Boundaries

I love my dog. Further to that, I love most dogs. However, my dog doesn't always love other dogs, and conversely, other dogs don't always love my dog.

As a somewhat fitness-conscious dog owner, I often try to avoid the lazy option of simply letting my dog out in the yard by taking him on long walks around the neighborhood instead. I happen to live on a relatively dog-populated street, as evidenced by the fact that every time my little buddy and I go for a walk, we experience at least 3 or 4 doggie encounters. Sometimes these go well, but other times, my dog will start barking like crazy and lunging towards the other dog, or vice versa, causing a situation that's uncomfortable bordering on potentially dangerous for the smaller dog at hand (usually mine).

When I can tell that my dog isn't going to get along well with the dog up ahead on the street, I do what I'd like to think is the smart thing: I hold him firmly by the leash, stop him from running down the block, and embark on an alternate route to avoid an unpleasant encounter.

Unfortunately, not all dog owners are smart enough to employ this type of thinking.

Case in point: just yesterday, I was walking my dog back towards our house when we saw a rather large member of the canine family coming towards us up the block. The dogs began barking aggressively at one another from afar, but at this point, a change in course was not an option for us as we were pretty much in front of my house.

As I fumbled for my keys and struggled to hold my dog in place as the much bigger fellow approached, I tried making eye contact with the owner as if to say "Hey, could you be a pal and maybe take your giant of a dog over to the other side of the street? Normally I'd move my guy out of the way, but clearly, I live here, and even more clearly, your dog looks like he's about to make my dog his dinner." Instead, all that owner could come up with was a futile tug at the leash as his dog came charging towards me and my fourteen pound companion.

I'll admit that I got kind of pissed. As the guy struggled to calm his dog down, I scooped my little guy up off of the sidewalk and held him so that this barking beast couldn't touch him. Now keep in mind that if it weren't for the fact that he was trying to rip my doggie to shreds, I would've actually found the monster dog to be quite wonderful. After all, I love big dogs; what I don't love is idiot owners who don't have the common sense to move their big dogs to the other side of the street so that an owner and her little dog can safely enter their house without getting clobbered.

In the end, the guy managed to control his dog long enough to remove him from my lawn and eventually make their way down the street and away from my home. Still, throughout the encounter, the guy said nothing. No "sorry 'bout that," no "don't worry, he won't bite." Nothing.

You'd think that someone with a dog the size of a motorbike would be a bit more considerate when it comes to dog-related boundaries. But you know what they say about thinking...if you're the only one doing it, then it really doesn't help.