Running the gauntlet

[Jedismom]

Have you ever noticed how just taking a neighborhood walk can be loaded with challenges for a sensitive dog?

 

Ok we're coming around the corner ...Oh no the annoying yapping yorkie monster!! Jedi ignored him! yes....We're doing good...good...Oh no there is a cat parked next to the sidewalk...Jedi ignored him! Yes....excelllent ...walk is almost over and no panic episodes yet...Ok we're coming up on the over zealous neighbors house. These folks have their ENTIRE front lawn COVERED in giant life-sized bunnies! Enough to make most humans run let alone Jedi. Ok what to do...Let's go for it. Come..Come...good boy....He hardly glanced at them! Ok we're on our block now...Oh crap the pizza hut driver dressed all in black with a hat on! We can do it...I know it...Jedi just looked at him

 

Well we're home now. He's come along way from freaking out at a bamboo frond to where he is now

 

Georgia

[WyoBC]

That's great! I know how scary a walk in town can be. All of those people, strange dogs, cars driving by, leaves blowing by, kids running around. It's a scary planet. But if I was two feet tall that stuff would scare me too

[SoloRiver]

Have you ever noticed how just taking a neighborhood walk can be loaded with challenges for a sensitive dog?

 

Try walking out into the hallway of your apartment building. Mine is one of the very few in the neighborhood that allows dogs, more than one dog per apartment, and dogs over 20 pounds. Therefore, pretty much everyone in the apartment has a dog. Unfortunately, not everyone who has a dog is responsible.

 

Recently some new folks have moved in on my floor who think leashes are optional and that their dogs are friendly. They are mistaken about both things. One owner (these are multiple apartments' worth of dogs) has a bulldog that I recently discovered she allows to tease my dogs through my apartment door. I've known there was a dog snuffling around out there on a fairly regular basis but not known which one. So I'm coming home the other day and I hear Solo going apeshit as I'm going up the stairs -- and then I see this dumb bulldog growling at my door and scratching at it, no leash, no collar, while his owner is all the way at the other end of the hall fumbling with the keys to her apartment.

 

I said "Hey! Is this your dog?" And she just looks at me and calls her dog, which ambles slowly down the hall, stopping to lift his leg on someone else's door as he goes.

 

I shit you not.

 

This same dog has attacked Solo twice now as we were coming off the elevator (the owner's apartment is right in front of the elevator, which I use so Solo doesn't have to go up stairs with his bad hip) and I sport a really nice set of scars on my left leg from the last fight between them I got into the middle of. It was really awesome.

 

Solo has been very nervous in the hallways ever since this bulldog and two other problem dogs (or should I say problem owners) moved in on my floor. It's like a minefield of dumbass owners with belligerent off-leash dogs. I'm beginning to really hate living in this building. The best part is that every time it happens to us now it scares the living crap out of Jett which I'm sure is just great for her developing psyche.

 

Anway, that's my long winded way of saying I feel your pain.

[mbc1963]

Melanie, that sounds just AWFUL!

 

And Georgia... I was just thinking the other day how you don't really notice your dog's progress so much until suddenly you're walking down the road and the dog doesn't respond to the kid who zooms by on a bike, the man who steps out from behind a car, the flag that flaps in the breeze. And you can say to yourself, "Wow, he's come a long way!" It's a great feeling.

 

Mary

[soloagility]

Try walking out into the hallway of your apartment building.

 

 

This is so true. I find it stressful enough with one dog, I don't know how you manage 3 in a building!

 

I just moved into a new building, and there are 2 Jack Russels that are never on leash. They have absolutely no recall (surprise), and I recently saw them run across the street to start a fight with a GSD. Luckily, I haven't run into them with Solo yet, and Animal Control was very nice and helpful when I went to file a complaint yesterday.

[Jedismom]

It's a totally great feeling!

 

But reading Melanie's post, I can't help thinking about how I would feel if Jedi was attacked and all that he had accomplished went down the drain. I would feel alot of anger and resentment and I can't imagine having to see that dog and it's owner constantly after that. I think it would eat me up.

 

So Melanie, I feel your pain

 

I hope you can find a solution.

 

I read your cavedog blog. The pictures are beautiful and your research project is interesting. I couldn't find any results though. Has that not happened yet?

 

Georgia

[WyoBC]

Try walking out into the hallway of your apartment building. Mine is one of the very few in the neighborhood that allows dogs, more than one dog per apartment, and dogs over 20 pounds. Therefore, pretty much everyone in the apartment has a dog. Unfortunately, not everyone who has a dog is responsible.

 

Recently some new folks have moved in on my floor who think leashes are optional and that their dogs are friendly. They are mistaken about both things. One owner (these are multiple apartments' worth of dogs) has a bulldog that I recently discovered she allows to tease my dogs through my apartment door. I've known there was a dog snuffling around out there on a fairly regular basis but not known which one. So I'm coming home the other day and I hear Solo going apeshit as I'm going up the stairs -- and then I see this dumb bulldog growling at my door and scratching at it, no leash, no collar, while his owner is all the way at the other end of the hall fumbling with the keys to her apartment.

 

I said "Hey! Is this your dog?" And she just looks at me and calls her dog, which ambles slowly down the hall, stopping to lift his leg on someone else's door as he goes.

 

I shit you not.

 

This same dog has attacked Solo twice now as we were coming off the elevator (the owner's apartment is right in front of the elevator, which I use so Solo doesn't have to go up stairs with his bad hip) and I sport a really nice set of scars on my left leg from the last fight between them I got into the middle of. It was really awesome.

 

Solo has been very nervous in the hallways ever since this bulldog and two other problem dogs (or should I say problem owners) moved in on my floor. It's like a minefield of dumbass owners with belligerent off-leash dogs. I'm beginning to really hate living in this building. The best part is that every time it happens to us now it scares the living crap out of Jett which I'm sure is just great for her developing psyche.

 

Anway, that's my long winded way of saying I feel your pain.

 

 

I know this wasn't meant to be funny, but I have to admit it made me chuckle. I think it's because it's so true, and worded just about how I think.

[sweet_ceana]

It's like a minefield of dumbass owners with belligerent off-leash dogs.

What do you know, the rest of their families must live in my apt complex!

Poke has been attacked twice by a stubby looking brindle PB looking dog. Chris told the owner that he will kick the dog the next time he bites Poke. I have had to get in this dogs face since the incident with poor Poke and Ceana trying to hide behind me. (At least he will back off when I lean in and give a really mean NO)...and the genius can't understand why I don't want my dogs to play with hers. Poke now barks like mad when this dog comes anywhere near.. and rightfully so

The owners of the JRT above us let their dog stand up at our front window and bark like mad at my dogs causing Poke to decide that he must patrol the window to keep this little menace at bay. ** These are just the daily offenders- 1/2 the place have dogs with no recall not on leashes**

 

And then people look at me like I am crazy when Poke reacts...lol I am suprised i am not the one screaming/ barking (in Poke's case) at people and their dogs by now.

 

Oh and the best part was a woman took her toddler to play at the dog park (not the kid park because that might take a 2minute walk from her front door instead of 50 ft) and then she was annoyed that my dogs and I waited for 20min for her to get her kid out of the DOG park so the dogs could play. She is darn lucky it was me who was waiting and not the owners of the above mentioned. GHEESH I cannot wait to buy another house!

[KJ]

Oh no...I'm one of the dumbasses. I was afraid of that.

 

As the neighbors walk "the gauntlet" as it IS referred to, past my humble .38 acres situated on the corner, where the "good dogs" run free off lead on the other side of the fence, where the kiddies come yelling by on bikes, folks just tryin' to get a little exercise in, or get their mail...and there goes both my dogs barking at the top of their lungs. Curly will eventually stop but Shep continues the ear shattering show, and lunging etc. There is no recall when they get to this point. We are the yard that everyone hates to pass. And, I felt so great when my neighbor said, "IF that dog ever hurts one of my kids I will kill it" all the while smiling. That was a good day.

 

I am not "proud" of myself/the dogs for it being this way, but not all of us dumbasses have perfect situations. I bet some of the dumbasses don't even know they are so deemed as such...

 

****It really sucks that the uber-dumbasses (which I would not place myself in this catagory as my biter doesn't go anywhere, ever) would let their biting/aggressive dogs off lead. They need to be corrected.

 

So on behalf of the bad dogs and bad owners, we don't mean to be this way and we are really sorry and we're working on it!! (spoken with that sound of falling down a well)

 

Oh and I would love another house too

[airbear]

...These folks have their ENTIRE front lawn COVERED in giant life-sized bunnies! Enough to make most humans run let alone Jedi. Ok what to do...Let's go for it. Come..Come...good boy....

LOL! I thought my dogs were the only ones who think lawn ornaments are some sort of evil. Bear in particular has a problem with lawn jockeys, and Wick thinks garden gnomes are going to steal her soul or something. Lou is inordinately afraid of snowmen, and it's the only time I've seen him raise his hackles. Ah, the life of the condo collie ... never dull!