No wonder your dog doesn't come back to you!

Was walking my boy in a park near me this morning. I like it because it is usually very quiet and only a 10 minute drive. Anyway, as we were heading back to the car, I sat down on a bench for a few minutes as my boy was playing with another Lab. Then suddenly a young Irish Terrier bolts over with it's owner a mile behind. Owner finally catches up with dog, which is now playing with my Lab and the other Lab, and the owner continues walking. Owner walks to far end of park and starts calling the dog. Dog obviously has zero recall and has no intention of going back to it's owner. Owner stands there wailing for another few minutes and then finally storms back across the park back to where the dogs are playing. He then spends 10 minutes trying to catch the dog that doesn't want to be caught. When he finally does catch it, he takes the dog by the collar and drags it by the collar across the park (dog walking on hind legs), smacks the dog across the face (making it yelp), then puts the dog on lead but continues to hold the lead so high that the dog is walking on it's hind legs as they walk out of the park. I shouted over "I wouldn't come back to you if I was treated like that!" but was ignored.

I'd never seen anything like it. I have seen clueless idiots smack their dog, which just makes my blood boil, but I haven't seen anyone treat what is obviously a young and untrained dog like this. Makes you wonder what people like this get from owning dogs?

Thats horrible, poor dog, if they do that in front of people God knows what they do to the poor dog when there's no-one around.

Oh this makes me so mad I would have smacked him accross his fat face It makes me want to swear. bloody stupid bas***d, What the f*ck
That poor dog. When I see anything like this it's on my mind for the rest of the day. I worry about the poor dogs

Poor baby

Elaine xxx

Reading that made all the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end
What a stupid person. Are these people unable to see what they are doing?
Poor doggy!

There is a lady in my Condo building who, when the dog doesn't return to her, will go after her and smack her for not coming. I dont want to offend her, but I am training recalls with my pup, and my sister's pup, so I show her how I do it, tell her how amazing this style of training is, and do everything in my power to show her how my pups (one 4 months, one 9 months) both have pretty good recalls (not perfect yet... thats why we dont go to dog parks yet or allow off leash running when not in the yard) It makes me angry... and I sooooo want to speak my mind, and light into her. she also feeds her dog crap food, free-feeds and has a designer dog.... one of the most uninformed people I've met, and she doesn't care to get informed. makes me angry. she asked me to keep an eye out for another "puggle" for a friend for Sasha... yeah like that's gonna happen!

Poor dog, last time I saw that I got into a row, Pat had to step in

Those type, make my blood boil

I see this sort of thing all the time. I can't resist making the remark that "I wouldn't come back to that either", call my lot back and reward them all. Maybe it will hit home with one of these idiots one day, probably not though.

This seems like such an obvious and logical thing that I can't believe someone would actually treat their dog in an abusive manner after finally getting him under control. I can understand why, however, and it is probably that the owner is very frustrated and angry and does not have good self-control. He is probably the same type that tailgates your car and lays on the horn and tears past you while uttering obscenities, because he probably feels inadequate and unsatisfied in some way. People like that are scary because they can let their rage boil up to a crisis point and it may end in a blaze of gunfire.

With the financial crisis and other major threats to our health and well-being, more and more people are becoming angry and they do not have healthy outlets for their emotions, and it often turns to violence.

As for recall, Muttley has very little, but he at least trusts me enough that I have not had to chase him when he has gotten loose. He enjoyed his brief flings of freedom, and at one point, when I had called him, he ran right past me with a big grin on his face and went the other way, before finally allowing me to catch up with him, at which point he was satisfied to sit nicely while I reattached his leash. He knows that I will not punish him, so he remains calm.

If he were allowed more off-leash time to burn off energy, he would probably mostly stay near, but I can't risk that. I live on a busy, dangerous road. Once he got loose at rush hour, and he ran down the front part of the property and sat at the corner next to the road watching cars whizz by. I walked calmly toward him, then went to my car, and called him. He probably thought he was going for a ride, so he came running up to me. He didn't get the ride, but I praised him heavily and gave him a treat.

People like that just shouldn't own dogs - they really have no idea how to treat one.

Off topic I know but I free feed, there is nothing wrong with this type of feeding, in fact it reduces incidence of bloat, prevents low sugar levels in small dogs and stops dogs bolting their food.

Becky