For ages I’ve been meaning to get these two things off my chest.
They are not so important but niggle at me most days.
1. Little dogs on extending leads
Most people here have little dogs. They also have them on extending leads. They also like to gather in groups in the middle of the pavement, chatting.
When walking along the main street Bonnie and I have to pass a lot of small pooches with big attitudes. They wait till we are parallel and then go berserk, barking and running towards us with their leashes unwinding like fishing lines. Because their owners hardly ever have them under control.
Bonnie is pretty good, I tell her, ‘Deja’ ‘Leave it’ and her ears go back but she doesn’t retaliate. But since I read that one of the tasks of Pack Leader is to protect her pack, I now have to be alert for little dogs in the street and I expect I am now known for my unfriendly attitude as I shoe them away.
2. Pedestrian rights on crossing the road
Basically the rule is that even when there is a green man giving people the right to cross over the road, cars turning right can still come round the corner so long as they go slowly and give any pedestrians priority.
What often happens is that cars try to get past before the humans have started crossing over. Or they nose up to you when you are in the middle of the road. Everyone here seems to feel cars are more important than people so it is far from unusual to see cars speed up as they approach traffic lights which are changing. At least it keeps you awake!
I could indubitably come up with two annoying things myself, but I am not sure they’d be the same two!
What about Monday? It’s now looking wonderful to me!
The dogs on those long leash things bother me so much. Their owners pay zero attention and you end up tripping over this long leash while this little yippy dog is biting at your ankles. I’ve gotten as aggressive as not changing my course of walking before. Just walk and if someone’s dog on one of those leashes runs in front of me, I just keep walking. One time, I kept walking and the leash was tight aginast the front of my legs, and the dog was beginning to feel the pull of that. The dog sort of ended up slingshotting back around me due to the tension on the leash. It yelped. THe owner started yelling, “Oh! No no! Be careful of my dog!” I didn’t even respond, I would’ve blown a gasket. YOU be careful of your dog! YOU watch where your dog is! YOU keep that mutt under control! THis is a sideWALK for people to WALK, not dodge yippy dogs on extended leashes while the owners chit chat and pay no attention! (obviusly you hit a nerve here 🙂
Well TB I must admit I paused before publishing your comment as I don’t think it is necessary to walk over or hurt small dogs and I don’t particularly want to encourage it! But I had a look at your blog and you seem to be a real person with interesting things to say rather than a ‘small dog hater’ so here it is.
Actually I don’t blame the dogs – I think they suffer from their owners mistaken belief that they are not really dogs. If someone with an alsation did this it would be obvious they were being irresponsible. It is only because they are miniature that people pretend they are not real. Somehow a small dog being aggressive is seen as a joke. But obviously other dogs don’t think so and get very nervous around them. But this is a human problem not a dog one.
You can tell many of the owners don’t think they are real animals by the way they pick them up using the lead! I’ve seen countless people just hoist up the tiny creature – can’t be bothered to bend down perhaps? But surely a small dogs neck is just as fragile as a bigger one? Would we lift up babies by grabbing their heads just because they are small?
Anyway, clearly both you and I get a bit over-heated by this subject:) Thanks for taking time to write in.
Kate