Dog-ownership is a lot like parenting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No, it is, really!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dogs need to be taught what is acceptable and not\nacceptable behaviour, just like children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dogs need to be rewarded for their good behaviour, just\nlike children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And dogs need some form of punishment\/chastisement when they have behaved badly (just like children \u2013 although I would suggest that sending your dog to bed without Netflix might not have quite the impact that you should be considering for your errant offspring).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the serious point is that without rules, and without\na set of parameters that define good and bad, dogs \u2013 like children \u2013 will grow\nup not knowing right from wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Did I say dogs are like children?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, add in the obvious: dog owners are like parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the dog-owner (or the parent) doesn\u2019t consistently\napply the rules of wrong with the rewards of right, then sooner or later everyone\nwho comes in to contact with the dog (or the child) is going to have a tough\ntime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, these are basic rules and we can all agree them and\nthat they are sensible, yes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Good, and now to the point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A near-neighbour has a dog that barks at anything it sees\noutside the front window of their house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The logical, sensible solution to the problem would be to\nrestrict the dog from the front of the house, yes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a smallish dog, the size of a large terrier or\nsimilar, so it\u2019s not going to bound, kangaroo-like, over a stairgate-type thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what the owners did last summer was to install sub-sonic\ncat-scaring devices in their front garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The theory is that these devices, triggered by motion,\nemit a sound only cats can hear. This sound will keep cats from the front of\ntheir house, their dog will not bark, and they will be (actual quote) \u2018responsible\nneighbours\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Except (at the risk of repeating myself), their dog barks\nat anything it sees outside the front window of their house. Anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This includes people walking to and fro on the pavement,\nbecause the dog has a grand view of all that stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Needless to say, the sub-sonic cat-scaring devices turned\nout to be a waste of money because the dog continues to bark at everything it\nsees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And it\u2019s not a playful little bark either. It\u2019s\nthreatening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On walks through the local fields we (our dogs and I)\nhave encountered the near-neighbour and their dog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
None of these encounters have ever ended well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their dog has gone for ours. Every. Single. Time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2018He\u2019s only playing,\u2019 the near-neighbours said on several\noccasions, as their hyper-aggressive, snarling, barking, teeth-barred dog\npulled at his lead in a serious attempt to dismember either or both of our\nspaniels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So we took a course of avoiding action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Whenever we spotted them on the grassy horizon, we would\nchange course keeping the best part of a quarter mile between their dog and\nours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately on Monday evening I couldn\u2019t take avoiding\naction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We were halfway down the local jitty when I saw the\nnear-neighbour and their dog approaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I stopped, shortened their leads so our dogs were\neffectively on four-inch hobbles, positioned the dogs between the fence and me\nand shielded them behind my legs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The near-neighbour approached, slowed, and allowed his\ndog to sniff forward towards Chewie\u2019s nose a few inches away. Robyn cowered\nbehind my legs, Chewie has the recklessness of youth on his side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The near-neighbour\u2019s dog began its hyper-aggressive,\nsnarling, teeth-barring, growling as usual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was about to ask him to get better control of his dog\nand to walk on, when his dog lunged forward and bit me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was shocked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The anger set in much later, but right then I was\nshocked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I told him I could have his dog destroyed under the Dangerous\nDogs Act (fact).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I said his dog needed serious help (fact).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said they had taken him places for behavioural\nhelp\/training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had no words left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I limped around the corner with our two dogs, sat down on a bench, rolled my trousers up and inspected the damage: a small hole in my trouser leg, and a bleeding hole in my shin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t think I could ever report anyone\u2019s animal, or have\nit put down, but what\u2019s left for their aggressive dog?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Certainly it needs to be protectively muzzled whenever it\nleaves their house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are schoolchildren who walk dogs in our little village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Do I owe them a duty of care by reporting this incident?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I think I do, but where do things go once I start that\nball rolling?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Similarly, how would I feel if the near-neighbour\u2019s dog attacked a child \u2013 or attacked anybody?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t doubt that my injury was caused because by\naccident; caused just because their dog was going for one of my dogs, but my\nlegs were in the way, but that\u2019s not the point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What if someone else does get injured?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a moral minefield, and I\u2019m uncomfortable sitting in\nthe middle of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dog-ownership is a lot like parenting. No, it is, really! Dogs need to be taught what is acceptable and not acceptable behaviour, just like children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stuff","two-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13009\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}