If you cannot control your dog, head to training classes immediately

The wild dog on the block that makes me appreciate mine more

Photo credit: Jordan Whitt/Unsplash

I genuinely don’t understand how pet owners let their dogs overrun them. There’s a lady at the end of my block who fits the description. Without fail, her dog leaps on her, yanks her around the yard, barks, growls, pulls on the leash and ignores everything she says. And with her dog’s behavior, it makes it that much harder for me to walk my own dog past the apartment she lives in. How do you demand that your own dog quietly (and quickly) walk by a dog who looks like she’s about to attack at any moment?

So far, I’ve pulled out treats and kept them in my hand until we passed that apartment. I’ve duckwalked with my dog to distract her from looking at the other dog. I’ve crossed into the grass and toward the street. But in order to get to my home, we have to walk past hers. (I still refuse to reverse my walk routine or cross the street because this pet owner cannot handle her own dog at her front door.) Oddly, this dog’s behavior is good practice for training my own dog to chill around leash-reactive dogs. While it’d be great if every dog was cool as a cucumber (there is a Doberman Pinscher in our area that is Smokey Robinson-level cool whenever I see him), realistically that’s not going to happen.

But I ran into a big problem this morning when this same lady was standing in front of my own condominium yard. Now where was I supposed to go? Once again, her dog was leaping, jumping, barking and lunging at everything. I squatted down to pet my (impressively) quiet dog, who just sat there and looked at the wild dog. (There was a time that my dog would’ve almost broken my wrist to lunge at that dog. I do not miss those days.)

I pointed in the direction she was standing and told her, “I’m going that way” to let her know which way to walk.

“Sigh, it’s going to take a while,” she said, with her dog jumping as high as her face.

I waited a couple of minutes, still squatting. Groggy. No coffee. Tired as hell. Not a morning person. Knowing my dog was on her best behavior but really has to pee. Meanwhile, this lady barely walked two concrete squares. I’d had enough.

“I’m not about to stand in front of my back door all day long because you can’t control your dog!” I finally snapped.

I reached both arms forward, and in one swoop, picked up my own dog and carried her past this lady still unable to walk her dog.

“Get over it,” she responded.

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Yep. My patience was long gone after that.