I’d like to take another post to talk about owning a pet. But this one is a bit different than the one I posted a few weeks ago. 

Instead of trying to convince you to go and adopt them this time, I’d like to encourage people to take better care of the pets they already have. 

I know far too many people lately who have been getting attacked and/or bitten by somebody else’s dog. I personally know those people would never do anything that would cause a dog to get upset enough to attack them. So, why are they? Probably because many dog owners aren’t taking the precautions they should be when owning and raising a pet. 

Dogs are similar to children in the way they need to be trained NOT to do certain things. If you don’t take the time to do this and let them run free, it’s inevitable you will have problems. 

And even if you do try to train them, some dogs are just going to be aggressive by nature. And if you know your dog is aggressive, it is not society’s job to make accommodations for you. It’s YOUR job to make sure you keep others safe and at a distance.

My parents used to have a German Shepherd, for example. Anyone who has ever owned this breed knows they are incredibly protective. Zeus was a total sweetheart when it came to anyone in our immediate family, but he had a hard time figuring out that not everything was a threat to our safety. In order to take him for a walk, we had to either go pretty early in the morning, or late at night to make sure there weren’t going to be many people around because he saw them as a threat too. Was it ideal to do that? Not always. But we knew other people were safer if we did it that way. It was better for everyone involved. 

Also, if you know your dog is aggressive, maybe try to keep a better eye on them? Sometimes, fences and leashes don’t always do the trick. And if they somehow break free, you need to be aware of that so you can resolve the problem. 

Earlier this week, I decided to take Dobby for a short jog. I don’t usually take him running with me because technically I really shouldn’t be taking him for runs with his arthritis, but every once in a blue moon I’ll take him for a short one. 

Anyway, I decided to go out a mile and back, and on the way out, we came to a house with a fenced in back yard and two dogs came screaming up to the fence all snarls and teeth. I’ve seen these dogs plenty of times before but again, I don’t usually have Dobby with me on this route. He paused and tried to sniff the dogs out and before I could even tell what was happening, one of the dogs stuck his head through the fence and latched on to Dobby’s nose. I finally got him away from them, and even though it looked really bad since there was a lot of blood, once I got it wiped off, I saw he only had a few scratches on his nose. The dog did scratch up his lip pretty good though. 

Well, now I’m not only feeling terrible for Dobby but I’m kind of pissed off. We keep running to the turn around point and when we get to that house on the way back, I pull us onto the road to put a little distance between us so Dobby doesn’t try to go up to the fence again. However, the dog saw us coming and proceeded to hop the fence and chase us down the road. I can safely say I’ve never been scared of a dog before that moment. I didn’t know what that thing was gonna do. But now I’m pretty sure Dobby’s pissed too, he’s trying to stay between me and this other dog, I’m trying to kick the other dog off my dog, and I’m also trying not to get hit by a car because I’m still in the street. 

This probably only went on for like a minute, but it felt like forever. I was screaming, both dogs were barking like crazy, but that owner never even stuck their head out the door. Finally, some guy driving by pulled over and was able to get the dog off Dobby. He asked where it came from and I pointed to the fence saying it jumped it. He told me to just keep going and he’d take care of it. I have no idea if the owner actually ever came outside or not, or if the man put the dog back himself. But whoever that man was: THANK YOU!! I have a feeling it would have ended a lot worse if you hadn’t stopped to help. 

Another thing that pissed me off was that we did put a police report in, and long story short, we found out the dog who bit Dobby wasn’t up to date on his shots. Dobby is, so he should be fine, but what if that dog had bit a kid?? I already have one friend who’s kid had to get rabies shots because they too got bit by a dog not up to date on their shots. How hard is it to get this done, people?? It takes 10 minutes to go to the vet and get their shots! Not only is it precautionary if your dog bites someone or something, but wouldn’t you want your pet to NOT get rabies or some other sickness these shots prevent? This is just plain being a bad pet owner. 

Honestly, if you can’t tell, I’m pretty heated about the whole thing. If you’re going to have a pet, take care of them! Watch over them, train them to behave around people and other animals, get their dang shots. It’s not hard. If you can’t do that, then you really have no business owning a pet. 

Anyway, I suppose I’ll stop there. Once I get on a tangent, I could really go on forever. 😉 Just love your pets, y’all. They’re better than most humans anyway! 

Until next time! 🙂 

Megan Reiffenberger