Leashes, anyone?

Cassi has always been a friendly dog. When she was young, I would take her hiking, often with friends and other dogs. Sometimes, we would let the dogs off leash or let them drag their leashes when no one was around. She quickly learned that she could go out ahead but had to come back in when I said too far. M is still giving me grief that I ruined his hunting dog (he didn't decide she was his hunting dog until she was 2) by teaching her to yo-yo.

When we were out and about, I would get a little annoyed with people who were out with their dog and did that panicky "my dog isn't friendly" thing. I'd think, why do you have your dog out in public. Well of course, we got the lovely Teka, a very social and friendly puppy, who grew up to be a great dog with people and a real bitch with other dogs. I obviously brought this on myself--now I understand those people with the unfriendly dogs.

In our old neighborhood, I had to be careful about taking the dogs (Teka) out for a walk since several people on my street didn't own a leash. In fact, the guy down the street got upset because his dog came through our yard, up to Teka in front of our door, and Teka snapped at the offensive dog. It's hard being so vigilant and I hope to cure her someday, but until then, I hope that people can control their dogs.

In the new neighborhood, I have been walking the dogs and have had my first dog-off-leash encounter the other day. I was yelling so the dog stopped before getting all the way up to us, and my dogs didn't lunge forward, surprisingly. The dog must have been in the garage with her people; the guy came out to get his dog and said she's never done that. Hey, I have sympathy--I didn't give him any crap, I just said one of my dogs is friendly and the other one is not.

So I laughed a little at this encounter. I feel her pain and thought she was much more articulate than I could ever be when I'm in panic mode. And I don't always put my dogs on leash when I'm just taking them to the truck. And I'm still working on teaching Teka manners when other dogs don't have them, but I think it might be a losing battle.