Friday, August 14, 2015

Dog Days


Can you even believe that it is THAT TIME OF THE MONTH again? As in, time for the link up that Holly from HoHoRuns and I host every 3rd Saturday of the month? This is a monthly opportunity to clear the air. To get it off your chest. Believe me, I have a ton of potential posts brewing. So many annoyances, so little time, right?



But today, this post is going to the dogs. Specifically, dog owners. And not all dog owners, but those irresponsible ones. You know them, I know them, and if you're one of them, you know it. I've got a few pet peeves (pun intended). Yep, I've got a bone to pick with you..

I've talked about that guy who lets his dog poop in other people's yards. There are actually a few people in my neighborhood who do that. One time I was out in the front yard when a guy stopped to let his dog poop. He didn't have a bag, just looked at me, said, "sorry", and walked on by. Seriously? As if that's ok?


But there's that one guy who leaves his poop bags on the curb in front of my house. Why? I don't know. Does he think that the garbage man is going to pick them up? (he doesn't) And then there was the day Mr Poop Bag was shoving his poop bag into the sewer in front of my house. I was heading out for a bike ride when I saw it. I couldn't help myself. I yelled at him. And yet, I still see him walking past my house, dropping poop bags all over the neighborhood. Someone told me he's not right. Clearly.


Dog poop seems to be a big problem for dog owners. When I'm out running on the paths in the forest preserve, there seems to be a lot of poop on the path. The park districts and forest preserve have installed poop bag dispensers but people still leave the poop on the path. Listen people, if you can't handle the poop, you shouldn't have a dog.


What about those owners who leave their dogs out in the yard for hours, and the dog barks incessantly? One of my neighbors has a beagle, and he bays. It's horrible. Have you ever heard that sound? My sister had a run in with her neighbor recently over a barking dog. She was sitting outside on her deck and the neighbor's 2 little dogs were yipping for about an hour. She finally went over to their house and said something to them. I wonder if they even realized it? I never leave my dog out once she starts barking because I'm afraid of someone throwing a poisoned steak over the fence. I've heard of that happening.

Quite often when I'm running on the paths, I encounter dogs that are running off leash. This means I have to stop and walk or the dogs come after me. "Oh, he won't hurt you," the owners tell me. Really? How am I supposed to know that? We have leash laws here, which I am not shy about reminding people.


When a dog comes bounding after me, I assume the worst. What if the dog bit me? I see a lot of dogs being walked when I'm out on the run, and even on leash, the owners often have a hard time controlling them. There's one dog who lunges at cars. His owner isn't a big man, and I've seen the dog pull him down, trying to chase a car. Often, I get barked at and growled at. One time, years ago, I was running, and a dog (who was actually on leash) pulled away from his owner and jumped on me as I ran by. I didn't get hurt, but it scared the heck out of me. The owner didn't say a word. A few weeks ago, one of my neighbors was out walking his new dog (also on leash) and he lunged at me. My neighbor just laughed, and said, "he's a puppy!"

Yes, an 80 pound pit bull puppy. Now when I mentioned this before, a reader commented that I should blame the owner, not the breed. And I agree with that, but you have to admit that pit bulls are a little bit more intimidating than say, a shih tzu. Pit bulls don't have the best reputation, and if I come upon one I'm going to be a little more scared than I would with a smaller dog. I've worked in the ER, and I've taken care of countless little ones who were bitten by the family dog. Mostly little dogs, but I took care of a little girl who had her scalp ripped off by her mother's boyfriend's pit bull. Devastating. But any dog will bite. I had a cocker spaniel (not my sweet Cleo) who bit a friend's son when he stuck his hand in her mouth. I felt terrible about it, and apologized, but I lost a friend over that incident. Last week, my mom's friend brought her new golden retriever puppy to their house. He's big now, and he was so excited, he lunged at her and knocked my mom flat on her back. She didn't get hurt, but she was really shaken by the whole thing.


Please don't hate on me for this post. I just want everyone to be a responsible dog owner. I love dogs. I have lived with dogs my whole life. As much as they are part of our families, we have to remember that dogs are animals, with animal instincts. Dogs are natural hunters, and they have the instinct to chase. Even the best behaved dog will act like a dog at times.

Do you encounter dogs when you are out for a run? Off leash? Ever had a "bad" encounter with a dog? 

Thanks for linking up, and don't forget to visit and comment on some of the other blog posts! Remember, sharing is caring!

28 comments :

  1. I am a dog owner who picks up after her dog, doesn't leave her outside and keeps her on a leash. I got bitten by a "friendly" dog just walking by -- it just lunged and bit me for no reason - so I am more cautious than I used to be. As for dogs off leash, since my dog is not great around other dogs it really stresses me out when an off-leash dog comes up to us, especially when the owner isn't in sight. My dog usually freezes while they sniff her, but there's only so much she will tolerate and I can't keep two dogs apart when it's just me!

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    1. My dog does the same thing! I really believe that she doesn't think she's a dog.

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  2. I love dogs too, I wish I had a couple! I think Paul and I would have so much fun taking them out on hikes and just loving on them. Normally, the dogs in my neighborhood are either leashed, or they are so well behaved that they do not run out of their own yard. A recent scary incident was this past winter when I got up extra early to run and I encountered a dog on the street. The dog was friendly, but I had no clue who it belonged too. It was so dark and early out that I was scared maybe the dog had been out all night alone and got mixed up and didn't know where his house was. I just could not let the dog alone. Luckily after about 5 min of not knowing what to do, I heard shouting in the distance. It was quiet, but we followed the sounds of the shouting and found the dog's owner. He was a puppy who got excited and ran off during a middle of the night trip to the bathroom. I was very relieved!

    The dog incidents in which I am scared for my own safety all happen when I am running out in the "country" near the town I grew up in. I've had dogs who weren't leashed run after me very aggressively. I can remember a few scary incidents and my dad has some stories to tell from his cycling days!

    I am never upset at the dogs though. Like you said, dogs are ANIMALS. We can't expect them to do something they are not. But we should be able to expect dog owners to follow the proper laws and precautions. Unfortunately, there are a lot of inconsiderate people in this world, and some of them are dog owners

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    1. Great thoughts! As a dog owner and dog lover, I try to be responsible.

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  3. Well doggone Wendy that was a good post! lol I use to do my long runs around my house, which is out in the county, not many laws as far as dogs go, which is good my dogs run free out there too. I ran by this house and a boxer type and a small dog came running after me. It really scared me I was going as fast as I could with a stick (little limb) swishing behind me as they were on my heels. I finally realized I had a water bottle and squirted it at them and low and behold you would have thought it was fire! Away they went lol. But it did scare me!

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    1. Oooh, the squirt bottle sounds like a good idea! I love dogs, but not when I don't know them....

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  4. I am totally with you on this one. I kind of think we've had this conversation before. :) The one where I had the guy drive back to tell me not to let my dogs do their business on his lawn. Hello, mister, it ain't illegal & I'm the dog owner you want to have because I'm fastidious about picking up after them and not letting them pee on plants, etc. They actually hadn't done anything on their lawn, either. I've even been known to once in a while pick up poop that isn't even from my dogs if they just happen to go in that spot.

    And it irks me no end to see the poop all over the bike path where I run. And yes, I often see full poop bags in the neighborhood, which annoys me too.

    I've known very sweet pit bulls and very frightening pit bulls. And I've definitely had some vet techs afraid of my dogs, saying chis are the worse -- which again, they can be, but I have very sweet chis.Because I worked hard to train them & socialize them.

    And then the barking dogs . . . next door to us is a state trooper. He's a k9 officer. He's a really nice guy. His dog is a german shepard and he never barked when he first got him and now the damn dog barks at EVERYTHING. It's not terrible, but it is annoying. I swear he's worse than my dogs, probably because I almost always go out with my dogs because they just seem to get into something they shouldn't if I just leave them out there by themselves.

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  5. So crazy! I just don't understand lazy and irresponsible dog owners. Why don't people pick up their dog's poop?! That is so disgusting. I mean it seriously doesn't make sense why you would walk a dog and not have any poop bags with you. I used to hate when I would see owners not pick up after their dogs and i was not afraid to scold them either.

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    1. I see it all the time, so I guess people don't think anything of it...

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  6. I don't encounter many of these difficulties, thank goodness. Restrained/fenced in dogs barking from their own yards don't bother me much, or leashed dogs, but free running dogs are uncommon around here. They frighten me. Like you, I love dogs, but if it's roaming free you just don't know what can happen.
    Only once I was attached, walking with my husband. The owner was just standing in his yard watching the whole things! Tony yelled at him, "Call off your dog!" The idiot dog owner looked at us like we were crazy. The dog was not friendly. I was terrified.

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    1. Oh, yes, and beagles? We had one living across the street, an indoor dog, but the poor little think was left alone almost all the time. He bayed from early in the morning until midnight. It was horrendous. I didn't blame him, but the crazy moronic owner. They finally moved.

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    2. Poor pup! Why have a dog if you're going to leave them outside?

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  7. I'n terrified of most dogs. When I was 12 years old, I was staying at friend's house whose dad was a policeman with a K9 dog. My friend went upstairs to get somethin and the dog came to the top of the basement steps. He started barking at me and then flew down the stairs. I screamed and her dad came running, yelling at me to curl up in a ball. Nothing happened bad, thankfully but that sealed the deal for me. It depends on the breed but for the most part, I avoid all dogs.

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    1. I really do love dogs, but I wish people had better control over some of them!

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  8. We're thankfully not on the sidewalk side of our street so don't have to worry about poop in our yard. The hubs would go nuts with dogs pooping on HIS grass!! I have two small dogs and am very mindful when walking them. I've had a large dog's mouth on my behind. He didn't follow through. Whew! The owner was just standing in the yard. People can just be so insensitive about everything.

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  9. ugh....the worst are the little 3 pound dogs that yelp and their owners don't contain them..... if your little 3 pound dog comes running after me, I'm sorry but I am going to kick it away!

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  10. As an owner of two dogs, I'm with you on this one. As a dog owner it's your responsibility to not be a jerk and make sure your dogs behave. And to pick up after them, especially if they go in someone else's yard. And having a dog off leash when it's not on your property is not just irresponsible, it's illegal. I just don't get some people...

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    1. My dog is the queen of the castle, but we do have expectations for her behavior!

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  11. Knock wood, my neighbors are great. When I venture out of the neighborhood I'm in the land of invisible fences...until I'm not. On my new (sinkhole) route, a large dog raced right out and waitied for me in the middle of the street. Needless to say I turned around and walked for awhile. The most dog attacks in a single run goes to the time I ran in Key West. 3 buggers chased me. It was ridiculous. I agree with you though: many bad dog owners out there.

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  12. Gosh, I have a story. I was out running (not in the best area of town, none the less), and a German Shepherd came charging at me. He was barking at me like I was his soon-to-be dinner. I immediately stopped, and did my best to act calm. The owner (from the safe confines of her living room window) assured me "he won't bite you." Seriously? The husband came outside, and tried calling the dog back to the porch, but the dog kept barking at me and following me. I had to walk almost an entire block away before the dog finally retreated back to its home. I probably should have filed a report, but I didn't. Apparently common sense is not so common, and dog leashes are not utilized by every dog owner. #rantover

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  13. I do not understand these dog owners. Seriously. Oh, and I am a cat owner. :-)

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    1. Oh, and what I meant by the above comment is that I am referring to what you wrote about in this post.

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