Today I was out walking two dogs and everything was going pretty well, a lot of sniffing and weeing and happy little faces until we were “attacked” by a small dog the size of a poodle.
As we passed by a house one of the occupants opened the front door and the dog came flying out and started the trouble. Normally I spend most of my walks anticipating trouble and it usually works. If I see something I don’t like I get away from it as quickly as possible before trouble starts, but this time the whole incident was totally unexpected and it happened so quickly that I had very little time to react.
I couldn’t believe that such a tiny dog could be so aggressive. My dogs snapped back, which didn’t surprise me. The other dog didn’t back down and I wasn’t sure if the “disagreement” was going to get worse. I told the person four times to call the dog away and he just stood there. When he did decide to come and take his dog away he did so at such a leisurely pace that if the incident had continued there was the possibility that there might have been injuries. His lack of interest also prolonged the situation. The point is that when you’re asked to call your dog away do so immediately, don’t just stand there! Luckily we were alright, we managed to get away without any damage, but it ruined our happy walk.
I do understand that the dog was either defending its territory or was just a typical noisy small dog with an attitude problem, but that’s no excuse for its behaviour and its owner’s lack of common sense.
I’d like to see what happens when one day that tiny dog annoys another much bigger dog. I don’t want to be around when that one starts. It’s probably going to come out the loser and you can bet that the big dog will get the blame for starting it even though it was just reacting to the aggression of the small dog. What will the small dog’s owner’s response be then? Will they even care?
As a side issue I’d also like to mention that it’s always important to prevent a dog from slipping quickly out the front door because if the property doesn’t have a fence it only takes a few seconds for the dog to run onto the road and get hit by a car. I’ve heard of more than one case where this has happened and I once saw it myself. In that case the owner was lucky enough to get hold of the dog before it got near the road. It was a scary experience and I wouldn’t like to see again.
As we passed by a house one of the occupants opened the front door and the dog came flying out and started the trouble. Normally I spend most of my walks anticipating trouble and it usually works. If I see something I don’t like I get away from it as quickly as possible before trouble starts, but this time the whole incident was totally unexpected and it happened so quickly that I had very little time to react.
I couldn’t believe that such a tiny dog could be so aggressive. My dogs snapped back, which didn’t surprise me. The other dog didn’t back down and I wasn’t sure if the “disagreement” was going to get worse. I told the person four times to call the dog away and he just stood there. When he did decide to come and take his dog away he did so at such a leisurely pace that if the incident had continued there was the possibility that there might have been injuries. His lack of interest also prolonged the situation. The point is that when you’re asked to call your dog away do so immediately, don’t just stand there! Luckily we were alright, we managed to get away without any damage, but it ruined our happy walk.
I do understand that the dog was either defending its territory or was just a typical noisy small dog with an attitude problem, but that’s no excuse for its behaviour and its owner’s lack of common sense.
I’d like to see what happens when one day that tiny dog annoys another much bigger dog. I don’t want to be around when that one starts. It’s probably going to come out the loser and you can bet that the big dog will get the blame for starting it even though it was just reacting to the aggression of the small dog. What will the small dog’s owner’s response be then? Will they even care?
As a side issue I’d also like to mention that it’s always important to prevent a dog from slipping quickly out the front door because if the property doesn’t have a fence it only takes a few seconds for the dog to run onto the road and get hit by a car. I’ve heard of more than one case where this has happened and I once saw it myself. In that case the owner was lucky enough to get hold of the dog before it got near the road. It was a scary experience and I wouldn’t like to see again.