Some people need to be devoured by weasels

[aniwahya]

My family just got a Pembroke Welsh Corgi puppy (shes now 5 months old) and being enthusiastic pet owners my mother and I have been taking her out for daily walks at different state parks in my area. Until now we haven't had a single problem.

The other night we were walking a popular trail used by bikers with iron groins (seriously, sharp corners, drop offs, rocks, tree limbs, sand traps abound). Just walking it requires concentration (I have pain and nerve issues with my leg too so sometimes it takes me longer to catch up to my mom) and every 2 min bikers come riding by, often with little warning because we are deep into woods on a narrow path about 1.5 miles from the closest civilized area.

Mom is about 15 to 20 feet ahead in the dip between two hills when I hear her call out "Dog coming!". I see the dog, a medium sized terrier mix come over the crest of the hill and I can immediately tell something is off. We watch the dog and wait for it to come to the end of the lead, before realizing there is no lead. Then hell broke loose. The dog charged my mom, snarling and snapping at our puppy, who was circling behind my mom in an attempt to get away. My mom had a walking stick, but on the narrow path there was no way to use it and with our puppy in imminent danger she did the only thing she could and used the lead to jerk the puppy into her arms (she was wearing her harness and not just a collar thank gods).
The terrier broke off when he saw me cripple-hustle my ass up to the group since the puppy was out of reach he apparently didn't like his odds against my mom and me as a group.
I cannot describe what I felt in the moment I saw the second dog crest the hill. A larger lab mix, also unleashed, came running ahead of the owner who at this point was still not coming to get her dogs, or even calling for them. The lab approached slower than the terrier but still aggressive. I yelled for her to put her dogs on leashes and she started to argue with me about how her dogs were not aggressive.
As she is trying to argue with me, and not controlling her dogs the lab, who has not taken his eyes off our puppy circles my mom. His body language was aggressive so when he lunged towards mom and the puppy I cut him off bodily and used my walking sticks to drive him back. Sensing her dog was about to have the pointed end of a walking stick driven into her dog's skull she finally comes up and grabs him.

There are so many things I wish I had said at that point, but truthfully I couldn't speak. The adrenaline was surging, I wasn't sure if my mom and our puppy were hurt or not, and I don't take pleasure in hurting animals so when the woman hustled off with her dogs I made no further attempt to communicate with her. If i would have had the number I would have called park rangers to report the attack, but I didn't have it and I wasn't thinking clear enough to call 411.

We all escaped with no bites, although my mom did get scratched by our puppy when she jerked her up and the windmilling paws caught her in the face. Our puppy was scared but otherwise unharmed.

I still don't know what that stupid #$#@ was thinking having her dogs untethered on that path. There was nowhere for the dogs to run with thick woods on either side of the narrow path, and the path itself was being used by people on bikes, kids, and other hikers. There is also no doubt in my mind that she knew that her dogs (especially the terrier as it was the alpha) are vicious. Throughout the ordeal she showed no shock, no surprise. My theory as to why she didn't come in to grab her dog was fear of being bitten by her own dog.

Argh. I'm still pissed, and I can;t help but wish our Shepard was still alive and with us. You see before the corgi we had a German Shepard, who while a great dog was extremely aggressive. She would have eaten those dogs. Of course, I suspect that woman still wouldn't have learned to keep her dogs tethered.

If you guys want I'll post pics of our puppy. Luckily shes not scared of new dogs, even after all that. 8)

[Nyx]

I couldn't agree more with your title. I once had my neighbors dog run out of their house and attack me and my dog, while we were on a walk. He was circling me and my dog,snarling, and lunging. All the idiot neighbor did was say “Oh just kick him off...”, I was to buzy trying to keep both of us safe to reply with an F.U.

[bainsidhe]

I once had my neighbors dog run out of their house and attack me and my dog

I really should slow down when reading. I thought you wrote that the neighbors ran out of the house and attacked.

When I had a paper route, there was a little toy poodle that liked to chase after me and nip my ankles while I biked along. It was aggressive, but only went so far as to bark, growl and nip. Even so, nipping hurt. The owners would just call out for me to shoo him away. I'm not confrontational, but oh the dreams I had of drop-kicking that little dog. Other toy poodles on my route were complete marshmallows, as were pretty much every other dog on my route. Just that one viscous little thing.

When my sis and I were 4/5ish, my Mom took us for a walk through the park. Though I don't remember it myself, there was apparently a couple with a huge sheepdog that loved kids. Unfortunately the sheepdog, who was overjoyed to see little kids walking along, wasn't on a leash and was also half again our height. Our Mom wasn't fast enough to block the dog from bowling into us and knocking us down. Of course Mr. Sheepdog didn't understand why the little kids were shrieking in fear and why the owners were rushing over to pull his happy self off. I feel bad for the sheepdog and silly owners, but I suspect that's why big dogs make me nervous to this day.

[chocoBug]

see Im uncomfy around dogs most of the time and I despise owners who keep their dogs off the leash. If a massive dog bounds towards me, even if its friendly, it scares the crap out of me; how do I know if its friendly?! And all the owners say the same thing "its ok he doesnt bite!" as if its a chuckle-worthy situation. THATS NOT THE POINT. Dogs can be scary and unpredictable at times. Keep 'em on a leash.

[Utter_iMADNESS]

Argh. I hate it when people don't have their dog on a leash becasue "he doesn't bite".

<rant>

Around 2 years ago my family and I were visiting some relatives in San Diego. I went on a walk with my mom and uncle. My mom has a great phobia of dogs due to a childhood event so she's very uncomfortable around them. As we entered a park we were greeted by a large black dog (I don't remember what kind) which was relatively friendly. My uncle and I had no problems with it but of course my mom started to have a bit of a panic attack as it was touching her and such.
So the owner calls over his dog and tells us not to worry as it doesn't bite. We scolded him for letting his dog loose but he just turned away. Luck has it we happened to see a sign at the entrance to the park clearly stating that the owners of dogs that are not on a leash will be heavily fined. Of course only after we point that out to the owner did he decide to leash his dog.

Now I personally have nothing against dogs, in fact I welcome them. But I find it very naive to think that a dog is completely tame (considering that not even people are completely tame). There have been multiple reports of dogs brutally attacking someone even though it was out of their usual character. Not only has my mom had an incident with dogs in her childhood, but my cousin was also injured by a supposed friendly dog and had to be taken to the hospital.

And really, if you cared for your dog you wouldn't let him run loose and attack someone as the dog may be put down.

</rant>

There are leash-free parks for a reason.

[EvilEmpryss]

I absolutely love dogs, cats, horses, and most animals in general, but any animal that is not socialized enough to be in public does not deserve the priviledge. I have trained dogs to walk off-leash, and it isn't something that is easy to do right. My service dog will do it if she's been given her "on duty" command, but if we're just playing around she's a little inattentive and likes to run. I love her dearly, but I don't feel comfortable working her off-leash in public yet because of that inattention. A dog must respond immediately to the commands of the handler (whether it's a whistle, a word, or a hand signal) no matter what other stimulus has got its attention. If it doesn't, it needs to be on a leash at all times.

As a funny aside about play-aggressive dogs: I almost got one of my dogs shot by a cop once. I had a huge old English sheepdog/saint bernard mix. She was about 150lb of blond sheepdog-haired love and didn't have a viscious bone in her body. Her woof, though, was about as deep and scary as you could hope for from a junk yard dog. I taught her to play a game I called "mad dog": I would send her off-leash about 30 feet away from me and then yell "Jezebel, Mad Dog!"

At that point, Jezebel would spin around on her hind legs and come running straight at me, growling and woofing like Cujo himself. As she got up to me, I would throw my arm up and fall backwards to the ground. Jez would put her mouth around my arm and pretend to maul me, whipping her head back and forth and growling for all she's worth. She kept her mouth so soft that I never even had welts from her teeth when we were done. The game was over when I yelled "OW!". She'd immediately back off and sit, waiting for me to get up and play some more.

One day, though, a cop driving down my street saw us playing, and he thought I was really being attacked! He was out of his car with his gun drawn so fast I barely had time to yell ow and get Jezebel to stop before he took aim at her! He was not happy about getting tricked by the game, and suggested that from then on I keep that particular game in the backyard.

[jiarby]

"Ma'am.... If you fail to control your animals and they continue to threaten my Mother then I will kill them."

nice, clear and to the point.

[csquared]

If she is a jogger, she will probably be back. Call the Police. Put a complaint on record. If she has another run in, there will be collaberating reports.

And of course, Yes! Pics!

[LillFilly]

Gods! What a Bi*ch! Everybody's dog is the most well behaved dog in the world until it actually hurts someone. Should have reported her.

I was walking my (late and blind for the last years of his life) pug Gizmo and had 2 yellow lab types come charging at us, so I curled my body around him as the dogs circled and jumped. Luckily they didn't do anything but jump around and the owner called them away but I laid into her about how her dogs needed to be leashed in our town! Poor Gizmo didn't know what was going on, he only heard the barking and "Go away!"

Oh, and I think that might be cruelty to weasels. Devoured by rabid amoebas maybe? It would be slower.

[Mottom24]

i remember one night, during a long roadtrip with my girlfriend, we were walking in the campground to get to the vending machines in the main building. so we walked down the path that led through the trailer section. suddenly this dog came barreling towards up, hair on end, snarling and snapping his way up. I pushed my girlfriend back and raised the lantern (electric) up high, getting ready to slam it into the dogs skull. the owners immediatly called it and it made a 180 and came back. I yelled "why the hell isn't that dog tied up!?" and they responded with a "sorry". no... that could have been anyone. a small child, an old person... and they have a dog, who is obviously aggressive, un tied and in a crowded KOA campground. I couldn't sleep for 2 hours because my adrenaline pumped me up so much, so we cooked smores to calm me down.

[mikoyan29]

Everyone's dog is like everyone's children...It's the most well behaved dog in the world....

[blas]

Just a few weeks ago, my bf's parents' dog got the Mike Tyson treatment from a very ill tempered weiner dog that was loose in one of the neighbor's yards.

[EvilEmpryss]

There're people up in arms in my area right now because a cop shot and killed an aggressive weiner dog (there was video of the thing running straight at him, teeth bared, growling and barking like it was going to tear him up. He warned the owner to keep the dog under control, but the woman let it go after him anyway.

Only people who have never been bitten by a small dog understand that little mouths and little teeth do not equal no threat.

[mikoyan29]

There're people up in arms in my area right now because a cop shot and killed an aggressive weiner dog (there was video of the thing running straight at him, teeth bared, growling and barking like it was going to tear him up. He warned the owner to keep the dog under control, but the woman let it go after him anyway.

Only people who have never been bitten by a small dog understand that little mouths and little teeth do not equal no threat.

If the woman let it go after him, she's lucky she's not inside a jail in some cases that could be considered as assault. Apparently she discovered that it's not a good idea to let her little precious attack a man who is not only armed but knows how to use said weapon.

Not only are their teeth nasty but the cop doesn't know if the dog has rabies or something else that could cause him problems.

[wagegoth]

I will have the scars until I die from the dog that attacked me when I was fourteen. He was trying to kill me. I love dogs, but I went through a major PTSD period. Even my own dog made me nervous sometimes. It wasn't until after I moved in with my first husband and his two Briards and one German Shepherd that I got used to dogs again.

You have to assume that any dog will bite, even liddle pweshus smoochie woochies.