DOG knows I’ve had my share of crazy encounters with dogs, off-leash dogs and clueless dog owners. I’m beginning to wonder if it’s an epidemic or maybe I’ve become a magnet for dumb ass dog owners.
It was a week ago this past Sunday. I had given Sampson his afternoon walk, came back and swapped dogs. Delilah and I started out and I could tell right away, she was headed for the woods. Perfect, there’s nothing I like better than a walk in the woods.
The park was in sight when a Jeep came flying up the street and parked in front of the park’s entrance. Delilah and I stopped and I watched for a few seconds and sure enough I heard a dog. I figured it would be best to hang back, let the dog get into the park and then Delilah and I could follow, choosing a different path.
If only real life went the way it does in my head.
The woman climbs out of the Jeep, while the dog explodes out, pulling the woman towards the park. Then the dog sees Delilah and gets super excited. We were a good distance away, so I wasn’t too worried about it, but I thought it might be best if we head away from the park.
We took a right to head around the block and as we began walking up the hill I peeked over to see where the woman and her dog were.
The dog was dragging the woman after us.
I increased my pace. Stopped, turned around and looked. They were gaining on us.
Then I heard a yip. Apparently the woman sat her dog down. Hard.
Maybe, just maybe I could shake them off.
I started jogging. Now here’s the thing about me and jogging…it’s not something I typically do, I don’t really mind it, but my knees. My knees are freaking useless. And when I jog, Delilah thinks for some reason that she needs to jump along beside me. Sort of like Tigger.
So I’m jogging up the hill. Right. You read that right. I didn’t jog DOWN the hill, oh no. THAT would be too easy. No, no, I jogged UP the hill, with Tigger-Delilah jumping along beside me.
And while I’m running, all I can hear in my head, is “Run Forrest, Run.”
Except I can’t. Because my knees just don’t work. So after a long time of jogging, (about 30 seconds), I had to stop.
I looked behind me again and the woman and dog were still coming!
I started getting pissed off. For real pissed off. And I’m thinking of all the ways this scene can play out.
- The woman catches up to us, and Delilah goes all Cujo on that dog.
- The woman catches up to us and I go all Cujo on her ass.
- I see one of my neighbors outside, and hand them Delilah’s leash and say, “Can you hold my dog for a minute?” Then I stomp back to that woman and light her up like a grill in springtime.
- I bring Delilah home, get in my car and drive up to the park and pop that woman in her nose four or five times.
Siriusly, did she just compare me to Cujo?
Is it just me, or do things like this happen to you too?
I’ve had that happen many times. I’m actively trying to get out of the way and the DADO is actively trying to catch up. I eventually get grouchy, stop and sit my dogs, and let the ass pass. They get a nasty “my black dog is NOT friendly” snarl out of me and I get an ‘Oh, mine just wants to say hi, he’s so friendly……..’ If they continue to push it, they get what they get! Of course a 35 pound corgi is a lot easier to contain than a Lab!
I wonder about people sometimes.
You and me both, sometimes I just don’t know what people are thinking. Oh, my dog wants to say hi, so I’ll just chase this lady and her dog for 1/2 a mile…
“If only real life went the way it does in my head.” Ain’t that the truth!
It is not just you I lost count of the number of times things like this happened to me and BD. One of my favourites was when I very obviously crossed the road to get away from a man and his dog and they decided to cross the road to come and join us just as I was passing a parked car leaving BD and me trapped.
I think in the end I had no option but to turn tail and run
So what happened in the end?
Yes, thank you, Margaret. What happened?
Don’t leave us hanging, Jodi.
You have to love those dog owners that have so much control over their dogs.
No, doesn’t happen to us much around here. Would love a video of you and Tigger jogging up hill, though!
Thank goodness things like that don’t happen to me. But I know you’re not the only person it does happen to. Go back to your DADO Blog Hop, and you’ll see what I mean. Have a great day, my friend!
There should be such a thing as Dog Rage with stories of DADO having awful things happening to them from responsible but deranged dog owners.
I used to run into that a lot with my neighbour’s (very very dog unfriendly) beagle. People seemed to think that because he was small and calm-seeming, that I was, I don’t know… lying about his being not friendly. He would literally play bow and act friendly right up until another dog was within teeth distance, and he shredded another dog’s ear once because his owner got surprised by someone sneaking up on them. When I ask someone if their dog is friendly, and they start with, “ummm… well…”, I don’t let Gwynn meet them. If your response isn’t ‘hells yes!”, then it’s “No, we don’t want to meet you”, i don’t need to know that your dog only likes black german shepherds who were neutered in the past 6 months, or get grilled about whether my dog is old/young/male/female/fixed/etc. I really want to know the end of your story! Because I really can imagine you stalking back down the hill, snapping “SIT” (and the dog listens, because you’ve got boss-voice on), and then telling the woman exactly what’s what.
Hahahah! I snorted chai all over my screen with the image of ‘lighting that woman up like a grill in springtime.” What a vision! After I stopped laughing, my reaction became WHAT THE [fill in the blank] IS WRONG WITH SOME PEOPLE?! Sheesh. And for the record, trust me running downhill is much harder on the knees plus the ‘brakes’ don’t work. at. all. because of this thing called inertia. Glad you both survived. 😉
Some people! They just don’t have a clue. Hello – if someone is running away from you, you should stop chasing them. What a weirdo!
On the bright side, these things make for interesting blog writing and reading. 🙂
Naw, not just you. I think most of us have been there and here is my theory…responsible pet owners notice the not so responsible pet owners more than the average person because we just can’t believe they walk upright 😉
Sooo what happened????
Oh my goodness yes!! All.the.time!! Cocoa is super friendly. At the dog park. On her leash she is not. We are working on it. But I make sure she is controlled. We have been attacked by the Great Danes and had so many dogs run out at us that I do not blame Cocoa for being protective on her leash.
Soooo what happened???
I’ve had this happen way more times than I’d like to count. The most recent incident involved a woman with her off-leash dog (always right?) and I could hear her coming because she was cussing like a sailor and saying things like, “Buster HERE” “Buster COME” “Buster DONT YOU DARE” while jogging towards us. All I could think was – why they hell don’t you grab his collar and put his leash on?! He clearly was not staying with her as he kept bounding down the road towards us then running back to her. We quickened our pace, changed sides but had no where to go. I finally yelled at her, “MY DOGS ARE NOT FRIENDLY!!” Which isn’t entirely true, we busted off of the path just in the knick of time as they went on by but it didn’t stop the dog from coming to the trail entrance and watching us go.
Don’t you want to say, “Obviously Buster IS NOT coming, and yes he dares!
I hear you about saying your dogs aren’t friendly, I hate saying that about Delilah too, because I feel like I’m labeling her, but sometimes that seems to be the only thing that people understand.
Ugh. This has happened to me a lot! I feel like turning around and yelling, ‘Are you BLIND? Can you not see that I’m exhibiting all the universal signs of trying to flee?!” Like, I’m speeding up, I turned and went a different direction, I keep glancing back at you then picking up my speed. WtH??
I think you should write a non-fiction book called “How NOT To Be a Dumb-Asss Dog Owner”.
I don’t think it’s you, I think it’s where you live. There’s obviously a high population of DADO’s there. Maybe it’s time to move to NH? Not that we don’t have any here…it’s just quieter and there’s not as many out. 🙂
Ugh, that sucks! Sounds like our old neighborhood. My favorite thing about small dogs is that you can just pick them up and move on. People are dicks!
After 30 whole seconds of jogging, you and Cujo’s polar opposite must need a nap. Being a nut magnet can be exhausting….
It’s not just you. I was walking Merlin on the foreshore and i see a couple with their tiny dog so i move out of the way to let them pass. Oh no they drag their dog over to mine and this little dog growls at Merlin and they said something along the lines of “it’s always like that” but they on purpose dragged their reactive dog to mine when they knew it was like that.
I certainly have met my share of clueless dog owners. Because Shyla can be so fearful, I don’t let her meet dogs who appear like they might be overbearing or aggressive. However, I can attest that I have no stories as funny as yours. I’m sure it was terribly upsetting while it was happening but you turned it into a hilarious story.
That person truly was clueless… or, she had absolutely no control over her dog and was being dragged down the street. I’m guessing it ended okay because you’re telling the story in a funny way!
Sorry Jodi, I think it is just you. I love the run forrest run all I can see is my little stumpy tail forrest running.