re: Why dog owners are the absolute worst
March 21, 2024
Okay let me start this off by saying, obviously not all dog owners are bad. However, there are a good amount out there that just need to be more aware of their children’s behavior/activities.
We have a middle aged Boxer, name Tahoe - he is my first child and I will cry for days when he dies. There’s this joke that Tahoe attended military bootcamp because he is so well behaved. He sits, lies down, doesn’t go on furniture, comes when called, and doesn’t eat until he’s allowed. Although we are very hard and strict with Tahoe, in turn he is a well behaved, enjoyable, not annoying dog to be around.
But with that being said, Tahoe’s most annoying feature is that he always wants to play. Whether it’s fetch, or tug-o-war he’s all about it. So sorry to our dear guests who just want to visit and relax without getting their shoulder thrown out from Tahoe racketing back and forth with full force.
Now of course he has other flaws, but one of his flaws is a perfect reason as to why other dog owners can be the absolute worst sometimes.
When Tahoe was a little pupper, (pre ball cutting) he was just a joyous, energetic, young pup - not a care in the world. But as he approached 8 months and was on his way to puberty, other male doggos didn’t like playing with him anymore. Tahoe would approach dogs and they would start growling, or get testy around him. Because of the outward aggression of other dogs, we decided (with the recommendation from our vet) to get him neutered a bit earlier (around 10.5 months). The only problem, they could only find 1 ball.
A few x-rays, ultrasounds, and a couple hundred in the hole later, the 2nd ball was located and turns out - it was in his abdomen. Poor baby, other ball got stuck in there! Anyway, because of this little complication, his neutering would be a minor/major surgery where they would open his abdomen to remove his other ball. We were told that post neutering, other dogs would likely stop their outward aggression and everyone would be happy.
The only problem? That didn’t really happen. (My theory on this is that they didn’t get the full ball, but that’s neither here nor there) Although the outward aggression got a little better, a new phenomena was happening - dogs would greet him with the sniff, then lick, then a lot of licking, and then likely try to mount Tahoe. And as you might imagine, Tahoe doesn’t love this behavior.Thankfully for us, Tahoe has never been a humper so we were never in that awkward position of having the humping dog, but we were in the position where our pup was suddenly the “aggressive one.” As dogs would get fixated on Tahoe, he would have an outburst and bear his teeth. He never once bit a dog, or caused any cuts, but that was his way of saying “back the F off!”
We began to dread busy, popular dog parks, where Tahoe would be targeted because dogs would fixate on him. And, nothing puts a damper on your cheery, dog-park chatting like your dog getting in a tussle and looking like the aggressor. So we stopped going to dog parks. We would limit dogs he interacted with, trying to keep it to females, and dogs he had met before. And for those of you wondering, it’s not a matter of Tahoe being more socialized. We made a very pointed effort to take Tahoe to puppy socials from when he was 8 weeks old, he loves other dogs - running and romping. He just doesn’t love being humped.
Anyway - fast forward a few years and we were slowly seeing the decline in dog aggression, but keep in mind we steer very far and clear of dog parks or any areas where there might be a lot of dogs - think… no Dolores Park, no Ocean Beach on the weekend, etc.
It’s gotten to a point these days where we can pretty much look at a dog and know if they’ll be a problem or not. Because we can often identify this, we make a point to keep Tahoe close to us on his leash when passing by and you know what the worst part is? The stupid dog owners let their dogs pull them over to us and sniff and then… surprise surprise, a tussle on leash….
Why people, why must you do that? There is a reason my dog is on a leash and close by my side. You wouldn’t let your child just run up on strangers, so why do you let your dog run up on other dogs? It’s not fun! And while we’re on it… if your dog struggles with recall, do NOT bring them to a highly populated area and let them off leash.
We were at the beach the other day when a little puppy ran straight into this cute ass, sunset picnic these folks were enjoying. The puppy although cute, got sand on everything and spilled some beers, not cute. And the owner was like “sorry…” *shrug*. I would’ve been like “ummm, are you going to pay for all the food your dog just destroyed…”?
And even more, can I tell you how stupid you look with your dog pulling you down the street? I wasn’t aware your dog owned you. Teaching your pup to heel, and be a good walker is a good thing. You don’t have to be “mean” when you do it. Providing your dog rules and structure actually enhances their life and in return people love to be around them, and it’s not a hassle for other folks to watch your pup because you don’t need to worry about them being poorly behaved.
No one ever said “aww what a cute dog that jumps on me” but they did say “aww, he’s such. Good boi, he listens so well”. While I know not everyone agrees, I think we can ALL agree a dog jumping on a child would not be good, so you might as well prevent yourself from that embarrassment.
And to end this, yes - my dog, Tahoe, is perfect, and he has the meanest mug of them all.
