Manners for Dog Owners

There are many well trained, dog-friendly, people-friendly dogs out there in the world. You meet them at dog parks, on the beach, at your vet’s office and in your neighborhood. They sit when asked, walk nicely on-leash and come when their owners call them. They love children and are not frightened by bicycles or wheelchairs. In fact, they are darned near perfect. So, how could such a great dog ever be considered a nuisance?

I'll tell you how. They become a nuisance when their rightfully proud owner forgets that not all the dogs found out in public are as well-behaved or well-socialized as their dog might be. Some of the dogs that their dog will share common ground with are in the process of being trained or trying to overcome some behavioral issue.

Many an owner of an on-leash, carefully controlled, but reactive dog has had the experience of watching in horror as a friendly, off-leash dog comes barreling toward them as its owner hollers, “It’s okay, he’s friendly!” As if that matters! In fact, I have been the owner who has pointed at my own dog and yelled back, “But mine isn’t!!”

I had this experience with a client while helping her work with her dog in a local park that required all dogs to be leashed. We chose this park for that reason. Her dog was a Katrina rescue, a very large scaredy-pants dog who was especially afraid of yappy little dogs. Our protocol for walking in the park was to randomly step off of the path, ask for a sit with eye contact and feed hot dogs. In this manner, the dog would not consider stepping off of the path for a passing dog as strange or unusual, and most importantly he would not assume that it predicted the presence of another dog. We did, however, follow this same protocol if we saw a dog coming along the path. So, stepping off the path didn't predict other dogs, but other dogs always predicted hot dogs.

All was going well, until the Yorkie happened. As we came around the bend, a sweater-wearing, yappy, happy Yorkie came scuttling across the grass at full speed. Within seconds he was darting in and out of the big, scaredy-pants’ legs. My client’s dog was petrified! He started barking, lunging and basically freaking out. I grabbed the Yorkie and my client got her dog to a safe distance where she immediately began shoving hot dogs in his mouth.

The Yorkie owner fired off an immediate tongue lashing at me and my client suggesting that the “aggressive jerk” should not be in the park. For a moment, I was thinking the same thing, but not about my client’s dog. I calmly explained to the woman that this park had a strict on-leash law that was punishable by a hefty fine. She left, with her dog’s leash hanging around her neck. My client was still feeding her dog hot dogs as tears streamed down her face.

I knew exactly how my client felt. One of the worst times my husband and I had while camping was actually caused by very well-behaved, friendly dogs being allowed off-leash in clearly marked on-leash areas. We had taken along our dog-reactive Jack Russell Terrier and had hoped to go for a long walk by the lake or in the woods with him. We specifically looked for areas that required leashes so we could successfully control his contact with other dogs.

We were very disappointed when every one of those places had at least two dogs running around off-leash. These were great dogs, I'm sure! They were having a great time with their owners. We certainly weren't going to take any chances of ruining their good time with a doggy altercation. So, we systematically pulled into each area on our map, scanned it for dogs at large, only to have to leave without getting out of the car. Each time, our little dog got excited for nothing. He ended up spending the entire trip at the campsite. Of course he still had fun, but I couldn't help but think it was unfair.

Just as dog park goers don't appreciate less-than-social dogs coming to the dog park, people who are trying to train their dogs or are living with reactive dogs don't appreciate rule-breaking dog owners encroaching on their carefully controlled on-leash areas by allowing their dogs to run free.

Some of us must live with the limitations of the dogs we own. We can't take them to off-leash areas, we can't allow strangers to pet them and we can't allow them to meet other dogs on the street. We go to great lengths to create a balance between keeping everyone safe and providing enrichment for our dogs. What we cannot control are other people and their dogs. A little understanding and respect would be much appreciated.