Oh dear.....dog walk.

After one of the worst nights sleep ever....roughly 1 and a half hours of dozing only.....I went with my dog walker friend to the lakes near us. The day got off to a bad start because my push chair wouldn't collapse so my friend had to pick in up and take it in her van.

I had Tonks and Remus and she had four spaniels. We were having a great time, it's quiet a sociable walk with lots of dog walkers. I pop Remus on the lead if I see dogs being walked on the lead as he is the only one that would sprint over. We had stopped at the edge of the lake letting our two toddlers have a potter about and a woman came walking quickly towards us and stopped about 20 feet away. She and three terriers all off lead and Remus and one of the spaniels trotted over to say hello. Her dogs went bonkers and started having a very noisy go at our dogs, the spanial backed off straight away but Remus, being the pup he is lay on the floor trying to lick their faces. I called a few times but he wasn't coming back so I went off to get him...I could hear it was all noise from her dogs....believe me, if Remus gets nipped you hear about it!...and he wasn't that scared by it, hoping up and down occasionally to see if they had changed their mind and might want to play......anyway the woman starts screaming 'aaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggggggghhhhhhhhhhh! They're fighting!' Over and over again. Sorry but it's making me chuckle just thinking about it! Then she started shouting 'its because I have three dogs its their pack mentality, they're fighting him! Stop them!!!!'

Well, I blame the lack of sleep but I started chuckling...as well as thinking all the things I could say......and then thought....' It really isn't worth it!' So clipped Remus on the lead and pottered off back to my friend chuckling still. Then the woman walked her dogs almost right up to where we were with our 6 dogs and her dogs dashed up growling and swearing at everyone! All our dogs just had that 'uh oh they're nuttahs' look on their faces and avoided them....well apart from Remus who was still thinking they might play and did not have a hair out of place let alone any bite or nip marks.The women mumbled something about her pack and went off leaving us a bit bemused. So many questions!

If she thinks her dogs 'fight' other dogs because of their pack mentality, why walk them off lead and why walk them almost right up to another pack of dogs?! If she blames pack mentality for their behaviour...did she not find it odd that our 6 dogs weren't behaving like that and wouldn't be goaded into a spat.

The rest of the day was topped off with two major tantrums from my 3 year old, the one who was up most of the night! Thankfully everyone is asleep now....and I expect I will be soon!

Not all terrier people are crazy, honest haha!

At least nobody got hurt though - thats always good!
Have a horlicks and hope you enjoy your sleep :P

I believe you Blue Jay. mmmmmmmmm Horlicks! Now there's an idea!

It amazing how often people don't seem to really understand their dogs behaviour isn't it. Couple of weeks ago we were in a local woods and a woman appeared on the path with an Airdale on lead...so I popped Remus on his. Then the woman calls 'he's really friendly and will want to say hi, I just don't let him off because of the deer'

Now, I could see the dog was a little tense so why I didn't just smile sweetly and ignore her I don't know....but I let Remus off. He galloped/wiggled up to them....and her dog instantly went for him! I thought he had made contact from the yelp from Remus who came charging back to me. When she passed me I saw it was on a prong collar......and Remus had four neat holes in his face!

Crikey!! Poor Remus
Some people eh... this is what wine is for really

Hehe...wouldn't get passed the first sip tonight! Just waiting for Paul to get home and I will be off to bed.

I'm always impressed at your ability to take life in your stride and how even-tempered you always seem to be - despite a challenging day, you still managed to chuckle. What can you do about people that think a slight bark or grumble is tantamount to a full-blown fight.

I remember Baxter having a game with a cairn - a lovely run around but the woman grabbed her cairn and told me that my dog was potentially going to break her dog's bones - funny huh?

Hehe thank you, I do have my moments though....and when I blow...I really blow! But it only happens about once very couple of years.

Some people are just bonkers I think.

I have to congratulate you on being such a responsible dog owner I just wish there were more of 'you' around.

That person with their dog on PRONG collar and lead - unreal I guess if you'd seen the collar you probably wouldn't have let Remus go and say hello. I saw a choc lab on a prong collar a few weeks ago and the dog couldn't have been more than 6 months old ... still a pup.

Poor Remus is a credit to you ...... but he must have wondered what on earth was going on too.

Poor Remus, but thank goodness that he was not hurt because if those dogs had been really aggressive then it might have been very different.

The woman was probably scared to death but clearly couldn't differentiate between a fight and a harmless incident. Heaven help her if her dogs get into a real fight - and ditto for the people whose dogs have to suffer because of it.

Aw thank you! He was too busy trying to love anyone. Tonks thought the might come over with me ...either to defend Remus' honour, or more likely to laugh and point, but wandered back to my friend when I told her to. She's a lover not a fighter.

Prong collars should be forced on their owners! Fancy using it on any dog let alone a pup!
Yes I think she was scared.....odd seeing as it was her dogs who were doing the attacking. I wonder if they have nipped her in a previous scuffle like that.