If you’re a long time reader of this blog, you’ve definitely read of some of my encounters with what I call DADA’s (Dumb Ass Dog Owners).
Dumb Ass Dog Owner (Jodipedia definition) Dog owners who are oblivious to the fact that not all dogs are friendly or able to be trusted off-leash.
Quite truthfully I sometimes feel like I’m smack dab in the capital city of DADA. A quick look at Google Earth confirmed this sad fact of my life.
Oh shit.
After many unsettling encounters I begin to wonder…maybe it’s not them, maybe it’s me.
Tell me what you think.
I’m walking the dogs in the woods this past Saturday. They were both on leash and our walk was going along as uneventfully as it possibly could with the two dingo’s. Right as we hit the apex of one of the trails, I heard someone behind me speak. Then I heard her speak a bit more loudly, “Sara!”
I looked behind me and sure enough there was a young woman leashing her dog up. Thankfully neither Frick or Frack heard the woman so they continued along like the status was quo.
At this point we I had two choices. Continue on the main path towards the park exit, or take the alternate route which is a bit more challenging. Typically I stay away from this route this time of year, because the pitch down is very steep and it’s covered with dry leaves, which can be pretty slippery, especially with two of the dogs from Eight Below pulling you.
I chose to go with the more challenging route thinking the other person would take the main path out.
I was wrong.
The young woman and her dog continued toward us. Now mind you, I keep looking behind me and urging my dogs to ‘hustle’ and I’m generally not quiet about it. So I turned around as woman was at the mouth of the path and said, “Are you following me?”
The girl said, “What?”
I said a bit more loudly, “Are you following us onto this path?”
She replied, “Yes, this is the path we are taking.”
I said, “Well then we have to get out of here, because THEY’RE NOT GOOD WITH OTHER DOGS.” (This isn’t entirely true, because most times they are very good with dogs, but they are so excited to see them that they get out of control.) But let a dog come up behind us or try and pass us unexpectedly, well that could definitely be T.R.O.U.B.L.E.
Now the mouth of the path is about 30 to 50 feet away from us and the way Is see it, I have two choices. I can try and wrestle the dogs past her or I can try and wrestle them off through an uncut area of the woods that is filled with debris.
Well I’m not wrestling them past her, so I start heading OFF the path through the debris filled woods.
The blue arrow indicates the path we WERE on. The picture is taken from the path we ended up on.
Now that the woman and I have had a verbal exchange the dogs are engaged and know there is another dog. So I’m practically dragging my dogs through this wooded obstacle course and what do you suppose the young woman does?
She keeps walking down the path with her dog, at one point probably getting to about 15 feet away from us.
I’m pissed now, because 1) I totally forget how to handle my dogs when I’m caught off guard and 2) I feel like she could have given me some room to at least get the dogs far enough off the path so I could safely handle them.
I finally get the dogs onto the main path and we are now walking parallel with each other, although she is considerably farther away from me than she was.
Of course I’m mumbling under my breath, because I’m still pissed and I see her shooting me dirty looks.
The blue arrow indicates the path she ended up taking.
And since this isn’t the first time I’ve felt uncomfortable with dog/owner encounters, now I’m wondering…maybe it’s me. Do I expect too much from other dog owners? How do you educate people without coming across sounding like a bitch?
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