A long, angry vent about my work-related pet peeve.
Two evenings in a row, two different neighborhoods, two remarkably similar-looking pit bulls and owners. Me, walking my clients’ dogs and minding my own business, staying well away from most people. Them, letting their dogs come running up within touching and biting distance without asking, and then treating me like a certifiable lunatic for asking them not to. Fuckers! If I weren’t responsible for these dogs I’d kick you in the gonads for rolling your eyes at my concern that your dog, or the one I’m holding back is going to go from posturing to chainsaw mode in .5 seconds.
Yes, contestent number one, I do understand that dogs slip out gates, doors and off leashes, but when they are running at strangers with dogs who and not paying the slightest attention to your calling them, could you amble your fat ass a little faster to get him under control since my hands are full of a seventy pound chow mix with his hackles up?
And contestent number two, you pus dick on the bicycle with the dog on a leash(a piss-poor idea to begin with) I know you saw me trying to control the this dog’s barking, lunging and generally going ballistic everytime she so much as glimpsed another dog, because you were behind me nearly two blocks before you caught up when she stopped to go. Did you think it would be cute to let your un-neutered male pit bull provoke her into nearly strangling trying to get to him? I don’t appreciate you rolling your eyes at me like I am a hysterical crazy lady. I don’t know shit about your dog, and you don’t know shit about the one I’m walking, do you? Even if your dog is the sweetest, most gentle puppy in the whole wide world, you don’t have a clue if the one I am walking responsibly is going to go for his freaking neck, you fucking moron!
God damn it, I am going to wind up at the vet with a client’s dog someday and then be arrested when I beat the living shit out of the irresponsible fuckwad who won’t control their dog!
While walking our dog, under control, leashed, she has been attacked twice while my significant other has been walking her in the past year. The one time a neighbor’s pit bull puppy (about 6 months old, and about 50 pounds) jumped over its porch rail to come after our dog when I was walking it, I was able to avoid having to kill the beast by intimidation (and it took about a week before I could talk again, growling that loud ripped up my throat pretty badly).
It’s gotten to the point where I have the number for animal control on my cell’s speed dial, and use it every time I see a dog running around here loose, and that’s about once a week. I also carry pepper spray when we go walkies, and am considering getting conceal carry permit so I can go armed. The first attack on our dog resulted in our paying almost a thousand dollars in vet bills, and the two attacking dogs had their heads sent to Indianapolis for rabies testing, as they didn’t have current vaccinations. That is not going to happen again.
I suspect the typical dog has a brain about the size of a walnut, which is adequate if one is a dog. However, too many of the dog owners around here behave like their dog’s brains are larger than their own.
99.9% of the time it IS the owners who are the problem.
Re the OP: I feel your pain. I walk dogs too, and lucky for me most of the areas where I walk dogs are pretty free from strays. And when I meet someone else and his dog when I’m walking an animal, I stay away from them too. So far, whenever a loose dog has come running at me, I’ve been able to stand in front of my client’s dog, puff up, and use my best and meanest Bad Dog Voice to make the dog think twice about coming over to us.
I’m just worried that some day I’m going to encounter the dog that laughs in the face of my Bad Dog Voice and runs right through me.
Growing up in a family of dog breeders & trainers, frankly, I’d say this was a problem you caused – you have no business taking such a misbehaving, untrained dog out on a public street at all. A dog like that should be kept in your own yard until it is properly trained & controllable.
If it’s a customer’s dog, not one you can train yourself, that is this violent toward other dogs, then keep it confined to a controlled area where it will not meet other dogs.
That would be you being in control in this situation, and then you would not have to post such rants here.
Sounds nice in theory, but when a client is paying you to take their dog out for a walk, you’re pretty much stuck taking the dog out for a walk. And we’re dog walkers, not dog trainers. All we can do is manage the situation as much as we can. Because if we don’t do it, they’ll pay somebody else to do it. And that somebody else may not be as dog-savvy as I am.
I can’t be 100% sure, but my impression of this dog, based on years of sitting with her, is that she isn’t violent; she’s just posturing. She thinks it’s fun to get a rise out of other dogs, I think, more than she wants to attack them. She always gives me that doggy grin after, like ‘wasn’t that fun?’ Ugh. She’s not bright.
But that’s not the point. The point is that I go to some lengths to avoid other people and dogs, just in case. Even well-behaved, trained dogs can be unpredictable at times, and I’d just as soon not take chances. If the first dog had been on a leash or behind a fence, I could have avoided it. This is a very calm dog around people, children, joggers, etc. He’s just nervous about other dogs. The second dog is the excitable one. I’ve been trying to work on her behavior, but I can’t tell her owner what to do(I’ve learned my clients don’t appreciate unsolicited advice) and I only see her every few months at best. She’s better than she used to be. But I had already crossed the street once to avoid people and dogs, and I was practically jogging to stay ahead of bike dog guy, and I thought anybody who wasn’t blind would have been able to see that I was trying to outpace him so the dogs wouldn’t meet.
Are you saying that no dog with even possible issues with strange dogs should ever get to go on a walk, on a leash, with somebody trying to keep it safely away from strangers and their dogs?
