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I just found this amazing blog post and it touched on so many great points with regard to the dangers you and your pet face while out in public.
“Picture this – it’s a lovely day, and you are relaxing at a local park, having a picnic with your family. A well-dressed lady you’ve never met before with a large smile on her face exits her car. She automatically lays eyes on your family and begins staring. Slowly, she moves toward you, speaking gibberish and making baby talk, googly eyes, and grabby hands. She begins touching your children, grabbing their cheeks. She grabs one by the face, moves her face to within inches of baby Tommy’s, staring directly into his eyes and smiling. She grabs your husband by the ears, sits on his lap, and firmly plants her lips on his mouth. She gives you a little squeeze on the rump, hugs you tightly, and scratches your 8 year old’s head. Nearby stands your 3 year old nephew, she quickly grabs his shoulders firmly and begins applying downward pressure, while saying, “SIT! SIT! SIT!”
What if she then spied your lovely new Coach purse on the picnic blanket and decided to throw it over her shoulder, cavalierly? “Oh, I really like this purse!” She then removed your keys, approached your car, and drove off with your credit cards.
OK, at what point during these events did you call the police? If anyone did this to you or your family, you would think they were socially defunct and may need to be removed from polite society. Would you, at any point in this interaction, have acted “aggressively” by telling her to go away? Would you have left the park? What would you have done if you asked her to go away and she continued to harass your family?
This story seems absurd, like something out of a hidden camera show. Sadly, this is not science fiction but an every day way-of-life for many dogs.”
How true is this? How many times have you been out and about with your pet and someone has walked up, unannounced, without saying a word, and treated your dog as if they’d been best friends their entire lives? Ideally, yes, if you have a dog out in public, your dog should be well-behaved and tolerant, and eager and happy to meet strangers. However, not every dog is this temperamentally sound.
Another excerpt from the blog post:
“For dogs, the rules seem to be:
Someone steps on your tail? Deal with it.
Stranger steals your favorite toy? Too bad, so sad!
Have arthritis and someone pushes down on your rear, causing intense pain? Deal with it.
Want to have a nice outing with your best friend without being disturbed by strangers? Tough.
Don’t like to be molested by strangers? Too bad, sit there and take it.
I guess the question must be: are dogs ever allowed to have opinions? Do we really expect them to welcome every type of social interaction, all the time, in any circumstance? Do we expect them to tolerate pain, social pressure, and molestation?”
I have to say, that a completely sound dog should tolerate these kinds of human transgressions with little more than a deep sigh and an eye roll or two.
Is this an excuse to allow humans to behave badly? Of course not! But please, bear in mind that there are people out there like this. There are folks who allow their children to run around willy-nilly and never teach them how to safely approach a new dog, and those children always seem to make a beeline for the most nervous dog at the park.
Ultimately, the onus to protect your pet is on you. We know some humans can be very rude and inconsiderate. And we also know that although we cannot control what those humans do, we can control our dogs.
If you know your dog has issues with strangers approaching, work with a qualified trainer and/or behaviorist to resolve the issue and always set your dog up for success. This means not taking your dog places where he is likely to run into a lot of people who may scare or upset him and it also means speaking up when someone is approaching your dog and you know Fido can’t handle it. You are your dog’s first line of defense, and he counts on your to keep him safe.
To read the full blog post from Dogster, click here