Leash your dogs PLEASE!

[Anonymous]

Hahahahaha. I knew it was someone with a little kid. Fearful parents create fearful children. Glad you're not my parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hahahahaha. I knew it was someone with a little kid. Fearful parents create fearful children. Glad you're not my parent.

NP. That's great if you view those kinds of encounters with strange dogs to be a key part of your parenting strategy. You go for it. But other people can choose to build "fearlessness" in their kids some other way -- there are plenty and getting knocked over by your stupid dog need not be one of them.

[Anonymous]

I feel like it's as simple as this: if you are in a situation where you hear yourself saying about your dog, "he's friendly!" then you most likely have a problem. It means you know your dog is scaring other people or getting in their space, and you're trying to say it's ok by explaining that "he's friendly!" But it's not ok, even if he's the friendliest dog on the planet. If you find yourself starting to say "he's friendly!" then stop, and think about what you can do to make it so that you don't have to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like it's as simple as this: if you are in a situation where you hear yourself saying about your dog, "he's friendly!" then you most likely have a problem. It means you know your dog is scaring other people or getting in their space, and you're trying to say it's ok by explaining that "he's friendly!" But it's not ok, even if he's the friendliest dog on the planet. If you find yourself starting to say "he's friendly!" then stop, and think about what you can do to make it so that you don't have to.

+100. Well said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hahahahaha. I knew it was someone with a little kid. Fearful parents create fearful children. Glad you're not my parent.

That's ok, you'd definitely not be spewing such nonsense if you were my kid. I'm glad we're not related too. Just keep your dog away from me and we'll be cool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like it's as simple as this: if you are in a situation where you hear yourself saying about your dog, "he's friendly!" then you most likely have a problem. It means you know your dog is scaring other people or getting in their space, and you're trying to say it's ok by explaining that "he's friendly!" But it's not ok, even if he's the friendliest dog on the planet. If you find yourself starting to say "he's friendly!" then stop, and think about what you can do to make it so that you don't have to.

+100. Well said.

Excellent approach.

x10,000

[Anonymous]

Why don't you mind your own business and quit the hating?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Except people aren't so self-righteous about their speeding or jay-walking. If you get ticketed, you accept it. Meanwhile if someone calls you out on your unleashed dog or reports you, get ready to hear all about how smart and friendly their dog is! I'll just report you and you can deal with it.

Very odd reaction. Aren't you the one being sefl-righteous?

No. I'm not trying to defend breaking rules. If someone minds and expresses their discomfort with my breaking rules, then I'll follow them. The smart-happy-dog PP suggests s/he won't do that.

That's the point, though. No one else should have to express their discomfort to get you to obey the rules/law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why don't you mind your own business and quit the hating?

You really just don't get it. When my child is playing at the playground designated for kids, not dogs, and you bring your dog in, it makes it my business. No amount of you shrouding the responsibility will make it go away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like it's as simple as this: if you are in a situation where you hear yourself saying about your dog, "he's friendly!" then you most likely have a problem. It means you know your dog is scaring other people or getting in their space, and you're trying to say it's ok by explaining that "he's friendly!" But it's not ok, even if he's the friendliest dog on the planet. If you find yourself starting to say "he's friendly!" then stop, and think about what you can do to make it so that you don't have to.

+100. Well said.

Excellent approach.

x10,000

I want to print this on little cards to hand out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Except people aren't so self-righteous about their speeding or jay-walking. If you get ticketed, you accept it. Meanwhile if someone calls you out on your unleashed dog or reports you, get ready to hear all about how smart and friendly their dog is! I'll just report you and you can deal with it.

Very odd reaction. Aren't you the one being sefl-righteous?

No. I'm not trying to defend breaking rules. If someone minds and expresses their discomfort with my breaking rules, then I'll follow them. The smart-happy-dog PP suggests s/he won't do that.

That's the point, though. No one else should have to express their discomfort to get you to obey the rules/law.

Right, I guess I'm unaware of anyone who actually is discomforted by casual jaywalking so yeah, probably most people are going to keep doing that unless they're in a town/situation where it's actually annoying. Speeding is a weird one -- sometimes some degree of speeding is necessary to avoid pissing off everyone else on the road. These are just bad analogies. Dog-owners are generally aware that lots of people are annoyed if not intimidated by unleashed dogs. Not caring and getting defensive about it is self-righteous on their part.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why don't you mind your own business and quit the hating?

You don't get it. The reason why you should leash your dog (not a retractable one either) and have it well trained, is precisely because I WANT to mind my business.

I really, truly do want to mind my own business. I want to enjoy a walk by myself or with others. I want to enjoy a run in the park or on the trails. I want to keep to myself, not bother others, and not have others (or their pets) bother me.

I very much want to mind my business, but it's hard to do so with your dog running around public areas (where dogs are required to be leashed), coming up to me, or worrying about them jumping on me.

I really want to mind my business and not interact with you or your dog.

So just follow the damn law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hahahahaha. I knew it was someone with a little kid. Fearful parents create fearful children. Glad you're not my parent.

My then-3 yr old had his face split open by a dog bite last year. One of those supposedly friendly, won't-hurt-anyone, he-just-likes-to-play kinds of dogs. He wandered up to my kid and started sniffing at his face, then was startled by a loud noise behind him, and snapped. The whole incident took about 30 seconds. We ended up in the ER, and it took 10 stitches to sew his lip and cheek back together. The owner swore that the dog had NEVER even come CLOSE to biting ANYONE, EVER. Until my son was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He loves dogs, always has. But after that experience, it does freak him out a bit when a large dog (whose teeth are level with his face) comes running up unannounced. We're working hard on getting him over this, but every time it happens, it sets him back at least a month.

So next time you scoff at "fearful parents", please consider that you may not know the whole story. We've taken our kids on adventures that would blow your mind, and are as far from a "fearful" family as you could imagine. But I really, really don't appreciate your dogs running up and scaring the shit out of a little kid who spent all night in the hospital getting his face sewn together. Keep it on a leash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If a dog is going to or has the potential to harm someone....biting, growling, jumping, knocking over, then you need to leash. Not every dog needs to be on a leash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like it's as simple as this: if you are in a situation where you hear yourself saying about your dog, "he's friendly!" then you most likely have a problem. It means you know your dog is scaring other people or getting in their space, and you're trying to say it's ok by explaining that "he's friendly!" But it's not ok, even if he's the friendliest dog on the planet. If you find yourself starting to say "he's friendly!" then stop, and think about what you can do to make it so that you don't have to.

+100. Well said.

+1000