With my son's help, I've taken Miro to the nearest Sunday farmer's market a couple of times to get him used to being around crowds and other dogs. He won't pass a Canine Good Citizen test until he can learn to walk calmly (maybe in 10 yrs) past other people and dogs, so we need lots of practice. My son hangs onto Miro while I buy fruit and vegetables, then I walk Miro around and reward him with bits of chicken when he (Miro, not my son) behaves.
Today we'd just arrived and were walking from the car to the market when a couple with a sheltie on a flexi-lead came walking straight toward us. Normally people with another dog move to one side or another but they didn't. Their dog pulled to the end of its lead and barked. We stopped, not knowing which way they were going. The sheltie charged up to Miro and would have gotten right in his face if I hadn't stepped between the two dogs while Marty held a jumping Miro back. The woman holding the sheltie's leash made no effort to pull her dog back while she and her companion came up to us and started walking by.
I said, "Would you please move your dog away from mine?" instead of the "Control your dog!" that I actually wanted to say.
She laughed and said, "You're in public."
I thought she said I was impertinent, though I realized people don't talk that way any more. I said, "I'm trying to train my dog."
Walking away, she said, "Well, you're still in public." As if being in a public place gives her the right to let her dog go where it wants and be aggressive to another dog.
I was both angry and puzzled that she would think it was OK to let her dog charge at mine when I was clearly trying to prevent that from happening. For the sake of politeness alone, wouldn't you haul your dog back if someone asked you to?
Some people are very ignorant, unfortunately. You can only hope that Karma will get them back one time while you keep trying to do the right thing...
ReplyDeleteWe often have the problem of people not putting their dog on leads which inevitably come right up to ours and we have 4 of them. You can imagine what happens and of course it's always our fault even though our dales are always on their leads. People can be incredibly stupid.
ReplyDeleteThe woman with the Sheltie should have asked to meet Miro - not just assumed and if she would have been REALLY smart - she would have read your body language and steered clear! Some people just don't think!
ReplyDeleteMaggie & Mitch's mom
Yep i agree with Maggie & mitch mum, she should have read the signals from you. We meet lots of dogs out and about and you can tell the ones that the owners are holding back a bit, we do it ourselves from dogs we are not sure about even if the owners say they are ok. Some dogs just give you that look and we keep ours close then. Mind you we always keep ours close out and about anyway, even when they meet dogs we keep them close to us when they are on lead.
ReplyDeleteWe often see people who are training their dogs not to come to ours for whatever reason, when we walk past. You see them asking their dog to stay and leave etc, we just think they are training them and try to help by making ours ignore them too.
Gotta train the humans too. People forget to use their brain or are just complete idiots. Oops. Am I venting?!! Have a good week!
ReplyDeleteSince when did being in public mean you didn't have to control your dog. This lady is confused.
ReplyDeleteHave fun training.
Love Ruby & Penny