Bad Dog Owners

I stumbled on a piece about dumb dog owners. Really resonated with me, since I see dumb shit all the time.

Secondly, there are certain places where dogs (and other pets) simply don’t belong. Grocery stores. Restaurants. Other people’s front yards. Airplanes. Growing up as a dog owner, I instinctively knew there was something off about bringing a dog into an establishment where people buy, cook, or consume food. Of course, back then, the coffee shop, restaurant, or grocery store would have enforced a “no pets allowed” rule, but that was back in the days when adults were adults and understood their egos didn’t occupy the center of the universe.

This makes me nuts. There are those that legitimately need a service dog. Then, there are the posers that simply want to be accommodated with their dog. Don’t get me wrong, I think dog friendly restaurants where pups are allowed on the patio are great. I’d love to bring mine. But I can’t trust that they won’t squabble with other dogs.

Lastly, keep your dog on a leash when walking it in public. Women almost always leash their dogs, so right now I’m talking to the middle-aged guys. I understand you want your dog to get some exercise. That’s why we have backyards. If you don’t have a backyard, find a dog park or an open field. If you live in a dense, urban area, that’s on you, bro. Either live somewhere more spacious or don’t own a dog.

But the sidewalk or path, on which you pass senior citizens and mothers pushing strollers, isn’t the place for your unleashed Rottweiler. Anywhere near a playground isn’t the place for your snapping Doberman. Nor is it acceptable for you to let your unleashed dog run up to a leashed dog when, again, that dog’s owner is clearly trying to pull their leashed dog away. That doesn’t mean you casually saunter over and stand there, waiting for your dog to disengage on its own. That means you immediately take control of the animal you’re responsible for and get it off the other dog.

I call bullshit on this. When I walk, it’s normally women walking without a leash. Their dogs blast up to my two, and most of the time, it’s game-on. When I see guys with non-leashed dogs, it’s more like they are treating the regular part like a dog park. While they shouldn’t do this, most of them have total control over their dogs.

And the leash doesn’t matter, really. I ran into – twice – two rather ‘formidable’ women walking their dogs on the path in the park. Both have a 15′ leash, neither paying attention to the dogs, so the path is blocked, until they look up and realize that I want to go around them. That happens all the time on that trail. I had one Karen bark at me as her dog was walking her, forcing me to go around them off the trail. Why that was a problem is anyone’s guess.

None of these types reads the rules at a dog park. Hell, I was there one evening a year or so ago when a Black dude showed up with an intact pit bull. Sat down with his tall-boy in a bag and farted with his mobile.

Nothing will clear a dog park faster.

Within minutes, he was the only one in the park. I had to make the choice – leave, or stab that dumb pitbull chasing Aria around. She’s no shrinking violet, but she clearly wanted nothing to do with that dog.

The other thing she missed in the piece was those that have zero control, and let the dogs loose, or the dogs get out. Back in Plano I’d hear this guy shouting. He’s yelling at them to come back. Not going to find them. Just hollering. In this case, a husky, a lab mix of some sort, and a pit. I’ll never forget the look on that Pitbull’s face when he realized that my two were bigger than him, and squaring up for a fight.

Owning a dog comes with responsibility. Take care of business or don’t do it.