Oh No You Didn't! LEASH YOUR DOGS!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Well, I had a day today. It started off pretty good and then I went up to our State Park to walk the dogs. We had just gotten out of our car and had not gone far, when out of the blue, to the left of us I see an unleashed Doberman running full speed, straight at us. The owner was behind him and I started yelling for him to get his dog before we had a dog fight on our hands. 

In my experience, it always seems that the people who have no control over their dogs are the ones who insist on letting them off leash and this guy was no exception. He yelled for his dog, but the dog would not listen, and meanwhile was circling my dogs. My dogs were surprisingly good. Vern stood pretty still, but Fudge was on edge and I just wanted the guy to get his dog before we had a problem. 

This makes me so mad and I yelled at the guy that his dog was supposed to be on a leash and he said, "I know lady, so shut your mouth." OK, I don't do well with being told to shut up and without thinking I reacted and told him that he could shut the _______ (fill in the blank) up and went on to add that he was in the wrong, not me, and all I was doing was trying to walk my dogs and my dogs were leashed.  I also added that my dogs and I should not be put at risk, because he didn't feel like following the rules. 

Meanwhile, his wife or who knows, stood back and kept saying, "you are right, you are right," but did nothing to prevent her small dog, a Westie, from approaching my dogs. Of course, this dog was unleashed, too. At no time did this guy apologize and he could not round up his dog. He did continue to tell me to shut up when I pointed out that someone who couldn't control his dog should not be letting them off leash :) 

I don't even know how long all of this took place, because my adrenaline was pumping and I was beyond livid. I am so tired of people not leashing their dogs and risking the safety of me and my dogs. Fudge and Vern are combined about 160 pounds of dog and I don't want to see them injured or me injured trying to stop a dog fight. I don't care how nice your dog is...I don't care if it likes other dogs...keep it away from my leashed dogs. Lots of dogs react poorly when on a leash and approached by another dog and you are also risking the safety of your own dog. 

This jerk finally got his dogs and left, but stopped to correct the dog like it was the dog's fault. I could hear him making comments about me and then when I had gone on, he yelled, "don't forget to pick up your dog's ________ (rhymes with bit)," and I yelled back, "don't worry, I always do, but I am sure you don't since you don't even leash your dogs." 

Now, I am not going to apologize for my language, because for once, I said everything I wanted to say instead of kicking myself later for not saying enough. My job is to protect my dogs when I am out on a walk. The only thing I did wrong was not take my cell phone and call the police. I had left it in the car, which I will not do again. I did report him to the ranger, but had no license plate, so not much could be done. I did ask the ranger to deputize me, so I could handle these situations by myself, but he declined my offer and just laughed. 

Of course, my family said I was going to get shot someday and I told John that I would have made sure my last words were, "LEASH YOUR DOGS!!" 

The point of this discussion is the reason there are leash laws in place is to protect all of us and there should be no exceptions. Today could have ended with my dogs seriously hurt or me hurt trying to protect my dogs all because someone thought the laws didn't apply to him. What if I had a child with me? What if a person was startled by this dog and fell? What if the dog attacked us? There are so many "what ifs" that it could keep me up all night. These kinds of people always ruin it for the rest of us and I worry someday that dogs won't be allowed in many of these parks because of these idiots. I am done messing around. I plan on calling the police next time.

P.S. My mom said she probably shouldn't tell me this, but she was glad I told the guy what I did :)

P.S.S. I was wearing my Intercourse, PA sweatshirt when all this happened. LOL

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Lori, I am so glad we live in a neighborhood where we can't see other dogs :) Vern barks enough at nothing. LOL

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Exactly...I yell back the same exact thing. I am sorry you have to go through this too. 

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

Geez I don't understand people at all and I would have let rip just like you did though of course they could have been crazy loons rather than plain selfish/stupid. My boys are always on leash except in controlled areas where there are no other dogs but we sometimes have these loose dogs too and I am so nervous when I see them. I'm glad nothing horrible happened, very glad.

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Thanks, Nicky! 

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

Seems like we both got into it yesterday. It is  rare for me to go off, but when I do.

Sadly, I did not have my,' I Love Intercourse' shirt on when I went off in a local bank. Twice.

It would have been so much better if I did have it on :)

A Doberman, full speed ahead, would have freaked me out too.  Sorry Laurie 

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Thanks, Joanne. Sorry you had a bad day too. 

[Cindy and Olive (Ollie)]

Sheesh, my heart would have been pounding! Glad you guys are OK and too bad the jerk wasn't intelligent enough or at least gentlemanly enough to apologise. I agree with F that you never know how extreme some people can get, and your safety is first and foremost, but it must have felt good not to take his nonsense sitting down! Sorry you had to go through it, but I'm glad you posted as it is a really good lesson/reminder on why and how to follow the rules and protect our pups! Stay smiling, Laurie! I love your sense of humor!! :-)

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Cindy, My adrenaline was pumping....thus the outburst....LOL. Those words just flew out :) Don't worry. I will always continue to find the humor in most things...just not dogs off leash :) Thank you!!

[Christy&Riley]

Laurie - How scary! I would have been petrified to have a doberman running at me. These people who take no responsibility in dog ownership drive me nuts.

There is a boulevard in the middle of our street and I was walking with Riley on one side the other day. A new neighbor's dog came charging across from the other side of the road while a truck was coming up the road at me. I pulled Riley into the boulevard to let the truck go by so we end up meeting the dog in the middle. Thankfully, it was a tiny dog, maybe 10 pounds so I wasn't threatened. But, Riley gets overly excited when meeting people and dogs so she is dragging me to this dog and I'm trying to hold her back so she doesn't squash the dumb thing.

Then, the neighbor comes running over all chatty. "Oh, thank you for stopping my dog..blah...blah. We just got her. Isn't she so cute.blah...blah." In the meantime, Riley is going nuts because now there is this dumb little dog jumping all over, a loud chatty neighbor and her screeching 5 year old. I tell the lady I am concerned that Riley is going to crush her dog so she should leash it. "Oh no..That's ok. My dog is fine." 

THEN...she proceeds to pull out a small styrofoam kids toy and says "look what we just picked up at the dollar store ...isn't it just great?" then shoots it!!! Of course, Riley lunges after the thing with me in tow and the lady just laughs. Who buys a styrofoam kids toy for a dog? Besides being destroyed in 30 seconds, what if they eat it and it gets stuck? 

By now Riley has clamped down for dear life on the toy and won't drop it because of all the chaos. So I'm trying to move towards our house when the lady goes back to her driveway and proceeds to chew out the guy in the truck for driving so fast in the neighborhood. "If this nice lady didn't stop to protect my dog you would have hit it." <Um...I didn't stop to protect your unleashed dog. And why is it this guy's fault your dog isn't on a leash?> Anyways, turns out he was a contractor coming to give a quote. She told him she didn't want to do business with him as a result and sent him away. Poor guy pulls up to me as he drives away and apologizes for driving too fast. I told him he wasn't in my book. In the end it was probably a blessing for that guy to lose the job!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Oh my...that lady sounds crazy. This is what I mean...these idiots never take any blame for their stupidity :) I can't believe she shot that toy in front of you. I feel sorry for the dog. Sounds like it doesn't stand a chance. 

[Jen W]

Just last week I was walking through the park with Dory (leashed) when I saw a woman up ahead of us take her dog's leash off. We were right by the playground where there were kids playing and honestly, my assumption that was her dog must be really well behaved and I got a little jealous. Then the dog started trotting over to me and Dory, ignoring its owners demands that it "come". I wasn't concerned because the dog seemed friendly (which I guess just means it wasn't a bully breed and wasn't foaming at the mouth). When it got to us the dog and Dory just sniffed each other as dogs do and everything was fine, until the other dog lunged at Dory and nipped her in the face. All I could think was, "sh!t, I can't remember what to do in this situation!!". I knew I wasn't supposed to pick up Dory, but that was my instinct. All I did was step between her and hover over her until the other dog's owner arrived and said....well, you already know what she said. "She's usually good around other dogs!"

Here's the thing: I believe her. If she knew that her dog were going to nip another dog in the face, she wouldn't have let her dog off the leash. I really believe that. But dogs, even the best trained dogs, are sometimes unreliable. I never let Dory off leash even when my friends urge me to and accuse me of being too uptight. It's true that she comes when called 99% of the time, even if she's chasing a rabbit. And it's true that 99% of the time she will stop on a dime and follow me if I change directions. But man, it's that 1% that bothers me. What if she doesn't come and there's a car coming? What if she doesn't come and there's a scared kid who doesn't know all Dory wants to do is lick the Cheetos crumbs off their cheeks?

Rather than call the woman an a$$hole--which between you and me I really wanted to do--I said, "yeah, dogs are so unreliable though, they really need to be kept on a leash in public". Did she change her philosophy and vow never to let her dog off leash again? I dunno. But I bet the chances are better that she'll think twice before letting her dog roam free in the future than than if I'd called her names.

Now if she'd told me to shut my mouth....well I don't know what I would have done then, but when people are stupid, it's usually just because they are uneducated and don't know better. That's your chance to shine!

[Christy&Riley]

Riley is always overly excited to meet other dogs but never barks or growls. We came across a boy doodle the other day (leashed) that was barking like nuts at us when the owner stopped to talk. Riley barked and growled back. That was so out of character that I took her response as a sign she sensed something not right about the other dog. The people wanted to get the dogs to play but I didn't think it wise and politely walked away. Sometimes you gotta trust your dogs instincts. :-)