Damn! These stupid people who let their dogs run loose off the leash!!!!
You’ll recall that a year or two ago Cassie the Corgi was nearly killed by some moron’s loose German shepherd. Fortunately, the mane around her neck is so thick, the dog got such a mouthful of fur he couldn’t pick her up off the ground to break her back, though he tried valiantly.
Tonight we were headed home the back way from a long stroll around the neighborhood. It was a pink dusk after one of the most spectacular sunsets I’ve ever seen.
As we came around a corner, I saw one of the neighbor’s sweet little twin daughters playing on the street, riding a cute little scooter. “Where’s her mom?” I wondered. Not an adult in sight.
But…she was not altogether unguarded.
Our young neighbors have acquired a tall, slender, questionably bred German shepherd…and that was who was keeping an eye on the little girl.
When this critter saw me and Cassie coming up the sidewalk, it flew into a full-bore charge, hackles raised and fangs set to go.
I didn’t have time to pick Cassie up, but I did manage to get between her and the shepherd. As it reached us I gave it a quick knee to the ribs and a sharp “NO! BAD DOG” and then yelled to the little girl to get her daddy or mommy. The child hesitated and so I hollered at her to run!
And thank God she took off like a shot on her scooter, out of harm’s way. Once the protective GerShep lost its concentration, it lapsed into normal dog-on-dog investigation and they were OK. Though its hackles never did lay down smooth.
And God was on Cassie’s side tonight. This shepherd was far less aggressive than the last monster, and far less dog-aversive. Or, we might figure, far smarter: it seemed to realize a pint-sized pooch wasn’t much threat, and I think it (mistakenly) believed I was sort of in charge.
The mother eventually materialized out of the house and apologized. I refrained personfully from using the Stupid B- phrase to her face.
Cassie and I retreated back around the corner, where I had to sit down on the curb for awhile, until I stopped shaking.
The older and the crankier I get, the harder it is for me to bite my tongue where stupid people are concerned. Maybe it’s because I’ve run into so damn many stupid people the tongue is getting sore.
But honestly. What gets into people?
Okay, I guess if you haven’t lived with a string of German shepherds, you don’t have a clue. But forgodsake, don’t GET a dog that’s bigger than you and is capable of removing your neighbor’s freaking head until you have some idea what you’re getting into!
A shepherd dog is bred to take care of herds of delicious ruminants. Its JOB is to PROTECT. That’s what it does, sort of like breathing. Take it into your family and present it with a couple of small children, and it will naturally think it’s supposed to protect those children. You, living just down the road from the territory of a menacing street gang and generally feeling a bit under siege, will naturally think that’s cool. You will congratulate the dog for herding up your little sheep and acting as though it would die to keep any harm from coming to them. And that will naturally confirm the dog’s instinct.
So. When you let your little kid play out in the front yard without an adult human watching over her, in an urban neighborhood like this (or probably in any other neighborhood), you signal that you are a moron. When you leave your German shepherd to babysit out there, now socialized to believe its job is to keep the wolves away from the little lamb, you not only signal that you are a moron, you open yourself to a lawsuit whose vastness defies your limited imagination.
I have sooo had it with stupid people.
R.I.P., Anna H. Banana
In this neck of the woods…it’s pit bulls. If I hear one more story from a rental applicant about how “sweet and kind” their PIT is…. I’m gonna scream. Had a cop friend tell me, having one of these muts, is like leaving a loaded gun lie around the house with kids. Not a question IF it’s gonna go off….but WHEN…..We have had some very serious dog attacks around here from these breeds.
Yeah, we’ve had them, too. Seems like every few months there’s another report of someone being injured or killed by pitbulls or pitbull mixes.
I think people really do believe that their pet dogs are sweet and kind. And they probably are, most of the time. Problem is, people are incredibly naive — we might say “ignorant” — about the nature of dogs and of the way we humans have bred various strains of dogs to accentuate one aspect or another of their nature.
Dogs that have been bred to fight will incline to do that, not because they’re “evil” but because…well, if there’s any evil here, it’s in what the humans have done in manipulating their characteristics through selective breeding. The dog is not “bad’ per se; the dog simply does what the dog is bred to do.
The same is true of other breeds. Corgis, for example, are herding dogs, and that part of their nature is manifest every single day of their lives. They’re bossy. They attempt to order you around (and often succeed). They bark at every indication of anything out of order or incoming. And once Cassie ran after and tried to herd a team of rugby players! The giant guys laughed at this little thing trying to round them up; the coach had a moment of panic (he thought she wanted to bite them). The dog was not doing that because she’s “cute” but because herding is in her nature.
The German shepherd’s herding instinct is beneficial in the mean city because it’s easily parlayed into guard-dog functions. The pooch above was doing its job. The issue is not the dog but its human.
With a sex offender living a quarter of a mile away, cop helicopters parked over the neighborhood at 11:00 p.m. every Friday and Saturday night as if on cue, a constant drumbeat of burglary and home-invasion reports, a strip of increasingly dank slum running up to the west, and a meth-infested gang territory to the north, what would get into you, as a mom, to let a four- or five-year-old child scooter up and down the sidewalk in front of the house without your being physically present at all times? The dog came to call when the woman finally emerged from the house — had she been outside, where she belonged, she would have reassured the dog the minute she saw me and my dog ambling up the street. Her presence alone, in fact, might have cued the dog that there was no need to lunge into attack mode. German shepherds are very smart dogs, but they do need to have a human that’s at least as smart as they are.
eek! I’m glad you and Cassie are okay. Poor Cassie. I hope she’s not frightened.
My neighbourhood doesn’t have German Shepherds… We’re overrun by cocky small chihuahuas that bark and snarl like mad. I totally dislike them.
My mother had a Chihuahua. They can be short-tempered and mean, largely because of the present overbreeding. Hers was friendly and cute but it yapped nonstop — at least when Cassie barks (which is often…), it’s at real things. That dog of hers would bark at phantoms. Which…heh heh heh…reminds me of a great New Year’s Eve story. Watch this space…