We took a walk earlier and a nothing little event left me unsettled.
I keep my girls on leads, they are small/medium sized friendly, non-aggressive dogs who would willing approach most people and dogs for cuddles. Approaching us from the opposite direction was a large dog, also on a lead. I've learned about how to watch the dog and owner for signs that they should not be approached and I respect these rules. They displayed some of these signs, at maybe 50 feet away, so I called my dogs close to me. I had them sit thinking we would be still and wait until they passed. There was plenty of room, etc., and I was just giving them a cuddle while keeping my eye on the other dog. As the dog neared (this is still 15/20 feet away) the owner made me feel less confident that she really had control of him. He was growling low and pulling and she was a slight woman kind of digging her heels in trying to keep control while calling his name in a voice that left me very much not reassured. She got him stopped and went to put his muzzle up and she actually let go of his lead for a moment. A part of me wanted to believe that she thought this was ok because he was so well trained but I hadn't seen other signs of that so I thought it best to move my girls out of sight and we calmly went into a little alley nearby and waited for them to pass. The owner at this point decided she didn't need to muzzle.
Reader, that's the end of the story. Everything was fine. Only it left me really anxious about how I would have protect my girls if things had turned out differently. For the rest of the walk I kept an eye out for this other dog to make sure we didn't re-cross paths, but how would I have protected them at close range? I thought through a few options, discounting them, and deciding the safest thing to do would be to cover them with my body taking the damage myself until the owner got control.
Clearly I don't find that a comforting or great resolution to my worry! How have you or would you protect your dog should another dog take offence at them?
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The doghouse
Are there ways of protecting my dogs when we're out?
38 replies
TheHappinessTrap · 31/07/2015 11:52
OP posts:
Mutt ·
31/07/2015 14:17
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