Well, the weather is nice in my part of the world so we’ve been taking walks on our local bike/horse/walking trail with our 2 dogs–big girls 85/100+lbs. They are leashed, well-behaved, if a bit skiddish, girls unlike the people we seem to encounter on the trail. The following is a list of things that have pissed me off…
Don’t whistle at my dogs. Or make kissy sounds at them. It gets them in a tither.
If you are running with your buddy on the wrong side of the trail, don’t “pilot fish” me and run on either side of me. I’ve got 2 dogs here–chances are they may split up and get you…especially if you seem to be running AT ME, their mom and center of their universe when food is not around.
Don’t let your dogs come up to my dogs. Yeah, they’re cute, but they hate puppies and think they need to teach them a lesson.
Don’t let your kids come up to my dogs. See above. Especially if you are 10-20 feet away. I cannot hold my dogs back and stop your children from a dead run up to them.
If I’ve stopped and put them in a sit to let you go by–maybe you are a group of bikers that I know will confuse them, maybe you have a dog that I know they aren’t going to like, maybe you have wheels attached to your feet that really freaks them out…please don’t try to engage me in conversation. Just keep walking/running/cycling/blading.
Keep your dog on a leash. He may be the best dog on the planet, but if he come up to mine, there may just be a fight.
And for the love of all that is good and holy. DO NOT BARK AT MY DOGS. It bothers ME. And you look like a fool.
If you can’t control your dogs, even on a leash, take thyself to obedience school. If it doesn’t work, find another one. Until you get your dogs under control, keep away from places with bicycles/kids/joggers.
I know it can be hard. My dog was the same way, despite massive obedience training, until about 3.5 years old. I only took her to abandonded fields and dog parks (where most people know the “rules”) until she decided to work with me and become a respectable citizen.
Nope, not all of them. Just the ones that do (potentially) dangerous or stupid things.
And this is not about my dogs in particular. I control my dogs. They listen to me, but they can get spooked…but I’m thinking more here of the behavior I’ve seen today. Hell, my gals would run away from small children. But not all dogs are alike. Anyway, it’s my rant. Take it as you like. Run at a dog sometime. Just make sure their tail is wagging, right?
Spoken like someone who thinks all creatures great and small can be reasoned with. :rolleyes:
Look, the bottom line is that animals, no matter how well trained can be unpredictable. They’re ANIMALS for crapsakes. It is plain freakin’ common sense to treat every animal you don’t know as such. How many dog bite events have been punctuated with the words, “But he’s soooo sweet! He’s never so much as LOOKED at anybody wrong! EVER!”
I will make the distinction that there are shitheads for owners out there who wouldn’t lift a finger to control their dog. Same people that will chain it to a tree in the front yard and leave it there forever. But no matter how well trained a dog is, if it is a strange dog, anybody who would display any of the behaviors listed in the OP is an idiot. Period.
On the same note, and yet still a bit of a hijack, (sorry!) there was recently an episode here where a tiger got loose in Moorpark, and the authorities were tracking it, but couldn’t find it for days. It was kind of like sasquatch in that people claimed to see it, but it never fully appeared to anyone. Until they caught it in someone’s back yard. They said they had safety reasons for shooting it instead of tranquilizing it, which now that all is said and done is neither here nor there. Why I’m telling this story is that one of the protesters actually said, “Those assholes. Why didn’t they just TALK to it?”
Well, I do run on the path. and if I am running on the right, in a predictable way, and a dog is weaving about enjoying himself, and wanders into my path, am I running at a dog? Don’t worry, I do take care for my safety, but does the OP have the high moral ground to go calling people stupid?
This is the only problem I have - don’t engage you in conversation? Whyever not? I mean, I’m not going to stay and talk to you for 20 minutes, or even more than one, but stopping to say hello is anathema? Perhaps you should tell me what you mean by “conversation”.
'Cause plenty of people are. I have a Norweigan Elkhound, a pretty medium sized dog, about 35 lbs but a bit on the tall side. But she’s a puppy, not even a year and a half plus she’s a jumper. People insist on trying to bring their little kids to pet her(she’s damned cute and fuzzy). Well, I try to control her, but she’s going to jump up and the kids freak out. Then the parents accuse me of attacking their precious little one with my vicious, mean, evil mutt. There’s a reason I don’t walk up to strangers with my dog if I can help it.
When seen near a road or in a parade where I am ridding my motorcycle, I engage the clutch and coast by the animal so as to not upset it.
The people who do these things on the trail are the same ones that wait until they are right behind a bicyclist and then honk the horn to see it they can cause you to have an accident.
Right. Well, what I’m doing is testing their ignor skills. They are not facing the trail. They are looking at me in a sit/stay. I’m the one facing the trail, giving them commands. They have to keep their pretty eyes on me. This is straight from the trainer’s mouth, BTW.
While it is a good to test to see when they would get distracted – like if a person is engaging me in conversation, for instance – I’m not looking for that at the moment. People saying, “Hey, whatcha doing there?” “Wow, your dogs are pretty/listen good”. Not quite what I’m looking for.
People always say hi on the trail. Sometimes we stop and chat. The dogs, however, have to be doing their - “my mom is talking so I should just sit here and wait thing…”
No. Just No. What I said was 2 guys were running on the WRONG side of the trail and instead of returning to the “right” side, they basically split apart and ran on either side of me. This is rude. And stupid.
If you were on the right side of the track, running with your hair on fire, you won’t get any reaction from my girls. They’re on leashes so no worries that they’d ever cross your path.
So, let me say that these are PEOPLE WHO ARE STUPID. PERSONS who have exhibited behavior that ticks me off…all in one day. Not everyone. Not you. These are the few examples out of the hundreds of people we meet on the trail who, for the most part, are just smarty-pants IMHO.
But I just get such a kick out of reactionary comments…let’s do keep going with this.
sj2: *Well, what I’m doing is testing their ignor skills. They are not facing the trail. They are looking at me in a sit/stay. I’m the one facing the trail, giving them commands. They have to keep their pretty eyes on me. This is straight from the trainer’s mouth, BTW.
While it is a good to test to see when they would get distracted – like if a person is engaging me in conversation, for instance – I’m not looking for that at the moment. People saying, “Hey, whatcha doing there?” “Wow, your dogs are pretty/listen good”. Not quite what I’m looking for. *
But it’s unreasonable to expect everyone else to know what you’re looking for right then, or to call them “stupid” if they don’t know it.
I agree that getting too close or too familiar with strange dogs, or deliberately doing things to freak them out, is indeed stupid. Everybody ought to know that you leave strange dogs alone and keep your distance from them unless the owner specifically says that you may approach them. But many people are simply not going to be aware that if you’ve said “sit” or “stay” to your dogs, you want people not to speak to you because it might distract them.
Heck, I didn’t know that myself, and I’m a confirmed dog fan who’s owned several dogs in the past, and lived with roommates’ dogs.
I think what you need in this case is a brief, non-hostile standard response—either a quick smile and nod, or a quick “Sorry I can’t answer you, I’m doing an obedience exercise right now”. Then you can go back to fuming about stupid people who actually are doing stupid things that they really should know better than to do.
sj2:But I just get such a kick out of reactionary comments…let’s do keep going with this.
Rest assured, when you Pit people as “stupid” for doing things that are perfectly reasonable, you can count on having lots of “reactionary” comments to get your kicks from.
I have to agree with sj2. People are stupid in general, but even moreso when there’s cute looking doggies around. I have had many of the same unintelligent experiences with people at parks and the beach and the like. THey just don’t understand that peoples dogs shouldn’t be fucked with.
My favorite- the runner who always runs with his dog(s) off-leash and who has a penchant to tease every dog in his path showing them that he’s off-leash. I see this mostly at beaches.
I have a large dog and I used to walk him at our local walking path/park. When you’re responsible for an animal in a public place it’s your duty to control that animal and be prepared for anything.
I used to walk my dog in the mornings when there were less people, but one time this busload of retarded/slow (no offense intended) people were walking with their caretakers and didn’t know better than to aproach my dog. It was MY job to make sure they were safe, not the other way around.
Whynot train your dogs to your satisfaction before you take them to a public place?
We can control our dogs, but we cannot control other people or animals. When a loose dog is charging at me and my dogs because some stupid dumbfuck runner likes to run with his dog off-leash and the fucker swoops down on us within a few feet, you can expect a dog to react.
My dog is trained to my satisfaction(in fact, they are trained exactly how I want them to be trained), and when left alone, unmolested by other dogs and people who don’t have the sense that god gave a fucking sandcrab we can go on about our day.
Once my retriever and I were minding our own business while strolling through the park one fine afternoon. In the distance I see another guy and a large black dog having a good time playing catch. This large black dog notices me and Murphy, my dog, and barrels towards us. Freaks me out, this monster is much larger then my Golden Retriever and his slobbering maw of death seems to be growing more menacing the closer it gets.
Luckily for both me and Murphy the big lug was a friendly dog. He just stood over Murphy and drooled all over him. Still, scared the crap out of me.
My mother has an Airedale. Airedales are blessed/cursed with that “ohhh so cute” factor.
Kate (the Airedale) is bomb proof when it comes to people. They love her, she loves them.
Mum went overseas for 3 weeks recently. I became Kate’s person. Every morning we went to the park. She was always on her lead. Every morning someone would come pat her and tell me she looked like a teddy bear. Every morning she soaked in the pats.
One morning a woman approached us saying “ohhhhhhhhh isn’t she gorgeous” (I had Kate at a sit, on the lead because I had seen the woman coming), within 30 secs of that I was trying to get Kate to let go of her small dogs head while she screamed, my child screamed and I paniced.
I bashed Kate over the head several times, in panic, then eventually stuck my hand in her mouth (behind the small dogs head) and made her let go. The woman screamed profanities at me (justifiably…though her dog was NOT on a lead) as the wee dog raced off.
The whole scenario left me feeling sick.
Dog’s prone to skittishness are the OWNERS responsibility. Actually ALL dogs are the owners responsibilty. If your dogs are skittish you have no right expecting the general public to know this.
I’m a dog lover. Always have been. The situation with Kate is the first time I have been involved in an unpleasant dog situation. We were doing nothing wrong. I learnt that you can never guarantee that everyone else will do the same.
Kate is now driven to the park and is only walked when it is obvious there is not another dog nearby. That may seem mean but it is not societies job to predict when the next wee dog she doesn’t like will come along.
I specified wee dogs because she always has loved all other dogs. She has lots of dog mates. The one she attacked was very tiny, Mum is concerned that the size was a factor.
Any parent that would let their small children run straight for a strange dog without asking the owner is just asking for an injured child. That’s just plain dumb. I love dogs - when I see a dog on the street or on a trail, I will ask the owner if I can pet it before I approach it. My whole family loves dogs, and this was one of the first things I remember being taught about them - you never pet a strange dog without asking first. If there is no owner about, don’t pet the dog.
Dogs (and other animals) can be unpredictable. Even the most obedient dogs can become viscious if they think they’re beloved owner is being attacked.
Why do people bark at dogs?? I don’t get this. What if, in Dog, you are saying something like, “I am the New Meat King of All Dogs! Take me down and all meat is yours!”
