“Thanks for the warning!” The woman called after me as Delilah and I negotiated away from her dog who was following us across the road.
I wanted to shout back, “Pull your head out of your ass where your dog is concerned,” but I wisely (unwisely?) kept my mouth shut.
I’ve written about this before and so have many others, and yet here I am again incensed that I have to intimate my dog is ‘un’friendly because another dog owner is totally clueless.
It began innocuously enough, Delilah and I were taking a nice stroll on a beautiful spring Saturday. Delilah was casing the houses in our neighborhood for possible future forages leading the walk, while I was helplessly being dragged along, wandering aimlessly behind her, following along leisurely enjoying the lovely weather and keeping my eyes ever alert for other dogs.
Yup, sure enough. Dead ahead, I saw a group of people at the edge of a lawn chatting and standing there with them, a dog. I crossed to the other side of the street and kept walking. As we approached, the dog, Bella took a few tentative steps into the street.
“Bella, Bella” her male owner called, then walked over and gently led her back to the yard.
“She never leaves the yard” I heard the woman tell her visiting neighbors, “That’s the farthest I’ve ever seen her go.”
I reached into my treat bag and Delilah who was focused on the grass on the side of the road, lifted her head and focused on me.
“Bella, Bella!” The male called again. I looked back to see Bella stealthily creeping up on Delilah’s right flank. Delilah, darling dog was sniffing the grass and not paying a lick of attention to the approaching Bella.
I felt the familiar panic rising up, like a cobra ready to strike. What do I do? Do I stop and try to initiate a greeting? Do I keep on hustling and pray Bella doesn’t reach Delilah’s rear end? I looked down at the sweet face, intent on me, and unaware of anything transpiring behind her. I can’t take a chance of setting her up to fail.
“She’s not always friendly to other dogs” I tossed over my shoulder, resisting the urge to pull out my pepper blaster and give the owner a taste of my wrath.
“Who, your dog?” The woman called after me.
Yes my dog you dipshit, I would hope you’d know if your dog wasn’t friendly to other dogs.
“Yes, she doesn’t like being surprised.”
Like when your dog comes up behind her and shoves her face in her ass, she’s likely to get a face full of Chocolate the likes of which will put your dog running for cover and brand my dog as ‘aggressive.’ All because you can’t be bothered to keep your dog in her yard.
I just don’t like surprises, that’s all. You try having someone stick their nose in YOUR ass when you aren’t expecting it. I didn’t think so.
“Thanks for the warning,” I heard follow me as I stomped my way seethed my way up the street thinking of all the other things I could have/should have said.
I so feel your pain! This is a great article….
http://www.suzanneclothier.com/the-articles/he-just-wants-say-hi
Maybe print it out and leave it in their mailbox?
I love that article! Our trainer shared it with me when I was feeling guilty about my dog snarling at another dog who got to close in class. It really helped me understand that it’s ok if my dog doesn’t like having other dogs approach her. Good luck with Delilah!
Rude, just rude. Sorry but your story did make me chuckle! 🙂
No, you did the right thing. I, too, have had to keep myself from lashing out against these clueless morons; and at times have not been successful at the half-hearted attempt.
Your picture/caption at the end of the post reminded me of a little incident in our house over the weekend. To make a long story short, Shadow gave Ducky a big surprise scolding for trying to hump her while she was sleeping. Kinda surprised us, too, because we both thought Shadow was Callie until it happened. I started laughing because Ducky was so surprised. And I was proud of Shadow for telling Ducky off.
Oh dear I think people just automatically assume there will be no issues. They certainly do over here and with my friend’s dog who is such a grumpy thing we constantly have to try and sort things out. She has to stay on a lead but that does not stop other dogs running up and trying to be friendly. It can be quite a challenge. Have a terrific Tuesday.
Best wishes Molly
I know that feeling so so well. It’s amazing how with a reactive dog you get good at noticing a dog in a crowded place at 1000ft and can seamlessly move away without your dog noticing and if only the other dog owner would step up and take responsibility and pay attention to their dog there wouldn’t be a problem. I don’t suppose there was a chance she was been genuine? You did pre-warn her and nothing transpired?
I once had a staffy owner have a go at me because when I saw them approaching I took BD off the path and made him sit a safe distance away (it was an old railway line so I couldn’t detour from the path as far as I normally would) He got level and said in a huffy way “he’s friendly you know” to which I responded “but mine isn’t” and pointed out the big black muzzle around Bd’s nose!
Have you heard of the yellow dog campaign?
In this case, you should have no regrets. Let the owner stay clueless. You brought the best result for your girl. Clueless idiots are like cockroaches. They never just disappear. And they only adapt and keep on.
Wow! Real nice folks you have there! Why are some people just so ignorant? We tell people to stay away as with three of us we just never know how we will feel about a strange dog yet people continue to let their dog come to us. Same with kids. Mom says no, you can’t pet them because they might jump or get your brat all tangled in our leashes and the parents let the kid come up to us. At least we don’t bite kids but we may injure them by accident if we knock them down or tangle them up. Just leave us to our own enjoyable walk and leave you and Delilah alone too.
Ugh! I hate dog owners like that!
I think you handled it well, even though there are other things you would have liked to say. Many people just get defensive if they think they’re being criticized.
Whenever this happens with Cricket I find myself apologizing and trying to explain, but I know I shouldn’t do that. I’m walking my dog on a leash and theirs is loose which is against the law anyway. Not that I’ve never walked a dog off leash either, but I leash them up whenever I see other dogs or people. I certainly would hold on to my own dog in the yard while other people/dogs passed.
You have such a great way of putting a comical spin on a story that angers all of us!
So rude of those owners, people just don’t care!!!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
Why oh why, is the world full of dumb ass people? And why are they allowed to raise kids and dogs?
Not all dog peeps are GOOD dog peeps. RIGHT?
I’m am always on high alert when I see other female dogs. Most of them have not been very friendly towards Blueberry. I try to shield her from as many of those encounters as I can. Thankfully, she’s always on the submissive side even when rude females approach. Males on the other hand – she goes out of her way to greet (she’s pretty insistent) and they usually are quite smitten with her. Such a little hussy. 😉
I do like Keri Dominguez’s idea of printing that article and putting it in the mailboxes of all your neighbors with dogs – including Bella’s owners.
You are so diplomatic. What you say, not what you think, of course. Kudos to you for squelching your not so pure thoughts when faced with these situations.
Had that been me walking Moses and Alma, those people would’ve seen Alma bouncing around like a maniac (probably) and got their asses in gear, for sure. I don’t know what it is about spring that makes people put their dogs out on their front porch/lawn untethered/supervised, but we ran into that a couple of times yesterday ourselves.
Even if it’s not completely accurate, I’ll make similar statements to get the same sort of results. Apparently that’s the only thing that works at getting some other dog owners to think about danger/courtesy.
Ugh. I hate when I run into loose dogs, and it happens so often. But really glad they listened to your warning! Maybe they won’t leave Bella loose next time around.
So rude! Is there not a leash law where you live? In my county, if a dog leaves it’s property, and my dogs are under control (fenced or leashed) the other dog’s owner is responsible. I detest irresponsible dog owners. Did they not realize that you crossed the street for a purpose??
Some dogs just never know a stranger. Until they’re hurt. Mine would be the dogs creeping over to say hi, which is why they’re not often allowed in the front yard. They really are sneaky when they want to get out of the front yard.
Been there. Done that. And honestly, I don’t care if people in the neighborhood think my dogs are the most unfriendly of creatures if it makes them keep their dogs from surprising mine. Most people have no clue.
Hi Y’all!
I’m always friendly, but even if I’m off leash, my Human always makes me sit and stay when she sees another dog approaching on or off leash. If the dog is off leash, she’ll leave me in a sit stay and go tell the loose dog to leave. It usually works. If the approaching dog is on leash she changes my healing to the opposite side from the dog, so she is between. If we are all off leash, the same procedure applies. So far it’s worked pretty well.
Y’all come by now,
Hawk aka BrownDog
Oh, boy. I HATE THAT. It sounds like you handled it beautifully. I get so angry when I’m forced to say, “My dog isn’t friendly.” Because it’s not fair to Lucas when other people can’t control their dogs. I’m sorry you had to experience that, but you sailed right through!
Ugh! You handled the situation well.
Fozzie is so reactive that I am usually loudly offering treats and singsonging “good doggie–look at that!” long before another dog gets close. I’d say Delilah conducted herself well given the circumstances, and I too would have been hard pressed not to throttle that smarmy neighbor.
At least not all walks are like that 😉 Look forward to the good ones 😉