Early morning dog walks can be a bitch. Take this morning for example. I was walking Cota by the Morse Circle Garden and notice out of the corner of my eye - a dog leap out and bark at another dog being walked by it's owner.
The ambush dog owner was sitting on the bench talking with a couple of other non-leashed dog owners. Basically none of the dog owners had their dogs on the leash.
The dog that got ambushed, yelped. The owner of the startled dog that got ambushed was startled too. This is where the disturbing part happens.
The dog owner who's dog got ambushed went and reared his leg back and dropped kicked the dog that jumped out and scared the crap out of him and his dog. Not just once - twice.
I mean this old dude seriously booted the dog good.
The dog that got kicked twice then yelped. At this point, being 50 feet away from the action, all I could do is yelp a few choice words at this prick dog kicker as he leashed his dog up while cussing out the lady who's dog jumped out at them.
Blognotes: Being in Loyola Park long enough to know, some unleashed dogs will run towards others. Some in a friendly tone, some will be more aggressive. This is what happened. Nothing more, nothing less. It was a clear example of a few dog owners that weren't paying attention to what their dog(s) was doing and in one case blindly strolling through the park, and the other case chatting it up without watching what her dog was up to.
In the end both dogs yelped. One in fear, one in pain. And neither was the dogs fault.
8 comments:
That was terrible.
While on my way to the gym yesterday, I saw a guy with his dog walking alongside him. The dog had a leash, but the guy wasn't holding it. There were many kids in the park because it was nice out. The dog ran up on a little girl. Her mom grabbed her in fear of what the dog may do. Fortunately, the dog just licked the girl's face. Finally, the clueless dog owner decided to take the dog's leash and pull his pet away.
i love dogs. i own a dog.
that being said, there are leash laws for a reason.
not everybody likes dogs, some people are scared of dogs, allergic, etc.
keep your dog on a leash, and in control, and there are no issues.
i don't appreciate dogs i don't know running up to me and my pup. Impossible to know what is going to happen.
but you can be damn sure if a dog jumped my puppy in any sort of aggressive way its going to be getting a few kicks.
keep your dog on a leash, and pick up his poop. it really isn't that hard to be a socially responsible dog owner people.
I tell you what... If I'm taking a walk with my wife, baby, and two dogs (always on leashes) and an unleashed dog runs up on us, and I feel like it's threatening to any one of us...
I'm going to kick the shit out of that dog before it hurts one of us. I'm not going to wait until it starts to maul my baby before I get involved.
You probably think what you saw yesterday was not the same thing, but how do you know that old dude didn't feel threatened by that dog? He had no way of knowing that the dog wasn't going to bite him.
I'll give you that the old guy might have just been a prick who likes to kick dogs... The real point is this...
Letting your dog run off-leash opens your dog up to being kicked by pricks, or by me if it runs up on me and I feel like it's going to injure my family.
Too bad the people who don't leash their dogs also don't read blog postings like this.
But many dog owners--and people in general--are in denial about such actions like not leashing their dog, or feel their dog is an exception to such rules.
Bitching (pun!) about this problem--akin to dog owners who don't pick up their pet's droppings--is as effective as barking (another pun)at a tree.
The only credit I'll give to most dog owners is that having lots of them out and about contributes to the safety of a neighborhood--albeit at the expense of ravaged parkway grass and dog poo-free playgrounds.
I have to say as the owner of two dogs, I rarely go to the lake front precisely because so many dog owners have their dogs off leash. I've had dogs approach me and my dogs who were anything but well behaved. I've been jogging through the park and had dogs approach me and nip at me while the owners stood by chatting. Personally, I think the wise thing to do is kick the owner. It's just bad ownership if you let your dog off leash in a public space.
It's kind of hard to play fetch with a leash.
Seriously, we walk our dog everyday and though we carry a leash we don't use it. There's no reason to. Our dog is extremely friendly and completely trained. He doesn't run up to people unless we tell him it's okay.
See, the difference is, our dog has been trained. He understands there are consequences. Apparantly, the original poster doesn't understand the idea of training a dog that there are consequences. I would have kicked that attacking dog, too. The owner wasn't bothering to punish the dog, so the person being attacked had to. What's wrong with that?
Just as the original poster seems to think that dogs can't think, or understand personal responsibility, I am reminded of how typical liberals think (make guns illegal - don't bother dealing with the real causes of problems. Just make guns illegal - sort of like "make dogs be on leashes every moment they are outside"! Chain them up! Don't bother training them like the unlazy past generations did! We're too busy and important to take any personal responsiblity. Just chain 'em all up!)
Sorry to rant, but I've lived in places where we don't have big problems with crime and we don't have laws forcing people to leash their dogs. I've lived in places where people are still expected to be personally responsible. I'm only in this politically and socially ruined city to get my education, then I'll go back to where people still think.
Cheers,
.45StayAlive
I will say one more thing: People who do not take the time to successfully train their dogs should keep their dogs on leashes. I do sympathize with the people that have been harrassed by unfriendly dogs (and as I previously wrote, the guy who kicked the attacking dog was fully within his right).
If I had a dog that didn't listen to me or was at all agressive, of course I would leash him at all times we were in public, and probably put a muzzle on him as well.
I think my biggest gieviance is that so many people have pets (and children) that have no business having either.
Oh, and I ALWAYS pick up my dog's poop.
Best wishes to all of you.
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