Rude Dogs part 2

Walking the dogs at Crissy Field on the weekends is akin to dealing with Sunday drivers. Everybody is out, walking their dogs, and it is apparent that many are dogs walking their people.

We first encountered a poodle on the-bane-of-my-existence flexi leash (this is a topic that needs its own post, but all flexis should be banned! I despise them almost as much as the "gentle" leader. Seriously folks, if you want to give your dog more freedom, train him so he is reliable off leash!). The poodle saw Roman and Tikka, and started whining and barking and pulling to the very end of the 20' lead to get to them. I walk my dogs at my side and they can only go ahead at my ok. I give the owner credit for asking if my dogs were friendly so her barking, whining dog could meet them. I told her they are not good on leash (not completely true, and she looked at me funny since they were calmly walking at my side, but I don't allow them to meet out of control dogs). As we continued, she continued to let the dog pull at the end of the flexi while telling little Charlie, "Oh, Charlie..." in a sing song voice.

Then, we encountered a husky in a harness dragging his owner towards us. The husky was giving my dogs direct eye contact and the owner was oblivious. Since I was on a bridge, I moved to the side to let them pass. But the owner kept coming directly towards us despite my warning, "why don't you pass?" The dog got within a few feet and my dogs did bark at him. I was angry at this point and didn't care. Roman barking is not for the faint of heart and finally the guy got the picture and pulled his dog away. Ugh. Why do people put harnesses on their dogs that are not trained?

As we continued our walk, off leash, down the beach, passing numerous dogs, when we met up with two large dogs (also off leash)...Tikka veered off to go behind me while these dogs charged Roman...I moved quickly, calling Roman, since these dogs barreled into him, growling...I did not correct him as he tried to follow me, but had to turn and growl with hackles as these dogs kept coming (not listening to their owner's wimpy command, 'oh, come on guys') at Roman, head on...They are lucky he has a long fuse. I got myself between the dogs and my dogs and they ran off.

Maybe this is why I spend more time at Ft. Funston, as much as I love Crissy. It just seems there are more dog savvy owners that frequent Ft. Fun.

I love Suzanne Clothier's article on this subject of rudeness!