If you’re a long time reader of this blog, you’ve definitely read of some of my encounters with what I call DADA’s (Dumb Ass Dog Owners).

Dumb Ass Dog Owner (Jodipedia definition) Dog owners who are oblivious to the fact that not all dogs are friendly or able to be trusted off-leash.

Quite truthfully I sometimes feel like I’m smack dab in the capital city of DADA. A quick look at Google Earth confirmed this sad fact of my life.

Oh shit.

After many unsettling encounters I begin to wonder…maybe it’s not them, maybe it’s me.

Tell me what you think.

I’m walking the dogs in the woods this past Saturday. They were both on leash and our walk was going along as uneventfully as it possibly could with the two dingo’s. Right as we hit the apex of one of the trails, I heard someone behind me speak. Then I heard her speak a bit more loudly, “Sara!”

I looked behind me and sure enough there was a young woman leashing her dog up. Thankfully neither Frick or Frack heard the woman so they continued along like the status was quo.

At this point we I had two choices. Continue on the main path towards the park exit, or take the alternate route which is a bit more challenging. Typically I stay away from this route this time of year, because the pitch down is very steep and it’s covered with dry leaves, which can be pretty slippery, especially with two of the dogs from Eight Below pulling you.

I chose to go with the more challenging route thinking the other person would take the main path out.

I was wrong.

The young woman and her dog continued toward us. Now mind you, I keep looking behind me and urging my dogs to ‘hustle’ and I’m generally not quiet about it. So I turned around as woman was at the mouth of the path and said, “Are you following me?”

The girl said, “What?”

I said a bit more loudly, “Are you following us onto this path?”

She replied, “Yes, this is the path we are taking.”

I said, “Well then we have to get out of here, because THEY’RE NOT GOOD WITH OTHER DOGS.” (This isn’t entirely true, because most times they are very good with dogs, but they are so excited to see them that they get out of control.) But let a dog come up behind us or try and pass us unexpectedly, well that could definitely be T.R.O.U.B.L.E.

Now the mouth of the path is about 30 to 50 feet away from us and the way Is see it, I have two choices. I can try and wrestle the dogs past her or I can try and wrestle them off through an uncut area of the woods that is filled with debris.

Well I’m not wrestling them past her, so I start heading OFF the path through the debris filled woods.

The blue arrow indicates the path we WERE on. The picture is taken from the path we ended up on.

Now that the woman and I have had a verbal exchange the dogs are engaged and know there is another dog. So I’m practically dragging my dogs through this wooded obstacle course and what do you suppose the young woman does?

She keeps walking down the path with her dog, at one point probably getting to about 15 feet away from us.

I’m pissed now, because 1) I totally forget how to handle my dogs when I’m caught off guard and 2) I feel like she could have given me some room to at least get the dogs far enough off the path so I could safely handle them.

I finally get the dogs onto the main path and we are now walking parallel with each other, although she is considerably farther away from me than she was.

Of course I’m mumbling under my breath, because I’m still pissed and I see her shooting me dirty looks.

The blue arrow indicates the path she ended up taking.

And since this isn’t the first time I’ve felt uncomfortable with dog/owner encounters, now I’m wondering…maybe it’s me. Do I expect too much from other dog owners? How do you educate people without coming across sounding like a bitch?

Welcome to Thursday’s Barks and Bytes Blog hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog. We hope you will grab a badge from one of our websites and join us.

First I want to apologize for everyone who tried to hook up to Barks and Bytes blog hop last week. Apparently Mr. Linky’s server decided to upgrade some things and the result was it brought the whole linky system down. Linda told me that the broken code was slowing her site down, so I just completely removed it from my site too. Hopefully this week it goes without a hitch.

So what’s up with the title of that blog post?

Well sometimes you just need a little help to get your shit together.

Now I don’t know about you, but I need to write things down. Lists are very important to me, and help keep me on task. The trouble is I’ve gotten away from writing lists and I feel like my life is sometimes spiraling out of control.

I have SO much to do, but don’t accomplish nearly as much as I should/could. Without a list I find myself mindlessly wasting time on Facebook, or checking my e-mail 500 times a day.

This dilemma is not just in my personal life, but in my blogging life as well. Sometimes I feel like I have nothing left to say, and then suddenly I remember four topics that I’ve been wanting to write about for quite some time.

Last year I was super excited to make an Editorial Calendar/Scheduler for my blog. I took ideas from two or three different people with their own schedulers, and I made my own.

It had everything I wanted in it. A 30-day calendar for each month, a page in the front of each month for notes, and a page for each week of the month. I printed it off on nice paper, then I went to Staples and purchased some dividers and placed them in front of each month. Then I paid Staples to have them bind it. All told it cost me about $20.

Initially I used it diligently, and then after a time it was too heavy, and too bulky. (I stopped using it. And now, well let’s just say I’m not even sure where it is. 🙁

Here, look at this picture of the beautiful sunset I took, while I go look for the planner.

Thanks for waiting, I found it in a cabinet in my room. But it’s still too awkward for me to use.

I have the editorial plug in installed on the blog, but it’s not the same as writing it down. Despite all the conveniences of smart phones, and calendar schedulers, I still like the feel of good old fashioned paper.

SO this year I’m planning my new planner. It will probably only have three pages for each month. A calendar page, and maybe a couple of notes pages.

Any post ideas I haven’t implemented from the old scheduler will be moved to the new. At the end of each month I’ll go back and check my list and move anything I haven’t written about into the next month.

I can also schedule any special blog hops or important dates that I want to post on into the planner and make adjustments as needed.

Do you use a planner? Are you of the electronic or paper kind?

This is the Thursday Barks and Bytes Blog Hop hosted by 2 Brown Dawgs and Heart Like a Dog. Grab the badge and the linky code and join us! Please only link up blog posts and as a courtesy to the other hoppers, please add the linky to your post and/or link back to the hosts’ blogs.