Dog
Owners
I’m
angry – more than angry! No, I’m not angry at dogs, just owners. Where do they
get the idea to teach such behavior to their dogs to frighten people walking
down the lane or the sidewalk into such action as was done to that bull mastiff
the other day?
No,
I don’t think it is right to do what these young people did to that big
beautiful beast that was in the news the other day. I would rather have seen
them attack the owner for his ignorant attitude towards the general public. The
community at large would have been much better served had they attacked him
instead. Mind you weaponry like knives are not acceptable either. But still he
deserved no less than a good punch in the nose himself.
At
first I thought the dog was that one on Richardson Avenue near McPhillips
Street, right behind the tire shop. I
have to park my car there in order to get to the dentist around the corner right
on McPhillips. The man there has a nice home with statues of several mastiffs on
the front steps. He also has a live adult dog and a young pup in the yard. It
is certainly obvious how proud he is of his animals.
His
front iron fence butts right up against the public sidewalk, and is of
reasonable height. When we go to walk past and the dog begins to bark, jumping
up against the fence. Ordinarily that wouldn’t be much of a problem, but the
size of this brute jumping up against the fence would make it easy for him/her
to jump right over and attack whoever walks by, what with all the noisy
barking.
The
Missus, she’s afraid of dogs to start with, so as soon as the barking starts,
she’s across the boulevard and on the street behind some bushes. Well that
would be fine except she’s old too and her balance is none too good. Had I
known she was going to do that, I might have followed just to make sure she
didn’t fall; a mistake on my part. The thing is, I have no fear of dogs, no
matter how big, I kept walking (with one eye on the dog’s big jumps at the
fence) with my hand ready to smack him in the snout with the back of my hand in
the event he jumped over it. No dog has ever got the best of me (well, maybe one,
but that’s it).
Walking
back to the car after my dental appointment, the dogs and the owner were
nowhere to be seen so we got there quietly enough. But all the while I was
thinking that the owner decided that he also owns the sidewalk and the boulevard
because nobody can walk there with that blasted barking dog. As far as I know
this is property owned by the city, not the home owner.
Well
the point of this whole story is that we are taking the wrong perspective on
banning certain types of dogs. They are not the problem. The owners are the
problem. The SPCA and/or the city should force people buying or breeding big
dogs of this nature to become competent in behavioral training of the animal
and to give certified evidence of it before being able to have such a dog. Mind
you, there are lots of good dog owners. We meet them all the time in the parks.
One
day we came across a Great Pyrenees sitting on the trail we walk. His owner was
pulling on the leash to get him to move. Nothing doing, he wouldn’t budge. As
we walked by he began wagging his tail and we asked if we could pet him. “Yes,
please”, answered the owner. He just wants to greet everybody and say
hello.” We left after patting him and he
waited for the next people to arrive.
Another
time a man was walking his enormous Pit Bull. As we approached the dog laid
down, facing us. His tail (or really his bum) was wagging furiously as he lay
on the ground. “May we pet him?” I asked. “Oh yes” said the man, “He just wants
to be friends.” Then there was the time that a big pit bull decided he wanted
to sit on my lap and lick my face.
So
there are a lot of good dog owners out there who understand the nature of
animals. And I also understand the need for guard dogs in various places to
protect property from being damaged and stolen. Usually these are not
residences in the cities. They are businesses or farms needing to protect
property. No, these people I mentioned here have no regard for their animals at
all. The animals are nothing more than a status symbol to show off and to
satisfy their own ego; a total disrespect to the animal. These are the very
people who need an attitude shift.
My
proposal is this: If there is a complaint about such a dog as described here,
that dog should be removed from the home into a training facility at the
owner’s expense. The owner can then attend the retraining of the dog’s attitude
and gain knowledge of what he must do. In other words, it’s training of the dog
and the owner. Once this is done the training facility can issue a certificate
of competency and the dog returned to its owner. Otherwise it remains at the
facility to be sold to an agreeable new owner.
As
far as I’m concerned, it’s time to put some teeth into dog laws and I intend to
pursue this to its end.
