I don't often go on a rant on this blog, but I'm about to right now. That's what will happen when your 21-pound beagle takes on a full grown St. Bernard in defense of your other beagle.
Once a week, I drop off my daughter at her piano teacher's house, and I have a half-hour to kill. If the weather is agreeable, I bring the dogs along, and we walk at a nearby park. This particular park also happens to house a dog park within it. We don't usually use the dog park (for a number of reasons I won't get into here); we walk on the trails. My dogs are always on leash.
Today, we had just begun to walk when I heard a woman yelling. I turned around to see an enormous animal bounding towards us. I almost thought it was a bear at first! In a few seconds, I saw it was a St. Bernard with a leash trailing behind it. The owner, a woman, seemed in no hurry to catch up to him. I yelled, "Is he friendly?" She did not respond. I am not sure if I froze out of fear or because I thought it might be best to stay calm, but either way, I didn't move. I didn't even have the presence of mind to grab my pepper spray out of my coat pocket.
It turned out the dog was friendly, as he and my smaller beagle, Hunter, checked each other out. My other dog, Molly, was cowering. This is where you need to know some history. Molly has been attacked, unprovoked, three times while we have walked in our neighborhood. There have been countless other encounters with friendlier dogs off leash, but she is now very fearful when she sees a dog off leash approaching us. Especially a 180-pound dog.
The St. Bernard decided to check Molly out. I don't know if Hunter could sense Molly's trepidation or if he felt threatened in some way, but he nipped at the St. Bernard and let him know it wasn't ok for him to bother Molly. Fortunately for us, the St. Bernard backed off. I hate to think what would have happened otherwise.
The woman apologized for her dog but still made no attempt to grab his leash, and he would not stop running over to us. I finally had to ask her to take him away because I was afraid of what my dog might do. A few minutes later, we encountered another dog (on leash), and I heard the owner chastise the woman loudly for not having her dog on leash.
Here's the thing - I understand dogs like to run free. I'm a dog owner; I get it. I also understand some dogs can do so and be under complete control of their owner. I even understand that, if they are not under control, an owner knows their dog is friendly and won't cause harm to another dog. Or at least, they THINK they know. Dogs live in the moment, and ANY dog, if feeling threatened, could attack.
But here's the other thing - most cities have leash laws. There's a reason for that. It is for your dog's protection! If your normally amiable dog is wandering around and encounters a dog who is not so amiable, your dog could get hurt.
If your dog needs to run free, there are appropriate and safe places to do that. A fenced-in backyard, the dog park, a dog run, or doggie daycare are all solutions, if you choose not to live in the country.
If you choose to disobey the law and not leash your dog, know that there are citizens out there, like myself, who will report you. As I said before, I also carry pepper spray, which the police recommended I do (which tells you something about how often these attacks happen). It is completely legal to use on another animal, and it has no long-lasting ill effects. But do you really want your dog to get pepper sprayed?
I believe most people simply do not understand the dangers of having their dog off leash, nor do they understand how stressful it can be for other dogs that meet them. I hope to be able to illuminate this issue so more people will comply with the law and keep our neighborhoods and parks safe for all.
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I've encountered enough off-leash dogs without owners anywhere near that I am reluctant to walk my dogs, or even to take a walk myself sometimes.
ReplyDeleteOne woman had her husky and a smaller dog running through the neighborhood. They kept hanging nearby; it was quite awhile before the owner showed up. She laughed when I told her that, not knowing her dog, I was afraid it would attack my dogs. (My dogs have also gotten attacked before. One dog ran out of it's underground fence and you could see how much it hurt as it was shocked. It crossed the street to bite my Tibetan terrier, then ran back to it's yard.)
But back to the story; she laughed when I told her I'd been worried. She, of course, knew her dog was very friendly. I told her I had no way of knowing that, and she seemed to just think it was all very funny.
That particular dog was running in the neighborhood a lot, and I learned quickly not to fear it. But there are many others.
I don't understand why people let their dogs roam free. Many of them would be quick to complain if my dogs were in their yards, and they'd complain if their dogs got hit by a car.
I'm gonna stop now. You obviously hit one of my hot buttons as well.
My mom always called our dog "an alpha male." I'm not sure exactly what that even means, let alone if it's true :) But while my dog was friendly to people, he was savage to other dogs. He once took on 2 black labs close to twice his size-- just because they were by him. It was scary for me to take my own dog for a walk.
ReplyDeleteBut there were a few times that unleashed, good-natured dogs would come running over to him to play or whatever, and he would respond with his usual protective aggression. A 120-pound teenage girl is ill equipped to handle a 50-pound angry dog.
I HATED it when people wouldn't leash their dogs. Their dog could be totally friendly and happy and sweet and obedient, but a fight would always ensue.
So in a different perspective, people should leash their dogs to PROTECT their own dogs.
BTW, I'm not okaying my dog's behavior. I just want to clear that up :)