Today, as I was walking my dog (a small, seven month old Chinese Crested) I encountered a woman walking a Pitbull. It wasn’t on a leash or muzzled (Gizmo was leashed.) As we got closer to the woman and her dog, the Pitbull started growling and bristling. Gizmo starting shivering and whimpering, being the small, timid dog that he is, so I picked him up in my arms and continued walking. As we passed the woman and her dog, it snapped at my leg . I jumped, and the woman who was holding the pitbull by his collar, just stared at me.
“That dog should be on a leash with a muzzle,” I angrily informed the woman once I was a safe distance from the dog.
“He doesn’t need to be muzzled or on a leash,” she insisted. “He’s not aggressive.”
Hello? This dog began growling when we got within twenty feet of him, and as I wallked past he tried to bite my leg! I can only imagine what would have happened if I hadn’t picked Gizmo up!
Instead of arguing with the woman holding this vicious dog, I just shook my head and kept walking.
But WTF? These kind of people make me sick. These people who let aggressive, vicious dogs of any breed walk in a public place without a leash or a muzzle are irresponsible pet owners who are endangering the lives of other dogs and other human beings. What if a small child had tried to pat her dog and been attacked? What if her dog attacks another dog? Besides that, walking a dog without a leash is illegal . I don’t know of anyone who would walk any breed of dog without a lead, much less a dog breed that has a tendency to be violent and agressive towards other dogs and people if not socialised enough.
This is not a rant about pitbulls. I love pitbulls. They can be the most affectionate and intelligent dogs if socialised properly when young. What I am ranting about is these stupid fucking hairbrained idiots who continually put other people’s pets and children at risk by walking aggressive dogs without leads, let alone muzzles!
These people should not be allowed to have any dog.
Stupid bitch. You were right to not argue with her, though - she’s obviously an idiot, and incapable of controlling her dog or even realizing that she should be controlling him. Carry a cell phone with you when you walk your dog, and next you see her with the dog off-leash, call and report her, and tell them the dog snapped at you last time you saw them.
BTW, my dog is named Gizmo, too - he’s a Norwegian Elkhound. And he’s always on-leash.
Sometimes you read stories in newspapers about the mauling of a dog or small child because some dumbass couldn’t put their dog on a fucking leash. The article usually ends with the sentence “the dog was later destroyed”, and I always think: way to go, killing the wrong animal.
My dog is half Norwegian Elkhound, half Golden Retriever.
She’s always on a leash, too, but not because I fear her aggression, but for her *own safety! * I’m always amazed at non-leashers. Don’t they worry about their dog dashing out into the street, or eating something poisonous before they can reach them?
But, what can you say? These people probably also have children who run wild.
Yep. There are some ignorant dog owners around. It’s always sad to see dogs being put down because the owners don’t treat them properly.
Your story reminds me of a time way back when I was a wee one and used to ride my bike to school. There was this shortcut path leading through a park where I could take to go to school. It was actually part of the park, but usually no one hung around. There was a huge sign on where the path started that informed that all bicycle riders must wear helmets (I always wore one), all dogs must be on a leash, and owners had to dispose of the doggy doo properly. Sometimes, I go to school and there’s this old lady walking two dogs. One was on a leash and one wasn’t. Sorry, I don’t know the breeds of the dogs, but I do know that the dog on the leash was small dog that was all hyper and everything. The other one was not as agressive, but it still chased me once in a while. One time, the dog on the leash was getting so hyper that the lady said something along the lines of “This path is for people, not bikes. Ride on the grass.”
Her dogs were on the path with her. Last time I checked, the dogs weren’t “people”.
Her dog (unleashed) was taking a massive crap on the path. She ignored it and kept moving on.
It’s not my fault your dogs get hyper at everyone and everything that goes by. (They bark and try to chase people who are just walking by too)
And finally, THE PATH IS FOR EVERYONE! IF YOU WANT ME TO TAKE MY BIKE OFF, TAKE YOUR DOGS OFF TOO!!
Sorry for the hijack. I love all types of animals, but I loathe seeing irresponsible/incompetent owners.
matt_mcl not a bright idea running from an aggressive dog. They tend to think of you as prey running away and WILL hunt you down. Best way to act in this situation is to be calm and walk away. Or if you see the dog early, walk on the other side of the street or avoid it entirely. Dog owners should be more considerate, picking up shit, walking with some kind of restraint and leash(collar, choke chain, haltie or what have you). But beware of stray dogs or aggressive dogs, DONT pet dogs any dogs on the head (it’s an aggressive move on your part) scratch the chest if anything. And when you do want to pet a dog, getting down and kneeling or squatting is recommended.
Some dogs get excited easily, some dogs are aggressive, some dogs are timid, but all dogs need to be trained properly, need to be on a leash, and need to be loved.
And adults. You could’ve easily been bitten yourself. Everyone is at risk, not just small pets and small people.
If the laws in your area say that you must have all dogs leashed, then this owner is completely in the wrong. Even if there were no leash laws, a responsible owner wouldn’t let an aggressive dog near others unleashed.
Is there anything you can do next time ? Take a cell phone, report the incident, write a letter to your local paper ?
Goo , when I got home I called the local council and reported the incident. Although they were “sympathedic”, they said that they couldn’t take any action unless a council worker catches the woman in the act. I also called the local police station, and got the same thing.
I am so angry right now. I walked along the same route by myself later in the day with a cell phone, hoping to catch the woman in the act and call the police, but no luck. I plan to go out tomorrow at the same time I walked my dog today (by myself… I’m too afraid to face that woman again with my pup.) in the hopes that I see her, and then I can call the police or the council.
It may sound obsessive on my part, but there is no doubt in my mind that this dog is extremely dangerous . I do not want anyone around this area (there is a primary school down the road from me, and many people around here own dogs and walk along that route) to get hurt because of this woman’s irresponsiblity. I also don’t think that it’s fair that I have to be afraid to take my dog out because this shitstick refuses to properly handle her dog.
I was pretty sure that they had declared the Pitbull breed and it’s variants a dangerous breed in NSW. As such it should be muzzled and leashed at all times. As for them being a kind and affectionate dog I don’t think it is worth the risk myself and don’t see why I should tolerate someone IDIOT being allowed to see if they can train and control one at the expense of someone else. This is assuming that they go bad. Which seems to happen a bit. Just get little dogs, at least you can pick the little buggers up and give them a good shake if they piss you off:D
Worst dog bite I ever got was from one of those “little buggers.” It chased me toward my house. (Yeah. I was stupid. I ran.) It caught up with me at the door while I fumbled for my keys, and clamped down on the soft spot above my heel. Screaming, I danced around on one leg, trying to shake it off. It was astonishingly tenacious. The owners, watching this, laughed so hard they fell from their porch. (Not that I blame them for that, 'cause, had I been watching this scene, I would have laughed, too.) I lost my balance, and crashed to the ground. Little bastard then let go, grabbed my purse strap, and ran for home, dragging it behind him. In the end, I got my purse back, and an apology which was sputtered out between fits of convulsive laughter.
What about Animal Control? (or is that the same thing as the council?). Couldn’t they arrange for someone to be looking over the area at the same time this woman walks her dogs?
What a fucking jackass. I don’t care if your dog is aggressive or not, they ALL need to be leashed for their own safety in a public place. We don’t even let my brother’s dogs out in our front yard without a leash or on the dog run because we worry about the older dog running away or into traffic (the younger pup listens better than she does).
Captain Blunty, why not write take this rant, make sure to take out the “WTF” and any other potentially offensive/deletable words and send it as a letter to your local paper? It will serve the purposes of reminding the general dog-walking public to be aware of the leash laws in your city, keep the city council aware that there is still a problem with people ignoring the law, and if the silly bint who owns the Pit Bull reads it, can serve as a personal rant just for her.
Best angry dog advice I ever got…
When faced with an agressive dog, reach down an pick up a handful of gravel (or fake picking up gravel). Every aggressive dog has been hit in the face with a handful of gravel. They know what it feels like and leave me alone.
If I perhaps ran across the one dog that hadn’t been hit, I wouldn’t be immune to showing him what’s what.
Other than that, my father swore pits couldn’t keep biting if you pinched their front paw enough. I haven’t had opportunity to try that out, but he certainly did (raised pits and chows).
My story: I took my two dogzillas to the beach. There’s a designated “dog beach” which is the only spot on the beach you are allowed to take your dog. I got out of the car, with both dogs on leashes. At the same time, someone else got out of their car with two happy-go-lucky black labs. Had I not had my dogs with me, I’d have petted them and made friends – they were obviously nice, friendly dogs.
Then the labs spotted my Bostons and ran over to us. I started yelling at the owners who were by then at least 100 yards away, “Control your dogs!” See, mine like to play rough. They have no fear of big dogs (they have no idea they are not big dogs) and will nibble right on their faces to “play.” Even for a non-aggressive dog, this can get their hackles up. I’ve seen many “nice” dogs snap at mine because their play styles vary so greatly. I didn’t know those dogs, or how they would react to my Holy Terrors. I expected these morons to rush over, leash their dogs and get 'em away from mine.
Both of my dogs were on defensive mode: hair raised down the length of their backs, already growling as they were leashed and couldn’t go “attack”. Both of their dogs were trying to jump on me and get to mine, and had their hackles raised on the backs of their necks – also in defensive mode. I could not pick up both of mine at once and was faced with the classic Sophie’s Choice: which one do I pick up to keep from getting bit? Instead, the moron owners cheerily yelled back, “It’s okay, they’re fine.” To which I yelled back, “Well, mine are NOT fine. Come control your damn dogs.”
They finally came over and got their dogs before anyone got bit. A fight I would have been tangled up in, since I was not letting go of my dogs’ leashes for a second.
To those people: while your dogs may not have ever bitten so much as a flea in your presence, I have no way of knowing that. You have no way of knowing how your dogs will react to mine. That’s why there are leash laws, among other reasons. You cannot control them from 100 yards away.
I hate hate hate this. Just because your dog is friendly doesn’t mean I want it all over me, or that I want it in my dogs face. It also reminds me of this great article on rude dogs called He Just Wants To Say “Hi!”.
What bothers me is that people don’t think about their dogs being aggressive, they just assume that their dogs won’t harm anyone even when it’s growling. I have a big dog as well and I’m always careful with him. I never actually used a leash on him because his obeience training (and the competitions we did) made him mellow and all that. However, he’s proned to get other dogs to attack him all the time. One dog in our neighbourhood is never on a leash and is always coming over and attacking my dog. My sister got bitten once while getting in the way. I, myself, have been bitten before as well.
Last night our little dog almost got shredded to pieces by another dog off the leash (she was on a leash). It scared the crap out of me. Thankfully I was able to grab the big dog before he could bite into her but he had her pinned to the ground.