Responsible Dog Owner (TW)

I was just watching a re-run of the show 'Cops' (it's the wee hours of the
morning). No idea where it was taped but this appeared to be a very nice,
middle-class neighborhood. Two pit bulls broke out through a loose board in
their wooden fence and killed a man's cat that was lounging on the other
side of the fence. Then the dogs broke out of *that* fence (looked like a
temporary patch job with some chicken wire) into another yard and killed yet
another neighbors cat.

It took the police and animal control a bit to chase the dogs down but the
dogs didn't appear at all hostile to the people. The owner of the dogs
arrived home right about that time. The situation was explained to the
owner and lo! and behold! she agreed it was best to have the dogs put down
so they wouldn't be able to pull an escape again and kill any other
neighborhood pets. Sad for the dogs and the owner (and of course for the
owners of the poor cats). But at least she wasn't one of the typical, "Oh,
my dogs wouldn't hurt anything, not even a cat!" folks. More people should
be as responsible as this woman was.

Jill

On Judge Judy the other day, a woman was suing her neighbor for shooting
(wounding) her dog. She wanted to be reimbursed for vet bills. The
neighbor said she was afraid of the dog and had warned the owner several
times to keep it away from her property. The owner did not do that.
Judge Judy said the dog owner was at fault and dismissed the case.


---MIKE---
In the White Mountains of New Hampshire
(44° 15' N - Elevation 1580')

I saw that episode the woman was an idiot and thought she was not at fault
after I forgot what 2 years of receiving citations. People court the other
day had a man miniature poodle ripped apart by to rottweiliers and the
woman's defense was animals will be animals. I like to take these pet
owners and just slap them silly until they beg for mercy something their
animal can't do. Sometimes people make me so sick


"---MIKE---" wrote in message
...
On Judge Judy the other day, a woman was suing her neighbor for shooting
(wounding) her dog. She wanted to be reimbursed for vet bills. The
neighbor said she was afraid of the dog and had warned the owner several
times to keep it away from her property. The owner did not do that.
Judge Judy said the dog owner was at fault and dismissed the case.


---MIKE---
In the White Mountains of New Hampshire
(44° 15' N - Elevation 1580')

I can't imagine why people leave their dogs, pit bull or otherwise,
outside without anyone even at home. That blows my mind!

I owned a pit; she was the best dog I've ever owned. She was awesome
with people but hated anything with fur on it. If it came in our yard,
it was fair game, and the other animals knew it. They stayed away.
Outside of our yard, however, she was the model citizen. A cat could
walk past her giving her the finger and she'd have taken it laying
down. She was extremely well trained. Nevertheless, I wouldn't have
dreamt of leaving her outside while I wasn't home.

I'll never forget the time the police knocked on the door and told me
that she had escaped and was laying in a bed of flowers along the
neighbours fence. I was furious with her (as was the neighbour because
she'd all but flattened the flower bed,) but she was just laying there
sniffing the flowers like there was nothing wrong. I put her back in
the yard and threatened to put her on stake-and-chain probation if she
did it again. The next time, about twenty minutes later, I was
watching. Caught her in the act, I did. We're talking an 88 pound pit
bull hauling her rump up over a 6 foot fence. It was pretty hilarious
to watch, but she got the stake and chain from that point on. I never
wanted to be faced with such a horrible decision, and in my mind an
ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Cheers,
Azy!


"After a long day spent warming myself on a sun-roasted eiderdown, I've
decided that writer's block is nature's punishment for being too
comfortable for too long." ~Mr. Fleez

www.housecatwisdom.blogspot.com

Matthew AKA NMR wrote:
I saw that episode the woman was an idiot and thought she was not at fault
after I forgot what 2 years of receiving citations. People court the other
day had a man miniature poodle ripped apart by to rottweiliers and the
woman's defense was animals will be animals. I like to take these pet
owners and just slap them silly until they beg for mercy something their
animal can't do. Sometimes people make me so sick

I am always cautious when I hear these kinds of stories, though. I
have had loose dogs run up into the face of my dogs while I have them
on leash, my dogs ripped the **** out of the dog and the people get all
indignant about it because their dog is smaller (Um, hello - ever hear
of prey drive and protective instinct?). My dog(s) will/would protect
me from a bear if we were approached by one. They love people but
other dogs are usually a threat. On the flip side, I have to keep my
Basenji mix on a leash at all times because she wants to hunt and sees
anything small and especially white (and yappy) as prey. ****zus
(sp?) and Poodles are especially exciting to her. The neighbors cats
have been lucky they can jump the fence so far.

I hate dogs off-leash in public any place except approved dog parks.
My kid is a *freak* about dogs (LOVES them!) and I have to keep him
from running to any dog he sees - when they are off leash, it just
makes me extremely nervous. No dog can be controlled by voice 100% of
the time.

-L.

On 2006-04-20, Azy penned:
I can't imagine why people leave their dogs, pit bull or otherwise,
outside without anyone even at home. That blows my mind!

I don't know. My dog Puma stayed in the yard a lot of the time when
we weren't home. Mom had a part time job, and I was in school, so he
wasn't home alone all the time, but certainly a fair amount.

He eventually got the taste for jumping the fence. After all sorts of
hare-brained schemes, we finally got an invisible fence, which worked
surprisingly well. So I guess that -- the jumping habit -- shows we
shouldn't have left him home alone. But he liked it so much ...
compare it to the indoor/outdoor discussion here. I'm just glad we
found a way to keep him in, finally. Everybody loved him. Kids were
always giving him frisbees and tennis balls; I had to stop the mail
lady from giving him several large pieces of chocolate cake! He was a
sweetheart.

We used to often take him on walks to our friends' house, and tie his
leash around the tree in the front yard. When he escaped, we always
knew we could find him (after he got bored) sitting at the tree,
waiting for his limousine service. After they put a flowerbed around
the tree ... well, we found him in the flowers. Old habits are hard
to break. I think our friends were pretty relieved when we finally
got the invisible fence.

I'll never forget the time the police knocked on the door and told
me that she had escaped and was laying in a bed of flowers along the
neighbours fence. I was furious with her (as was the neighbour
because she'd all but flattened the flower bed,) but she was just
laying there sniffing the flowers like there was nothing wrong. I
put her back in the yard and threatened to put her on
stake-and-chain probation if she did it again. The next time, about
twenty minutes later, I was watching. Caught her in the act, I did.
We're talking an 88 pound pit bull hauling her rump up over a 6 foot
fence. It was pretty hilarious to watch, but she got the stake and
chain from that point on. I never wanted to be faced with such a
horrible decision, and in my mind an ounce of prevention is worth a
pound of cure.

My dad tells the story of one of his dachshunds. Kept getting out of
their chain link fence; no one could figure out how. Their next door
neighbor, who was always in his cups, told them the dog had climbed
the fence! Well, who's going to believe a drunk? But then my dad and
my brother watched and waited ... sure enough, the little bugger stuck
his paws into the links one at a time, managed to climb the fence, and
flipped his body to make it over.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

On 2006-04-20, -L. penned:

I hate dogs off-leash in public any place except approved dog parks.
My kid is a *freak* about dogs (LOVES them!) and I have to keep him
from running to any dog he sees - when they are off leash, it just
makes me extremely nervous. No dog can be controlled by voice 100%
of the time.

I was just talking to my massage therapist about the importance of
teaching kids not to just run up to strange dogs. It's amazing how
many parents just watch their kids run up to an unfamiliar pet with no
warning. Not that she's one of those parents; we were sharing
dogwalking stories.

Not that it's easy to teach a kid to be cautious around animals if
they're not instinctively so, but at least you can try to repeat it
till you're blue in the face.

I was also a childhood freak about dogs. Even now I will embarrass DH
on a regular basis (although I really don't know why this is
embarrassing, anyway) by asking strangers if I can pet their dogs.
Especially the squirmy wiggly puppies, but any will do. I get my
fixes where I can, since I really don't have the schedule to have a
dog right now.

My next door neighbors have a tiny dog. Some people -- adults even!
-- walk in the door and immediately try to pick her up. Poor dog!
She's been known to pee on them out of excitement and fear. The
neighbors figure it's the person's own fault for being stupid enough
to pick up an unfamiliar dog. I pick up the dog all the time without
incident -- because I wait until she comes to me, jumping and begging
to be picked up (takes about 5 milliseconds from when I walk in the
door).

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
On 2006-04-20, -L. penned:

I hate dogs off-leash in public any place except approved dog parks.
My kid is a *freak* about dogs (LOVES them!) and I have to keep him
from running to any dog he sees - when they are off leash, it just
makes me extremely nervous. No dog can be controlled by voice 100%
of the time.

I was just talking to my massage therapist about the importance of
teaching kids not to just run up to strange dogs. It's amazing how
many parents just watch their kids run up to an unfamiliar pet with no
warning. Not that she's one of those parents; we were sharing
dogwalking stories.

Not that it's easy to teach a kid to be cautious around animals if
they're not instinctively so, but at least you can try to repeat it
till you're blue in the face.

I was gifted with my first and only dog by my now ex-husband. Sampson was a
tiny little mutt; as an adult he weighed less than Persia does. But he did
not like strangers and he did not like children (they moved and darted
around too fast). When he became a little old dog and I was walking him
around my former apartment complex, kids would always yell "A puppy!" and
run up towards him. No matter how much I cautioned them he was not a puppy
but rather a cranky old dog, some of them just *insisted* on trying to pet
him. By this time Sampson was cranky enough to bite me (and also suffered
from "
"doggie demensia", for which he was on a medication called Anypryl).

He was on a leash so I have no idea who would have been held responsible if
one of these kids had been bitten. It was within my rights to walk him ON a
leash in the grassy areas by the parking lot. But I couldn't control some
of those kids so I resorted to raising my voice and getting rather rude when
they wouldn't listen. I didn't want to find myself on one of those Judge
shows because I did warn the kids but they refused to believe Sammy wasn't a
"puppy".

Jill

Azy wrote:
I'll never forget the time the police knocked on the door and told me
that she had escaped and was laying in a bed of flowers along the
neighbours fence. I was furious with her (as was the neighbour
because she'd all but flattened the flower bed,) but she was just
laying there sniffing the flowers like there was nothing wrong. I
put her back in the yard and threatened to put her on stake-and-chain
probation if she did it again. The next time, about twenty minutes
later, I was watching. Caught her in the act, I did. We're talking
an 88 pound pit bull hauling her rump up over a 6 foot fence. It was
pretty hilarious to watch, but she got the stake and chain from that
point on. I never wanted to be faced with such a horrible decision,
and in my mind an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Cheers,
Azy!

See? You were a responsible pet owner. Those stake things that twist into
the ground and a lead long enough to let the dog wander around *your* fenced
yard - no harm done. I doubt if your dog had managed to somehow pull up the
stake and get loose you'd have been blamed for anything. You took every
precaution and I applaud you for it!

Jill

jmcquown wrote:
I was gifted with my first and only dog by my now ex-husband. Sampson was a
tiny little mutt; as an adult he weighed less than Persia does. But he did
not like strangers and he did not like children (they moved and darted
around too fast). When he became a little old dog and I was walking him
around my former apartment complex, kids would always yell "A puppy!" and
run up towards him. No matter how much I cautioned them he was not a puppy
but rather a cranky old dog, some of them just *insisted* on trying to pet
him. By this time Sampson was cranky enough to bite me (and also suffered
from "
"doggie demensia", for which he was on a medication called Anypryl).

He was on a leash so I have no idea who would have been held responsible if
one of these kids had been bitten. It was within my rights to walk him ON a
leash in the grassy areas by the parking lot. But I couldn't control some
of those kids so I resorted to raising my voice and getting rather rude when
they wouldn't listen. I didn't want to find myself on one of those Judge
shows because I did warn the kids but they refused to believe Sammy wasn't a
"puppy".

Jill

I have done the exact same thing, not because my dog will bite but
because I want to teach the kid and the parents a lesson. I *hate* it
when kids approach me without asking first.

I expect fully to teach DS not to approach strange dogs without
asking, but at this stage, there's no such thing as control over him
verbally when we are outdoors (except "STOP!" which he will do if
running) and so all the control I have to exert is physical and/or
avoidance. I am hoping another 6 months will improve things
drastically. (He's 2.25 right now). At least he has his own "dog-dog"
whom he loves, although she's not really a people dog. He is a freak
about the cats, too and they tolerate him pretty well.

-L.