Yesterday morning, Rupert the Wonder Beagle and I are taking a walk around the block, as we are wont to do a couple times a day. As we turn the corner around the end of the block, a white pit bull comes running up to us.
Now, I know this dog - he often barks as us from his yard as we pass by on our walk, his paws on top of the fence and his head looking over. I also do not trust him. The one previous time he had met Rupert face-to-face was primarily characterized by him trying to hump my boy. On that occasion, he was out with several of the approximately 317 people who live in that house, none of whom seemed particularly interested in controlling him.
I decide the best action is caution - we try walking slowly past Pit Bull’s house, hoping, he’ll behave on his own, but that is apparently not to be. When he starts trying to lay the smackdown on Rupert, batting at him with his front paw, I decide he isn’t safe on the ground and lift him up to carry him past. Of course, this annoys Pit Bull, who starts jumping up and trying to get at Rupert. I call out, hoping one of Pit Bull’s alleged owners will come out and help. After a minute one does, but she is unable to catch him. I finally manage to grab hold of his collar during one of his jumps, and she takes him, offering an apology that someone had left the gate open.
Now, I’m not pitting (no pun intended) the dog - he may well have thought he was just playing with Rupert. However, he might not have, and I have no way of knowing his intentions. I also understand the people make mistakes, like leaving gates open, but there is extra vigilance when you own a large dog of a breed that is not known for docility. Even if I hadn’t been trying to protect Rupert, it would have been a challenge for me to control this dog.
So a pox on you, inattentive dog owners! And you better learn to keep him fenced in, because next time I see him loose I’m calling animal control.
I’m with you on people controlling their dogs; it pisses me off no end when people don’t have their dogs on leash where it’s required. I used to have a dog that had problems with strange dogs; if one came up to her while she was leashed, she’d try to tear its head off. When the other dog’s not on a leash, there’s not much you can do.
OK, that’s good to know. Rupert is my first dog, and though I’ve had him for about a year and a half, I still don’t have a natural feel for what is and isn’t normal dog behavior. The other dogs he plays with don’t do that* so to me, it looked like the other dog was trying to smack down Rupert.
Though to be fair, the other dog he plays with most only has 3 legs and would fall over if he did.
Me and Kalhoun Jr. were literally held captive in our house because the next door neighbors let their SCARY great dane roam the streets. It would start after us when we walked out the door, so we couldn’t walk to town and the kid couldn’t play outside. It was terrifying. Cops in this small town didn’t do anything about it.
We moved shortly thereafter. But man did that suck.
We have 2 dogs. One a new pup who loves everyone but is a little active so unless it’s openly acknowledged it’s a puppy free for all he’s on his leash. Our other is an ancient dog and she’s not really dog friendly (aside from her little brother). I can’t tell you the number of times we’ve warned people “seh’s not dog friendly” when they try to have their hound try to come say “hello” on our walks. I mean come on people i warned you she doesn;t like other dogs, i am purposefully keeping her at a distance from you and your dog and make sure she can’t eet to your dog. After the warning why do you walk your dog up to her face? Of course she’s going to bark and nip. I warned you of this. This is why we avoid dog parks and just do the neighborhood thing.
My dog does it all the time when he’s playing, and a lot of the dogs he plays with do it too. It seems to be harmless; I think of it as body language saying, “Play with me! Play! Playplayplayplay!” I think it’s cute.
While you’re at it people, control your cat too! This morning as I was leaving the apartment, I opened the door and the neighbors cat waltzes right into my apartment. This is a problem because my dog’s number one pastime is chasing cats. I have no time to deal with this. While I’m standing there with my hands full, I have a Mexican standoff in my apartment. Cat refuses to leave, dog is freaking out, I end up having to drop everything, yelling at the dog, and grab the cat and toss it out the door. Dang thing nearly got itself killed! I don’t want to have to tear the carcass of your cat from my dog’s jaws, OK?
