Leash Laws

Picking up where we left off, I do keep our dogs on leash when they are out of the house. I think this is very important. They don’t have any bad intentions, but they don’t need to. If the other dog was not happy to be charged, there could still be an altercation. Also, our dogs have no understanding about how cars can hurt you.

(I think other breeds are probably this way too, but when I tried to ask someone who had pit bulls, all she would say is that they were perfectly behaved dogs and that more dog bites come from cocker spaniels than any pits or rotties or any of the scary breeds. Which is true, it was just beside the point.)

Having your own dogs leashed isn’t enough if other people don’t do it. We’ve had two of our dogs attacked by dogs running out of houses, and it had an effect on both of them, especially Fozzie. We started having him wear his muzzle on the walk because sometimes if another dog was around he would get nervous and nip at our other dogs.

It was bad for us, but it wasn’t really good for the other dogs either. I don’t know if the dog that ran at Angel every had any other issues, but the dog that ran at Fozzie got hit by a car on another occasion when he was running loose.

I don’t blame those dogs at all—it is the owners. Granted, anyone can have accidents, and we have had dogs get loose accidentally, and it is always scary and embarrassing, but some owners don’t even try because they know that their dogs are perfectly friendly, or so well trained, that it is fine. Then you see that the manner of training is that when the dog is irresistibly tempted, and leaves his spot, he gets hit with the stick, and yeah, I’m not impressed with the methods or the results.

The scariest time was not with our own dogs, but with one we dog sit for. When we sit for greyhounds we board them, but we do home visits for a friend with a golden retriever, and one time when I was taking him for a walk, we were charged and surrounded by two rottweilers. The owner came over with this stupid grin on his face—they had just treed his cat also, but he knows they won’t do anything bad.

Well, to his credit, they did not bite, and Cav, who is very well-behaved, did not bite either, so it was fine. However, I sometimes encounter another man walking two dogs in that area. The one is fairly docile, but the other is very aggressive when he sees other dogs. It doesn’t matter, because he has his dogs on a leash, and I have mine on a leash, and they stay separated. If the rottweilers had charged them, I think the one dog would have attacked, they would have bitten back, and probably the other dog and the man would have been injured two. And rotties have strong jaws. It could have been really bad.

Ultimately, dogs are impulsive, and they don’t think about long-term consequences. It’s part of their charm. It’s also a really good reason to limit the freedom that you give them. We have a fenced yard, which is great, there are dog parks which also allow some control, and they generally don’t really mind being on a leash anyway. Plus, it’s the law, if that matters.

Anyway, I am totally cool with the leash part of the leash laws. I have mixed feelings about the other part.

It stems from an episode of “Head of the Class” from shortly after Billy Connolly took over. He described seeing someone collect their dog’s waste, “the most biodegradable substance on Earth”, seal it in a plastic bag, and throw it away, so that “someday some archeologists will be digging and one will go ‘Oh look, I found a CD’, and another will say ‘I found a walkman’ and the third will be like ‘I just found a really good reason not to be an archeologist.”

It’s what he said about it being the most biodegradable substance on Earth. I’m not even completely sure it’s true—maybe that title goes to grass clippings—but it is pretty biodegradable.

I think adding to waste in landfills should be avoided if possible, and that’s where it ends up. I know it would not be high-grade fertilizer like you get from ruminant herbivores, but still, it would go back in.

I can see that leaving it on sidewalks or other people’s lawns, or even nature trails is gross, but I’m kind of in favor of leaving it on roadsides and in the middles of fields. Anyway, I get a twinge whenever I am placing dog waste in plastic bags, and not just because it is disgusting.

I do this with Cav the most. One thing I have noticed is that whether a dog will go on walks or in their yards seems to be a personality thing. Chevis, his predecessor, never went on the walk. He always does. (Of our current home crew, only Jack does.)

The pickup must seem like the strangest thing to him (to the extent that dogs think). Feeling lighter, he is all ready to go, and suddenly I am holding him in place and scooping, and he is like “Come on! What is wrong with you?”

That’s unless he ever gets the idea that I am putting it away for a snack for later, in which case he would probably decide it was brilliant, because dogs are gross.

38 minutes walking outside
Rest
Matthew 16 – 24