Owners need to be in control
of their dogs
I was walking my two dogs the other day and could see across
the street a group of little children -- six or eight of them,
all about 4 or 5 years old -- with two moms and two large
golden Labradors.
Two of the children had the dogs' leashes.
My little Lhasa-poo got excited at the sight of the other dogs,
and apparently the Labs got a little excited, too.
When one Lab pulled on the leash to the point where the child
couldn't hold on, one of the moms said, "Let her go."
"Let her go?" I wondered. There was a car coming behind me, and
I was walking two dogs on leashes, and the Lab was coming
toward us, across the street. From the looks of things, I
figured there was going to be trouble.
The Lab wasn't terribly aggressive, but she did manage to
intimidate my 16-year-old cocker mutt onto his back in the
street within a couple of seconds -- not a common pose for my
old guy.
Meanwhile, the moms were calling the dog insistently to
come back, and the Lab finally went back to her "pack."
The car went by, my old cocker shook himself off, and we
continued to walk toward the group.
Meanwhile, the second dog got loose from the other
leash-holding little one. More commotion ensued while that dog
was grabbed by one of the moms.
When I got up closer to the group, I said, "Forgive me for
saying so, but little children shouldn't be holding the leashes
of dogs they clearly can't control."
Mom No. 1 said, "I'm sorry this happened to you." Then she said
something about the children being told to drop the leashes so
they don't get dragged out into the street.
"So they're not in control of the dogs," I said.
"They're fine," she said. "We do this every day ..."
"Well, that's even worse." I said, clearly not making any
headway.
"Look, I'm sorry this happened to you," she said again.
"I'm not looking for an apology," I said.
"Well, we're not looking for a fight in front of the children,"
Mom No. 2 said.
She was right. I should have taken one of the moms aside
and spoken to her privately, but I didn't, and for that I'm
sorry.
Instead, we had a little tiff there in front of the kids on a
neighborhood street.
So let me continue the conversation here.
I didn't need or want an apology for what happened. What I was
looking for was realization that what they were doing was
careless, dangerous and, in fact, illegal.
A caretaker/owner of a dog should be in control of said dog
when the dog is out in public. Period. If the dog is not under
your control, and you've given that control to a 5-year-old,
you are clearly putting the dog, the child and the public at
risk.
Even if the dog "never" gets away or "never" is aggressive.
Take it from someone who has made many mistakes with her own
dogs in the past.
Take my German shepherd, Hassid, who died about 10 years ago.
He was as docile as a baby. But he was intimidating by virtue
of his size alone.
One day, my latch-key kid, Kris, came home from school and
thought he'd take Hassid out to the front yard to have him do
some tricks for the neighborhood kids. I got the report when I
got home from work that Hassid had bitten one of the children.
How did it happen? Kris said this young boy raised his arms in
fear when he saw how big Hassid was, and maybe Hassid thought
the boy was going to hit him, so Hassid bit him first. Who
knows? My docile shepherd suddenly became aggressive and bit
the boy on his thigh, drew blood and probably terrified him for
life.
Inexcusable. And, since Hassid was normally so docile,
completely unexpected.
And take my adorable little Lhasa-poo, Sammy. He's the cutest,
sweetest, most affectionate little thing ever. But one day
after I took him to the groomer to have his big, burly winter
coat shaved off, we went for a walk in the park, and his collar
was looser because there was so little fur around his neck.
Sammy slipped out of his collar while we were near the
children's play area, and realizing he was free, feeling naked
and full of himself, he ran up to a group of kids and bit one
of them. Didn't break the skin, thank goodness -- it was more a
playful nip than a big bite -- but it still frightened the
child. I apologized profusely and was greatly relieved to see
the little boy wasn't physically hurt. But a fear of dogs --
even cute little cuddly ones -- might linger in his mind for a
long, long time, and that's really unfortunate.
All I'm saying is that things happen that we may never expect
from our dogs. They happen a lot less frequently if we are in
control of them at all times when we're out in public.
Both of those Labs got away from the children while I watched.
There were cars going by on the street. It's not OK to expect
the children to hold on to them, and it's certainly not OK to
let the dogs run out in the street where they might get run
over.
Watching a dog they love be hit by a car would be a lot more
traumatic for those children than hearing a few tense words
from a neighborhood lady.
Please, moms, don't continue this risky, and illegal,
practice. Hold on to the dogs yourselves, or take them for a
walk later.
This column was written by Roshana Ariel, Assistant
Editor at the Salina Journal, and first appeared in the Journal
on July 15, 2008.
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