Dog Owners: Special Interest

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I wrote a blogpost about an encounter with an irresponsible dog owner at Salem Commons.
https://cartjockeyconfessions.wordpress.com/2015/06/12/retrieving-the-golden-rule-of-common-courtesy-or-my-very-first-post-as-a-psuedo-dog-owner/

After a very lively response, a couple of people suggested that muzzle would be an appropriate solution... for my dog. Not for the irresponsible owner. Well, I don't want to discourage comments on my blog, obviously, but I did feel the need to write a full post in response to the suggestion of the muzzle.

https://cartjockeyconfessions.wordpress.com/2015/07/06/muzzle-solves-all-a-response-to-linnea-and-aspiecatholicgirls-comments/

Feel free to chime in, as I know there are some dog owners here.

I'll chime in. I have a pit bull and we used to go running all the time. I could handle irresponsible dog owners like you're talking about when I didn't have a kid, but now that my son's a toddler, we can't even walk my dog anymore unless someone else comes along. People are always letting their dogs off their leashes at the park or in their yards and then the dogs rush up to us like fools. My dog jumps in front of me and my son and snarls at them, and he looks like the bad guy.

Hey NateSean.

A muzzle seems like it would be very uncomfortable, and I think that if your dog were to wear one, then he'd get extremely frustrated when a random dog invades his space and he's unable to bark/respond. How about walking him around a residential neighborhood rather than the park? Or maybe go to the park during off-peak hours to minimize coming into contact with irresponsible owners? I've encountered owners who've acted like it's not their fault and actually had the nerve to tell me to eff off after I told them that their dogs are required to be on a leash. ahh people...

A basket muzzle (the best muzzle to use in almost all circumstances) would not prevent a dog from being able to bark. You would also want to condition a dog to accept the muzzle before just popping it on him and taking him out, which would minimize the potential frustration it'd cause.

To the OP, I do understand your frustration. I have/had a reactive dog (who I spent a lot of time working with and she is much better now about not growling/barking at strangers). I felt similarly when parents would allow their children to dash up to her and she'd in return become frightened and bark at them. I was the one receiving the mean glares for the child's misbehavior. That said, while I do understand, it is better to be safe than sorry. 100%! ! If the dog does bite and cause an injury, the dog will be held accountable (even if the bite happens due to another owner's own negligence).

A muzzle would not only prevent a bite from happening if he does end up in a similar situation again, but it is a clear "NOT FRIENDLY" sign to other people. They will see the muzzle and almost all of them will go out of their way to avoid the dog. The dog should not be continuously put in situations where this kind of thing can be anticipated. While a muzzle might not prevent all harm, a dogs bite is undoubtedly going to cause more harm than anything else it can do.

While these things should not be happening, there are further things that can be done to ensure the dog is not going to be put in these situations. Preventative measures and better safe than sorry. Also, I personally believe that if any dog is regularly lunging at or making aggressive advances towards another dog that the dog should either be managed via muzzle/avoiding the triggers or be worked with through behavioral training.

I am in agreement with the commenter on the second blog post.

Even if a muzzle is uncomfortable for the dog, it might be best. I didn't read your blog post but I'm responding based on the responses to you here. The reason I say it would be better is if your dog gets in a fight and injures or kills another dog then you are legally responsible. Some people could and would even sue you over it.

I have three big dogs. Two high content wolf Husky hybrids and one full blood Siberian Husky. The hybrids are very nice to people but will quickly kill other dogs outside of our house. That is one reason I am very careful about not letting them get out the front door. We have a fenced back yard but when they get out front, they not only run and run and run (huskies can run up to 65 miles a day and they want to do that, so they will). Our back yard is big but the outside world is bigger. They also know zero about cars and roads so I'm terrified they will run into the road and get killed. One of them did that several years back. We got a second one shortly after because her littermate needed a companion - those dogs can't be an only dog. Also, they look wolfy and big and my idiot neighbors are terrified of them. I'm afraid they will get shot because they run up to people and want to play or be petted. They have no fear of them at all and aren't mean and wouldn't bite. So, I'm afraid they will get killed.

Once when the older black and white one got out, he's the one that is hard to get back into the house because you can't catch him but luckily he stays around the yard and neighborhood, he was out all night. We couldn't get him. We went to bed and when we got up early the next morning there he was in the yard, laying there, tired. He had blood all down his front and I was terrified he had been hurt. I got out there to him and he didn't run off like he usually did when outside that way, and I checked him and the blood wasn't his. Our grass hadn't been cut in a while and was about a foot high but I saw something small and light brown laying in it. I thought it was just one of the wild cats that are all over the place out here but my husband went over to get it and get rid of it while I was getting the dog in the house and washing him off. Nope, not a cat. It was a small dog. Obviously it lived around here and was well taken care of but was an outside dog because it had been out. Had a collar and tag and all that. He got rid of the evidence and we said nothing. Luckily there were no flyers or anything and nobody came around asking if we had seen him because I'm sure somebody would have said they had seen our dog out the night before. I don't know whose he was but I'm pretty sure we would have had to pay something to them for that. Thats another thing that bothers me about them getting out. They won't attack and hurt a child or a grown person because if I thought that would happen I'd get rid of them right now before taking that chance, but I'm terrified they will kill an expensive or really pampered "This is mommy and daddy's baby and we are going to spoil him and insist that everybody think he's a person he's more important than people, yes he is, yes he is" kind of dog. Those kind of people would take us to court or even file charges to have our dog put down.

So, a muzzel is a good idea. Just make sure he doesn't get off the chain with it on because he can't defend himself.

Offleash dogs are illegal in most cities, with designated places like fenced dog parks being the exception. I have had a couple of encounters where off leash dogs rushed one of our dogs. I have been lucky that they didn't result in anyone getting hurt.

When one of the big retrievers in the neighborhood came after our Akita that was three months old at the time I broke it up by yelling and acting like I was scaring off a bear. Even that never got the owner to come see what their dog was up to. I called the police non emergency number when I returned home. The dogs at that house no longer are allowed to roam free.

We had a couple of free range unsupervised dogs come into our yard when we had another Akita. She was very protective of our kids and disliked other dogs. Both that showed up in our yard ran home with bite wounds on their butts.

Instead of a muzzle for your dog possibly carry dog deterrent spray? I have a can that looks like mace but it is something offensive to dogs that won't hurt them but will offend them enough they back off. I know some people who jog with a stick or baton due to unsupervised dogs so they can at least protect themselves from being bit, not for hurting the dog.

In my area of leash dogs are unlawful but of course it happens. I have a chow chow newfoundland cross now but when I had my rottweiler I had a problem only once. The fellow with dog off leash acted as if it was our fault his dog kept coming towards us and my dog was aggressive. He told my 85 year old mother to shut up because he heard what she said, he may have heard it but it was hungarian and he isn't so there is no way he knew what she said and it wasn't bad anyway. He was some kind of police fellow and kept implying that whilst still failing to recover his out of control dog. I finally told him to get f*****g lost or I would slap the s**t out of him he could tell I would by my demeanor and I would have. In the end I felt bad for two days just because of this 5 minute encounter as I kept processing it over and over and over in my brain. Thats what I hate, things happen to me and the other folks walk away fat and happy but I can spend weeks processing it running different scenarios through my head

In my city a police officer was running through back yards looking for a suspect and a dog that was in one of the yards tried to bite him, I guess, and the officer shot and killed him. Here's the story. It was really sad because the officer was callous toward the dog's owner, who was crying about it. The officer dragged the dog's body out to the curb next to the trash and left it there.

I have a pit bull and I have no doubt he would kill anyone who ran up into our yard. We have signs posted warning people about it. He's a good, loving dog, but we have a small child. All of our dogs, but mine in particular, are very protective. There have been some home invasions in our neighborhood, all around our house, and I suspect that no one has messed with our house because of our dogs.

It's sad when dogs are doing their job, protecting their human companions like they have for who knows how long, and then they suffer for it.