I am sick and tired of people that do not teach their children to respect anothers property. I also am amazed that a lot of people in this world have no goddam sense what so ever.
I have three rather large and rambunctious dogs. They like to play outside on nice sunny days. They usually are out in the back yard because it is fenced. However, I decide to use this pre-spring day to clean my garage. I tied one of my dogs up in the front yard while I cleaned. The garage is attached to the house and facing the yard so I could watch Tiger and he could in turn walk over to me. The tie is long enough that he can just poke into the garage and run around the front yard about half the distance to the street. So here I am puttering in the garage and this nice young family comes walking by on the street. Mama, baby in the pram, and the little tyke, who is maybe no more than three. They pause in front of my house to admire my dog, I hear the woman talking to her kid to look at the nice doggie, " See how pretty he is?" “Isn’t he laying there so nice?” “Why don’t you go pet the nice doggie and hold your hand out like I taught you?”
WHAT~! I sputter as I whirl around, and start to say EXCUSE ME! as my dog sits up and starts to growl as the kid goes into my yard. I rush over just as Tiger goes out to the end of his leash and starts to bark loudly at the kid. The kid trips and starts to bawl as the woman screams at me to call off my dog. Tiger is perhaps ten feet from the kid and cannot get any closer. I grab Tiger by the collar, tell him to sit, and be quiet. He does, but the woman and kid are still screaming. Frustrated, I tell the dog to stay, and I go pick the kid up and deposit him in the mothers arms and she starts yelling at me about my vicious dog and how he should be put down and how her kid could have been killed. And I shouldn’t have picked him up and don’t ever touch her kid again.
I tell her to get the hell off my property and to grow some brains and not to tell her kids to approach ANY dog without first asking the owners permission. She tells me to go to hell and that I am a fat ugly bitch. I turn around,collect my dog, and go into the house.
Thirty minutes later I have a police crusier in my driveway, they had a report of a loose vicious dog. I invite the officers in and my “vicious” dogs are so excited to see the new people becasue I have let them in that one of them in his excitement of being petted pees on the nice officers foot.
Luckily the man didn’t hold it against me.
I didn’t get a ticket, but it did ruin my day. If Tiger had bitten the kid or even knocked him down even though the kid was on my property uninvited, he would have been put down.
This REALLY pisses me off. This is the law in my city.
The world is a sad place when your dog can get killed for a passer by’s stupidity.
Your dog was tied…in your yard…protecting his “turf”, since you hand’t told him otherwise …and this woman had the nerve to call in a “loose vicious dog” report? How can a tied/leashed dog be loose unless the end not attached to the dog is free? She sent her kid onto your lawn, to pet your dog without you around? Ouch. IS this the first time she’s even seen a dog , aside from pictures??? The saddest part of all this to me the fact that she’s bred…twice.
Glad to read nothing more untoward than a bit of piddle on the nice officer’s foot happened. Give Tiger a cuddle for me.
We get cases of dogs attacking children who’d been playing around cars in which the dog is waiting for their peoples’ return. The kids play “Let’s make doggie go nuts”, said dog defends territory, gets put down.
I hate this, and I’m not even a “dog person”.
On behalf of the wolves within the soul of every dog – leave us the fuck alone, idiots!
I admire your restraint. I DON’T like people on my property. I would have been severely tempted to loose the dog on that idiot mother. If you can get her name from the police, maybe you can file a complaint against her for trespassing.
“Oh, Precious Child of mine, look at those pretty flames! You should stick your hand in them, they’re so adorable!” People like this make me sick. While I can understand the temptation to pet a dog or cat, it’s always wise to ask permission. And any parent who doesn’t teach their children to be careful around unknown animals is setting up the child for a disaster. All animals should be regarded as potential biters/scratchers/maulers, until they are proven not to be. This is not a slam against animals, it’s just a practical guide.
Even if the dog (God forbid) had bit the little bastard, she probably would have sued your ass for not disinfecting your dog’s mouth. Little bastard would have gotten rabies or something. . .
This is probably not a big concern, but it’s another reason to leave strange animals alone; I don’t like anyone petting my cat because they may have an animal at home who has an infectious disease (my cat goes out on her leash, which makes her a real novelty act and everyone wants to pet the nice kitty). Not to mention the fact that she doesn’t want strangers bugging her.
Tell me about it… I have a friend who has 2 dogs. She was living in a place without a fenced yard, and she’d take the dogs everywhere. She was a carpenter, and her jobs almost always allowed her to tie the dogs up on the jobsite. If she didn’t have a place to tie them, they were very happy in the back of her truck where she had blankets, food, water, etc. She also has several thousand dollars worth of tools back there at any given time, so she thought the dogs were good protection for that. The bed of the truck had a cap on it so the dogs couldn’t get out.
These dogs were incredibly well behaved dogs. They were great to be around. But… they were DOGS. They defended their territory. They’d never bite unless seriously provoked (ie, someone was beating them) but they would definitely bark if someone they didn’t know was doing something they perceived as wrong.
One day, my friend had to do some errands, and left her truck parked on a fairly busy downtown street. The dogs were in the back of the truck, and the windows of the cap were slightly open so the air could circulate. A guy came walking by, and started looking at the dogs. He decides to STICK HIS HAND INSIDE HER TRUCK to pet the dogs. When he sticks his hand in, the dogs start barking and raising hell, just like they’re supposed to do.
This guy FREAKED OUT. He was smart enough to get his hand out of the truck, but he then proceeded to call the cops and animal control. He claimed that one of the dogs snapped at him and tried to bite him, but the cops examined his hands and couldn’t see even the smallest sign of trauma. Regardless, my friend’s dogs have been given the designation “viscous” and if one more incident happens, they’ll have to be put down. In addition, she had to pay for a rabies test (the dog’s shots were all up to date) and had to keep the dog confined to her home for 10 days. To do this, she essentially had to stop working for ten days - she had no yard to keep them in, and she was gone far too long every day to leave them in the house. All this, because someone wanted to pet the pretty doggies…
Working in a PETsMART adoption center, we get two things (both related). We get people who bring in kids and dogs for obedience classes, and send the kids in to play with the kitties while they’re in class. This may come as a surprise to them, but we are NOT there to provide babysitting services. Most of us are married women who don’t have kids - for a reason. I refuse to allow children under the age of twelve to even come into the center unless they are with an adult who stays with them the whole time they’re there. The fact that not all cats like small children poking at them in the cages comes as a surprise to the parents of these children. The fact that WE don’t want the little hoodlums in there comes as an even bigger one. “You like animals? Oh! You must want to care for my child, then!”
On weekends, we have dogs. Each dog has a human companion (although, if we have mellow dogs, we can manage with one human per two canines). We have had more kids RUN up to dogs they’ve never seen before and try to hug them. Usually, the parents are completely oblivious to the actions of the children. Like the cats, not all dogs like kids. And very few dogs care for strangers invading their turf with very quick movements. But the parents just don’t get it. We have several dogs we are no longer allowed to bring into the adoption centers because they’ve lunged at children who have behaved like this. This, of course, severely limits their ability to be adopted.
I agree with Spooje, have her cited for filing a false report… and with Lynn – tresspassing is cool too. But maybe you can go after her with child endagerment as well, for telling her kid to accost a strange dog
However, it might be wise to check with someone who knows the local statutes and case law on “attractive nuisances” before bringing this back to official notice.
I’ll never forget the time I was downstairs in my friend’s room, sitting on her water bed and watching tv. The dog was sitting between us, and her brother and her cousin came running in, higher than kites on too much sugar, smacking us with her dad’s old boxing gloves. They accidentally hit the dog, Max, who lashed out and bit her cousin. Now Max, an unneutered schnauser, was a VERY gentle, if hyper dog, who let you do anything to him. But any dog is going to bite if you hit him! So her mom cleaned her cousin’s hand, and showed it to his dad, who said it would be okay. Then her cousin was fine and went back to play.
The next thing you know, my friend’s mom got a call from her cousin’s mom, and the police came to check out the dog. D’uh! (Of course, Max also used to get loose, and once peed on a neighbor’s carpet…but he rarely, if EVER attacked anyone.). My friend’s mom was so worried.
Her cousin didn’t even want to tell his mother-he was so afraid he wouldn’t be allowed to come back over and play.
What a world, eh?
Likewise, my dear Fluffy was known to scratch a few of my cousins, once my cousin Maria when she was about three, when three of my cousins cornered the poor cat. My uncle didn’t make a big fuss then-kids get scratched all the time. And I don’t like people who let their animals roam. But people who go and just start petting a strange animal-hello?
I always just look at animals and smile at them. I mean, come on, people? Whatever happened to look with your eyes, not with your hands? How would you like it if I started petting your kids?
I never hads to worry about this (thank goodness) as I had a dog that was pretty happy with just about anything you did to it. (Now if you did something to his people, me, my mom etc, he had a different point of view.) However, some basic animal rules are good to teach kids. Asking owners, no loud noises or movements, hold your hand out to introduce yourself and not touching until the animal is comfortable with you doing so, basic stuff.
I wonder if mommy would have had the same reaction to a non chained dog? I’m all for teaching kids that animals are friends and we should love them, but Baby should not try to hug the bobcat. My geographic has a different problem. children around my neighbor hood are conditioned to fear animals (too many poorly trained sttack dogs) so taking my poochie on a walk could clear a park. We did a lot of re-education sessions. (And I had the right dog to do it, Mr. Happy and Stupid himself) They didn’t know how to pet a dog, and had no clue that the tongue lolling, panting happy face was a happy face and not a hungry angry face.
However, in defence of mommy’s inital reaction, she’s a mom (a stupid one) and her kid was frightened (her fault) Very few moms can keep a clear head when baby is in trouble. Just as dogs protect space and go ballistic, moms protect kids. She wasn’t doing a good job, but I’m sure the emotions were going a little out of control.
Something similar happened with one of our two dogs. Dr. LindyHopper was out taking Katie, our Australian Shepherd/Blue Heeler cross, for a walk, when this woman rides by on a bicycle. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that, at this point, Katie was not particularly good about bicycles. Not so much that she wanted the people on them to be injured, but she wanted to chase them. And so she jumped up on the bike. The woman came to a stop and got off (She got a slight scratch from Katie’s toenails). However:
She was riding her bike on the sidewalk (against the law in my town; we have bike lanes all over the place)
Dr. LindyHopper was very concerned; she repeatedly asked the woman if she was all right, and the woman assured her that she was fine, no problem, this happened all the time, blah blah blah yak yak yak…
She later filed a report on Katie, and Animal Control called us!
When we asked her to file an insurance claim against our homeowner’s insurance so that a doctor could verify her so-called injury, we never heard from her again.
This woman is (was?) an adjunct at the university where Dr. LindyHopper is a tenure-track professor, and there was more than a little professional jealousy involved.
Just makes me want to SCREAM!
Oh, and by the way, the kids in my town are very well-behaved around dogs; they always ask, “Can I pet your dogs?”, to which we always respond, “Sure! They’re friendly!” while at the same time tightening up on the leash, because they can be too friendly at times, especially for little kids. Just wish the adults were as sensible.
I really, really, really hate when someone else’s stupidity becomes a problem for you or your dog …
I guess the “survival of the fittest” rule doesn’t apply any more because I swear some folks are just too dumb to live, yet, somehow they manage. Apprently they also make the rules in your town, too, AquaPura!
Permit me a (not-so)small hijack -
Besides the remarkably stupid parents, there are, unfortunately, remarkably stupid other dog owners out there too. I am a large dog owner, and I used to live in a pretty urbanized area. I can’t tell you how many times I took the two I had at the time to the park for a walk, only to be accosted by unleashed dogs (which was against the city ordinance). Naturally the owners had no control over their dogs. Invariably, they’d watch me freeze and hang on tighter to my two, only to shout cheerily, “Don’t worry, he/she won’t hurt you/your dogs, etc.” while their dog is charging toward us.
Well, asshole, what makes you think MY dogs won’t hurt YOURS? My two were especially peeved by young rambunctious dogs who’d bounce off of them and try to “play,” and had offered to clean the clocks of a couple of those types. And while in theory we’d have been in the clear if one of these dogs had actually been bitten, you can bet your bippy that the owner could have made our lives miserable if they’d chosen to. What exactly is right about that?
[/hijack off]
AquaPura, my advice to you is to do what we did. Move to an area that is more dog-friendly! Generally this will be a less populated area. Less people = less stupid laws.
