One big long whinge about Americans and dog behaviour

I have to admit, I am finding the American approach to dog behaviour a little confusing. First of all, one of the neighbours tells me that another of the neighbours puts her dog in an "alpha roll" to 'show' her who's boss. Words fail me, I mean, how utterly draconian. Don't these people know anything about inter-species communication?

Secondly, when I had Roxy up on the trail one morning and she approached one of the neighbour's dogs a little bit nervously and therefore not coming across as uber-friendly, the woman had a fit, grabbed her dog and told she'd "appreciate it" if I would put Roxy on a lead because she didn't want to take her dog to the vet with a dog bite. Dog bite? Erm, hello!!! For goodness sake, all they were doing was sounding each other out. Said woman with her skittish behaviour made the situation much worse than it needed to be for everyone. I have refused to walk our dogs anywhere near her ever since.

Thirdly, a group of three boxers and a fourth dog, all belonging to the same owners, chased and terrorised a little Airedale in the dogpark the other day, causing him to screech in terror. Other dogs joined in and people (not the owners) started chasing the dogs to try to stop them. Eventually one of the owners dragged himself over there and called the dogs off and the other owner yelled over from her seat to ask if the little one was okay. But did they go over to check, or, dare I say it, apologise? Of course not. I went over and so did one other lady and luckily the dog was fine, but I thought the attitude of the owners was just appalling.

Fourthly, we walk our dogs (two at a time) on a trail at the end of our road sometimes. This involves walking past the house at the end of the lane which is home to a large dog who barks like crazy as we go past and continues as she sees us go up on the trail. We have walked the dogs with this neighbour and this dog sometimes, with no issues. But just lately, because they leave their front gate open, she has started rushing out, lips up, teeth bared, growling, and jumped on one of our dogs (whom we keep on leads to go past to avoid them going anywhere near the driveway). So far she's got Louis twice (he's now so scared he doesn't want to walk down the road and especially not past this house) Daisy once, and Roxy once.

The first time I was not prepared at all, but luckily the neighbour heard the dogs barking and me shouting and came out and lifted their dog off Louis, who slipped out of his collar and ran straight home. He could've gone anywhere. Later we found two bite marks on him. The second and third times we weren't totally prepared either and it was a similar scenario. Today, the fourth time, I was totally prepared as I had heard the dog barking at us as we came down from the trail. I had Bertie and Roxy on their leads on the other side of the road and was marching past, yet still she came charging out at us, teeth bared, growling and snarling. It was really scary. I yelled at her before she even got to us but there was nothing I could do to stop it. Roxy had the brunt of the attack, but luckily was not hurt as far as we can tell, although she was covered in the other dog's saliva.

I was furious, and also very scared. The neighbours heard me screaming at their dog and came out to call her off, and I made off quickly up the road. They yelled something after me which I couldn't make out but I shouted back that maybe they could keep their gate shut, to which they said "it's her (i.e. the dog's) home". In other words, why should they. How goddamn arrogant. So it's okay that their dog can run out and attack any random dog that walks past their gate? I don't think so. Thankfully our dogs do not fight back. Not yet anyway.

The first two times it happened they didn't even have the courtesy to apologise or ask if our dogs were all right. Yesterday and today at least they said sorry. The fact is, the trail on which we walk the dogs is on their land, but everyone who lives locally uses it to walk their dogs. That portion of land is actually up for sale. Nowhere does it say that the land is private. Fact is also that our dogs have been attacked when being walked, on leads, on the other side of the road to this house, before the beginning of the trail. Surely the road is a public right of way for all, and therefore one should expect to be able to walk ones dogs there, on leads, without the fear of a big dog rushing out every time and attacking them. We are doing all we can to avoid this situation and manage the problem, and they are not even prepared to meet us halfway. I mean really, how hard would it be to keep the gate shut? Would it really make that much difference to the dog's quality of life? She shouldn't be running loose anyway, especially if there's a chance she could hurt another dog. So it looks like our only option is to try to find another trail that avoids walking past that house. They could see how scared and upset I was but, needless to say, they didn't bother themselves to come up later and apologise or see if Roxy was okay. I get the impression they think it's our fault because we haven't spent loads of time socialising our dogs with theirs. Well sorry guys if our schedules do not fit in with when you walk your dog. And regardless of socialisation, this seems to be more of a territorial issue. I don't really think it would make much of a difference. The arrogance is simply staggering.

Comments

  1. You could be writing about the UK and the attitude of some dog owners here. The alpha roll thing has spread like a plague courtesy of Ceser Milan, it's at best rude and at worst bullying and totally stupid (someone will lose their face one day) I wish people would leave disproven dominance theories back in the past where they belong. Politeness wins with people and animals. I hope you managed to find a safer trail to walk.

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