He’s great.

My previous dogs, no. This one I have now I don’t worry about.

52

Yeah I’m French, have two dogs (a 3 years old fox terrier/pinscher mix, and a 4 months old total mutt) and since the day I got them, made a point of bringing them everywhere with me, since I want mellow dogs who are not fazed by crowds, noisy little kids running up to them, loud sounds etc.

I wouldn’t bring them in a restaurant though, and ask before bringing them in a pub or a bar, since not all of them allow dogs inside, but if I’m out and about, 90% of the time they’ll be with me (farmer markets’, demonstrations, fairs, unless it’s something huge or if there is risk of violence.)

53

There are a lot more places to eat outside in Europe than here, so it is easier. Dogs are fine in many street cafes here. We took our guide dog puppies into restaurants for socialization, and they stayed under the table and were fine. We took them to the supermarket also. The manager of our local one was very supportive, and lots of the people working there would have liked her to visit even after she became a breeder and no longer eligible to go anywhere.

Dogs can go anywhere, so long as they have good personalities and good training.

54

I just had to respond to this thread. We have two gorgeous Siberian Huskies, 5 and 4 years old. We adopted them from two different breeders—Shena Punum at 10 weeks, Calliste at 8-½ weeks. From the time we got them, even the day we picked them up, they have gone just about everywhere with us. For a dog to learn social behavior, they should encounter social situations. They have regularly been praised as “well-behaved”, and have won awards in that category in non-formal dog shows. We frequently take them to Farmers’ Markets, Art Shows, fairs and festivals around the state, and they have never been any problem with any category of being.

It sometimes takes us an hour or more to walk down one aisle at an outdoor fair, due to all the people coming up to us to pet them, or ask about the breed. They are trained to keep “eyes front” when walking in a crowd, and easily negotiate between legs and obstacles. When we want them to meet & greet, we prompt them with the command, “say ‘HI!’” and they sit and smile, and let the people pet them. They are not pushy or obtrusive, because we worked diligently for many months, while they were still very young, to socialize them.

Most of the stories you hear about dogs behaving badly may be traced to *owners *behaving badly. Our dogs can be taken everywhere because we DO take them everywhere. How can any sentient creature learn, unless you give them the opportunity to practice the behavior? Our girls know what we expect from them, and we reward them with praise, treats, and play when they do what is appropriate, and ignore them (if what they are doing is not posing a danger to themselves or others) when they don’t. They quickly learn it is more fun to act politely in public.

They have no aprehensions about loud noises, and we take them to fireworks displays such as Fourth of July celebrations without incident. They love children, and will enthusiastically tolerate as many as a dozen kids, at a party at Build-A-Bear, for instance, petting them and show no uneasiness. They have a touching empathy for handicapped and disabled, and will lay their head on the knee of a wheelchair-bound individual, and calmly let themselves be pet. We frequently eat at outdoor cafes which allow dogs, and they are content to sit quietly under the table without disturbing waitstaff or other guests.

I am not a professional animal trainer. This is all simple, by-the-book dog training and socialization. Anybody who intends to own an animal, especially one with the potential to be as aggressive and dangerous as some people think dogs are, needs to ensure they are well-trained and disciplined enough to take on the responsibility.

Some people have said (there was a letter-to-the-editor in the Denver Post not too long ago about this very subject) that they are “barred” from attending outdoor festivals due to some people bringing their dogs, and the writer, or some family member, is “terrified” of dogs. I wrote in and pointed out that their being “terrified” is an irrational phobia which they need treatment for, but I, and millions of families across America are, legally and officially, “barred” from attending all manner of outdoor activities with our four-footed family members due to the hysteria of people like the letter writer.

55

Pictures of The Girls.

56

He put his dog down rather than make sure he closed his gate?

Why didn’t he put a self-closing mechanism on the gate rather than kill his dog?

And why wasn’t the dog muzzled in public if it is aggressive to other dogs?

Seems that dog could still be alive had the owner made a tiny bit of effort to make sure it was safe.

We had a dog which was badly attacked when young, and developed a real fear-aggressive issue with other dogs (only dogs, not cats or people or anything else). It was a pain in the butt, but manageable - he’d be muzzled on walks, and kept on leash, and we obviously ensured our garden was secure.

That ensured he was safe while we worked on the issues he had. Not ideal for him, but better than dead. We made great progress on his fear-aggression over the course of a year’s hard work - it never went away, but it became manageable and he wouldn’t attack other dogs any more.

57

Candyman74, the owner of the German Shepard in question was, as I said, clueless. He continued to believe that since the dog didn’t attack people (without another dog present) that my attack was “a fluke”. Except when it happened to two other people, animal control already having a record of my attack intervened and had the dog put down. The owner of the dog was a nice guy, but was just very forgetful. You’re absolutely right and he could have done a dozen different things to fix the problem, but he chose to do none of them and the dog suffered for it.

I wonder about the owner of the dog in this story too. I have no doubt that in his mind, he did very little wrong and he was THIS close to getting his dog under control before the cop showed up. To me, the dog looks like a pit bull in the slide show, and if it is something else, so be it, but it is definitely a big, strong dog. Even on a leash, I could see this dog being difficult to manage if it was hellbent on attacking the second dog. I have certainly seen dogs become incredibly aggressive out of the blue at a dog park, and it takes a lot to break them up when they are in attack mode. The cop may not have had all the facts, but I’m guessing the aggressive dog wasn’t giving him time to gather all the information and the fact he had to throw the dog down a staircase seems to reiterate that point. I find it hard to believe the dog was suddenly ‘submissive’ but the cop chose to throw the dog down the stairs anyway. That just doesn’t sound logical. I think it’s far more likely the dog was continuing to be aggressive, was squirming around wildly to break free, and the cop not knowing whether the dog was attacking another dog, attacking the other dog’s owner, or a myriad of other potential disasters chose to throw the dog down the stairs giving him the needed second to draw his gun and fire.