I was supposed to cross the road!

@indexer (4852)
Leicester, England
January 1, 2021 10:51am CST
I was getting towards the end of my hour-long dog walk this morning when I met a woman coming the other way along the pavement with her own dog - nothing unusual there, it happens on a regular basis every day. My dog always like to greet the dogs she meets, except when they appear to be unfriendly or aggressive. This other dog was certainly the latter - it was a large dog that was wearing a muzzle and proceeding to growl as we approached. The dog's owner pulled it to one side, where it continued to growl and make moves suggesting that it would attack my dog if not restrained, and its owner was certainly doing what she could to hold it back, although this looked to be hard work. Neither my dog nor I wanted to get too close, so I stepped out into the road, wrapped my dog's lead around my hand, and gave the aggressive dog a wide berth. And that was where I thought the encounter would end. But no - as soon as we were back on the pavement, the dog's owner started shouting at me and asking why I had stepped into the road as I did. I simply said that I did so partly to avoid her dog and partly to keep the statutory two metres distance from her. However, she then started calling me names - my offence being that I had not given her an even wider margin than I did. Apparently she would only have been satisfied if I had crossed right over to the other side of the road! I should have spotted that this was necessary because her dog was wearing a muzzle! I will certainly avoid annoying her in future - I don't like being sworn at - but the thing that puzzles me is why she has such a nasty piece of work as a pet? I meet a large number of dogs every day, both on the village roads and in the fields where we do most of our walking, and 99% of them are as friendly and approachable as our own dog, which only wants to greet other dogs and play with them if they want to play with her. It must simply be that some dog owners just don't know how to raise a dog so that it can behave properly in the outside world. Why we responsible owners should have to be the ones to prevent confrontations and make life easier for the owners of aggressive, badly trained dogs is something I just do not understand. (The photo is of my dog, not the nasty one!)
6 people like this
7 responses
@xFiacre (14786)
• Ireland
1 Jan 21
@indexer I should have thought that the owner of the wlatsome beast would have been the one obliged to cross to the other side since she was the menace here rather than you.
4 people like this
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
1 Jan 21
It seems to be a human trait to find fault in someone else when you are the one causing the problem.
2 people like this
@NJChicaa (127161)
• United States
1 Jan 21
The onus was on her to stay away from you guys.
3 people like this
@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
1 Jan 21
Do dogs get to be like their owners or is it the other way round? It sounds as though the person in question is just as nasty a piece of work as her dog and deserves a wide berth regardless of her dog or the two metre rule! Actually. I believe that it was her responsibility to cross to the other side of the road, since she knew that her dog was aggressive and you could not be expected to deduce that simply because the dog was wearing a muzzle. There are a number of reasons why a dog may need to be muzzled and not all are due to having an aggressive nature.
2 people like this
@owlwings (43897)
• Cambridge, England
1 Jan 21
@indexer Perhaps it would be a good idea if you wore a muzzle (I won't suggest that your dog should - she's far too pretty!). That is, a muzzle in the form of a mask with a fierce bulldog's mouth on it!
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
1 Jan 21
I will certainly try to avoid her if I can - which is not so easy in a relatively small community like ours.
2 people like this
@Fleura (35065)
• United Kingdom
1 Jan 21
Absolutely. And yes, although when you see a dog wearing a muzzle the first thought is that it is likely to bite, in fact the muzzle could be to prevent other bad habits such as eating rubbish.
1 person likes this
@prinzcy (32299)
• Malaysia
1 Jan 21
I don't really blame the dog. The owner was certainly a nasty piece of work.
1 person likes this
@Fleura (35065)
• United Kingdom
1 Jan 21
People are weird. You are lucky she is the only one you've met! Our village has a facebook page and that is a source of entertainment. One day a month or two ago a dog owner posted on there complaining that other dog owners should have stopped their dogs approaching hers as they should have known that hers was aggressive, and it wasn't her fault if her dog attacked another dog that had innocently come within reach. Er.. what? Thankfully I am not a member of facebook, so I am saved from the temptation to jump in and tell such people what I think of them.
2 people like this
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
1 Jan 21
That sounds like a similar incident to mine. I have met one other strange dog owner in the past - her dog was badly behaved and kept on a lead even in the open fields where we were walking at the time. Her complaint was that my dog wasn't also on a lead - according to her, all dogs should be on leads all the time!
1 person likes this
@LotusEyes (2707)
• India
1 Jan 21
dog looks very nice. I think you handled the situation well. Some people are weird. They never understand their mistake.
3 people like this
@JudyEv (382312)
• Rockingham, Australia
5 Jan 21
Your dog is very attractive. What a rude woman! Why should you be the one to take evasive action? She had just as much, if not more, responsibility to keep her dog where it couldn't harm others.