And I’m not, despite having a chunk of canvas and newsprint torn off when a doberman was aiming for my ass.
Like an idiot I got within three feet of the cold wet old dog that was lost and sheltering the storm in my driveway. I gingerly extended a hand and said, “Hey little guy, are you ok?” And she bit the snot out of me with all four remaining teeth. 
You never know.
As I pointed out, the carrier comes at any time between 1-4pm. That’s pretty much all afternoon that I can’t open the door. I think she does the route in different orders.
No, it is not hard to close the door. I would love it if I knew what time she was coming, but I don’t. It is an inconvenience because as I said, it is the only way I can get air in that portion of the house, as the rest of the front side windows don’t open. Yes, I am going to do it anyway and I am sure life will go on.
For a dog to go through a solid door, they generally have to get some momentum going first. This is not possible with our house, when you come in you have a small landing the width of the door and then there is a built-in cabinet so you have to make a 90 degree turn to walk in the house. The dog has enough room to stand up against the door but not to make a running start .
Anyway, I am not about to argue semantics or theoretical ways my dog can or cannot possibly get out the door with the mail carrier. The bottom line I guess is she won’t deliver the mail unless the door is closed and I am not about make a postal worker go, um…postal.
Am I evil because, when I saw the title of Velma’s thread, the first thing I thought was, “I wonder whether there is a a cooler on her verandah?” 
Well you know, it is the same dog who drank from it, so maybe the mail carrier just has a sixth sense. If that’s true, I totally see where she’s coming from.
Why would you want a mail’person’ want to take a risk. Don’t think of it from your side and your cute fluffy animal comapnion, but from the lettercarrior’s perspective.
Screen/storm doors are not security doors, they are easially defeated, I have personally seen dogs break through them - not the screen mind you, but the door itself was bent by fluffy. I think letter carriors may have at least heard about this if not personally experenced this in the past.
Many owners claim their fluffy is safe, many people are bitten by said dog afterwards, what assumption shoudl a letter carrior make.
Your income is based on you being able to work, why would you put that at risk.
I’m not buying for one second that is lazyness. It is a disruption of the flow of work for the letter carroir to writhe the reson for non-delivery on the envelope. Then the next day he/she has to resort the mail to include the former day’s mail. I see that it can actually take more time and sort of annoying work.
Aww, my poor widdle dawgie would never hurt a fly!!!
Gimme a fucking break.
Thank you for your charming and insightful input. I will indeed ponder your words for many an hour.
Omniscient is from Chicago.
From another viewpoint, I have no idea what Mrs. Plant’s superbly trained dogs would do if someone came onto the porch when we weren’t in the room and there was only a screen between them. They might want to play ball and they might eat the guy.
**Velma **, why not ASK the mail carrier if you moved your mailbox, if she would feel safe delivering to it?
Mind you, I don’t know when your dog starts barking - does she see the mail-lady on the sidewalk or the driveway, or is it just when she gets to the door?
Having read the first page of the “Cooler” thread, I now understand the problem. If you’re incapable of properly training a husband, how can you possibly be expected to train a dog. Since your mail carrier is a woman she will likely understand your dilemma. 
From here she can refuse is the letter carrier is “threatened”
Our letter carriers are vigilant and dedicated, but we may be forced to stop mail delivery at an address if a letter carrier is threatened by a vicious dog. In some instances, Postal ServiceTM employees have sued and collected damages for dog bite injuries. We can’t control people’s dogs; only dog owners can do that.
The USPS takes this issueseriously
Just to highlight, from jimmmy second link:
I don’t think the letter carrier is being unreasonable. She doesn’t know your dog. She can’t know every dog she might encounter.
'Tis not the Pit, Omniscient. Chill, please.
I think it’s ridiculous to suggest that the mail carrier is even slightly, remotely in any kind of danger from this set-up. If anyone can explain where the danger is in a rational manner, without resorting to the assumption that Velma is lying, I’d appreciate that.
Upon consulting with Mrs. Plant I have learned that upon once seeing her Associate who sometimes cares for them, come into the yard without escort they did indeed try to come through the window screen. These are qualified therapy dogs who can go into a hospital full of demented, screaming people and be petted and messed with. Someone coming onto their territory is another matter and results in different behavior.
Now I’ll get off the soapbox.
You’re only looking at it from Velma’s point of view.
The mail carrier knows every time they approach the house that a dog barks.
As these posters already said:
QUOTE=ravenman] I see factoids that nearly 27,000 mail carriers get bitten each year, so I’m strongly inclined to err on the side of the mailman’s legitimate fear that a dog – any dog – could ruin his day
[/quote]
[Official Moderator Warning]Not quite living up to your name, are you? This isn’t The BBQ Pit, so clean up your act.[/Official Moderator Warning]
I’m not about to suggest that Velma is lying. I am sure she knows what she is talking about and that her screen door latch is secure.
However, how can the letter carrier know that? Dogs have been known to go through plate glass windows when sufficently enraged. I have seen dogs that knew how to open doors. The letter carrier only knows that there is an aggressive-acting dog (I am not saying the dog is aggressive. I’m saying it may appear that way to strangers.) at the door.
If I owned a dog, I would want one that barked when someone approached my door. I would also understand if people hesitated to approach the door if there was a possibility of the dog getting to them.
I agree with the others who have said that the mailcarrier’s apprehension is reasonable. She doesn’t know how strong that door is, and a big dog can be dangerous.
One way to alleviate the problem would be by replacing the door. My mother has a “security” screen door on her front and back doors. You can open the main door to let the breeze in, but the house is still secure. The door’s got some serious steel running across it, and the screen is thick and strong. It has a deadbolt. If I ran at it in a dead sprint, I’d probably just knock myself out. But it doesn’t look unsightly, either.
I was busy googling while Walrus was busy typing. If you can’t move the mailbox, why not look into a security door? I have one - I don’t think it cost much more than a storm door (although I’ve never actually seen a storm door in person.) It’s a metal grate rather than screen, and there are steel bars too. It’s not as ugly as it sounds, and you can see out just fine. The deadbolt’s nice too; in the summer, I leave the main door open and lock that one.
Engineering solutions are easier than retraining the dog OR the maillady.