The Stoopid 1/14/08

The ill-tempered man was walking his two little dogs around the abandoned school. I am supposed to believe that they were both on lead at the time of this incident. To me from the distance, one looked like it was on lead. The other I couldn't tell except to say that if it was on a lead, it must have been one of those horrible retractable things.

(F.Y.I. This particular abandoned school borders on some woods. Many people run their dogs there. This is common and acceptable behavior among the townsfolk. The cops don't care. Actually, the cops here don't care about much but that is another story in and of itself, having had several examples of their laissez-faire in my own life.)

My dog and her doggie friend the daemon dawg (mother-in-law's little terrier terror who genuinely loves me cuz I take her running several times a week) tore off to meet the cute little dogs. The foul, petty, little man was afraid of my dog (mid-size) and the daemon dawg (small).

He was yelling at me as I and my cane came up the side of the school building. Normally when meeting other dogs at the abandoned school, there is a quick "Is your dog friendly?" followed by a bit of pointing and the words, "Very friendly. Fixed." My dog is so friendly that dogs that usually fight other dogs don't fight with her. (The last dog did not care for his butt getting sniffed and that led to some rather uncomfortable and intricate situations).

man: "There is a dog law around these parts."
me: "The dogs are under my voice control."
man: (Trying to hit the smaller dog with his plastic shovel and not succeeding) "Some control."
me: (My dog went and sat on the curb. The daemon dawg who was the object of the attempted murder sensibly backed away from the dickless man and sat next to my dog.) "Mister, I am not in the mood to argue with you."
man: (the daemon dawg now a safe distance away from the man barked at him exactly three times) "Some control..blah blah blah..."

The dogs both ran back to me then and so we continued in a direction away from the disturbed man who should be locked up in the state mental place. In my unasked for opinion, he was afraid of all dogs except for his. I did not indicate anything further to the man who appeared to be looking for an argument for whatever reason which I could not ascertain.

The dogs were under my voice control. Just that my voice didn't tell them to do anything. They both handled themselves very well. and I was proud of the daemon dawg in particular who in times past would not have handled herself so well. Seriously though, I have been able to call my dogs (the one I own now and several others) off of a deer in the woods. That is pretty good voice control.

I do understand that technically my dog and the daemon dawg should not have run off to meet two potential doggie friends. Technically, he was correct. I know this. I can even accept this although I don't like it. I also understand that swinging at a small dog with a plastic shovel makes one look idiotic. I cannot say that a defense of "It's against the dog laws to attempt to hit a dog" would hold any weight since the jerky man could claim he was afraid of nine whole pounds of dog flesh. But I digress. And any reasons behind his bad behavior is not my business. And his bad behavior does not excuse my bad behavior. I chose not to argue with him because he was a troll of the f2f variety.

So I have plans. I am going to locate the whistle I have somewheres around here-- it is very shrill being one of them rescue-me type whistles for when one is lost in the woods-- and do a bit of training with both dogs in the fenced-in area there which used to be a ball field. I am going to teach them to come back at the sound of the whistle. Yup, sounds like a great plan. The dogs love training and I love doing it. Using the whistle will save on my voice which is rather soft even when projected. And that could also be useful in the woods as well.

spike