<p>paying3tuitions wrote:
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<p>p3tuitions, according to the link above (post #39), labs were consistently in the top 3 breeds for dog bites. As the owner of a very sweet and gentle lab, that really surprises me.</p>
<p>It might be because there are so many of them around too. I too see them as sweet and non-threatening. But I guess some will bite.</p>
<p>Paying3tuitions, my lab is not friendly. She bit my mother-in-law the first week we had her as a 3 year old dog (that is a whole different story… 
). But you certainly can’t assume all labs are friendly. I often have to warn people because they assume she is friendly. That is one reason she is ALWAYS on a leash or very closely supervised off leash where no other dogs or people are present.</p>
<p>As I said, I’m learning by reading some new thoughts about dogs here. </p>
<p>On the business about teaching a dog not to jump up, by raising one’s knee to flip him back, yes that could sound cruel. I think if gone wrong it might break a dog’s back, so that’s probably not the best advice to pass along here. I got it from an authoritative source, however. I was repeating verbatim the instructions given out to the class by the class obedience trainer in answer to someone who wanted to know how to get their dog to stop jumping up forcefully to greet every family member who entered their door. That obedience trainer was serious about taking charge of one’s dog, but not cruel towards animals. If by repeating that professional’s advice, I sounded cruel to animals, I did not intend that at all.</p>
<p>I don’t know why anyone would decide to teach their dog to jump up at one’s chest by thumping and saying “Mug me…” but to each his own, I guess. If my dog did that to me, I’d be knocked over so I wouldn’t train my dog to do anything like that.</p>
<p>When people comment about dogs given much too much slack on their leashes, I agree that’s a problem. If you know how to walk a dog correctly on a leash, the dog walks with his shoulder at your left knee. The human sets the walking pace, and nobody is tugged. I learned all that at obedience school. It ends up being very pleasant. They break it down into steps, with homework between classes. It’s a good investment to take at least one 8-week program; I generally took two per dog. Since you have these dogs for perhaps 14 more years, it’s worthwhile to frontload the relationship with some formal training. At least that’s worked for us here. No SAT’s thankfully.</p>
<p>I guess I believe in obedience training for dogs as part of the deal of adopting any large dog. My gripe there is that a lot of those programs emphasize form for the sake of showing dogs, while I’m just interested in basic family management. Besides, I adopt rescue pets who are not show-worthy in the first place.</p>
<p>Thanks to readers here, I will never again assume all labs are friendly! It was a nice stereotype but evidently WRONG.</p>
<p>I agree that the dog owner was a jerk, and that animals should be kept in a fenced in backyard, an invisible fence, or on a leash.</p>
<p>However, I urge all of you to think about the dog and the effects of the loss of the dog on the family if the police are involved in minor bite cases. Accidents do happen, and although it’s not okay for owners to not train their dogs, sometimes dogs get out of invisible fences and playfully nip. If dog bites are reported twice, the dog is put to sleep. Please, please think about what that can do to a family. I lost my dog in February (she was hit by a car) and no one in my family has even begun to recover from it.</p>
<p>Truly, I understand what you all are saying, but I feel it is my job to just gently remind you of the consequences that can be caused by reporting these incidents. It could honestly cripple a family forever.</p>
<p>P3T, I sure WISH my lab fit the stereotype! She is actually very sweet to me and my kids, and anyone she is introduced to in the house. Just not to anyone outside of it. Can’t tell if it is nature or nuture, I “inherited” her when she was three years old when a family member died. Sometimes I wish I had gotten her as a puppy so we could have worked on socialization… maybe she would not be so disfunctional now.</p>
<p>Regarding jumping up, we have had the best luck in the past by never, ever letting a puppy get up on its hind legs to greet a person from the first day they come home. It is so tempting to allow this when they are small because it is easier to reach them for petting. But that forms a bad habit. We have had two other dogs besides the crabby lab from puppyhood in the past, and this worked great with both of them. It never occurred to them to jump up because it had never been permitted.</p>
<p>Paying3tuitions: I have three standard poodles. When I <em>ask</em> them to jump up, I am usually standing with my back against a wall, but they do it gently, in any case. You may have missed my previous posts about dog training; my avocation and passion is dog agility. My obedience training for my dogs goes far beyond anything taught in a standard puppy obedience class. I have worked with a private professional dog trainer for the last eight years, at least once a week. I do not have any need to punish my dogs to get them to obey me. They will come from several hundred feet away at a whistle and routinely walk four or five miles with me, off-leash (in a local off-leash park), several times a week.</p>
<p>That sounds very cool. I understand that agility training keeps dogs minds very sharp, and they have a happier life especially for a working breed. As I left those puppy classes, the next ones up were the agility classes, with obstacle courses, tunnels and all kinds of challenges. The dogs who came in looked amazingly obedient; I guess that’s their prerequisite.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine not keeping my dog on a leash–for my safety as well as theirs. When I was younger I walked my yellow lab around our neighborhood every evening. We live in a very safe suburb but there are a lot of cars that come speeding down the streets without paying attention…or worse, people who don’t know the area, because there are a lot of curves and dips that you don’t realize are there until you are upon them.</p>
<p>I was always terrified that my dog would run into traffic and get hit by a car…even taught her to sit at corners so I could check for cars before we crossed. She got the message quickly and to this day when I take her for a walk she sits at any corner we come to if I look like I’m going to take her across the street.</p>
<p>On a similar note, I was driving in a neighborhood shortly after getting my driver’s license when a dog came RACING across the street. I had to brake pretty hard to avoid hitting the dog. At that point a woman came racing around the corner in a pickup truck looking for the dog and shot me a very nasty look. My thought: I don’t know how the dog got away from you, but should you really be angry with ME for almost hitting your dog? At least I avoided hitting him…to be fair, as hard as I had to brake I was probably going a little too fast.</p>
<p>To the OP-the dog should have been on a leash or at least trained to stay in the yard. A lot of people don’t like dogs and that should be taken into account when there is a public street involved. But I also agree that the school has nothing to do with it–I know plenty of people from my small State school who fit his attitude.</p>
<p>I don’t have much interaction with dogs, but do sometimes go with DD2 when she volunteers at the animal shelter. Is it my imagination that (at least among mutts) the smaller ones are generally more aggressive than the bigger ones? One of the people who runs the shelter also commented that squatting down to the level of a dog tends to make them less aggressive - is this true?</p>
<p>Dad<em>of</em>3: many many people who have small dogs allow them to behave aggressively, because an aggressive Yorkshire terrier, at five pounds, is just not the same problem as an aggressive 50-pound dog. In fact, my youngest standard poodle (53 pounds) was attacked last week (at off-leash park) by a 10-pound yorkie-poodle mix. Fortunately, my dog just ran away–and he’s faster than stink.</p>
<p>momof3, I didn’t say that you said to stay off public sidewalks. That alone, might give the impression I meant all public sidewalks. I didn’t mean that, and I didn’t say that.
What I said was “For those who don’t, momof3boys suggests that you stay off public sidewalks where negligent dog owners might live.”</p>
<p>I think the phrase about negligent owners is very important.</p>
<p>Isn’t there a threat with rabies? I had a nasty dog bite and the dog was quarantined. The dog was healthy, so I was healthy. I am glad the dog wasn’t taken away from the family and I would never press for that, but I don’t think it’s an accident that the dog bit the social worker!!! By the way I am 5’2" and was a size 4 (today’s size 0 – I was 24), and the owners said, “it’s the first time he ever bit an adult.” Perhaps that dog shouldn’t be allowed to remain with the family. None of the parents of the children reported the incident, but maybe they should have.</p>
<p>I was chased by a pack of unleashed dogs parking at me when I was 11. Thankfully, I do not have a dog phobia. I have had dogs on two occasions, and I am not particularly frightened when a dog jumps me, though I have been around dogs that do frighten me.</p>
<p>In HERLAND, a feminist “utopia” written around the turn of the century by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, there are no dogs because the all-woman society considers them to dangerous to children.</p>
<p>I think that’s a cruel idea to people who love their dogs, but it is reasonable to expect dog owners to keep everyone else safe, and yes, feeling safe. </p>
<p>I enjoy a friendly dog who bounds up to me, but I know many who do not.</p>
<p>As for the OP’s original posts there are jerks everywhere. The best thing is to let it go. And forget about the school and the t-shirt. Guilt by association is silly. </p>
<p>I’m sure there are plenty of jerks from my school; I’m sure some people think I’m one of them.</p>
<p>Paying3: I think adopting unwanted grown dogs is noble. I’m glad the obedience training makes them good family members.</p>
<p>My great sadness is not being able to have pets. I have had cats and dogs, and my doctor told me I was doing the right thing if I wanted emphysema. I thought I’d pass on that, so I don’t have pets.</p>
<p>I do have two college-educated children who’ve come home to live to get their masters at the local state U, and they are very expensive pets indeed.</p>
<p>I really dislike having dogs jump up on me.</p>
<p>Any suggestions as to how to discourage this with dogs? (dogs which belong to other people, as I do not own a dog myself)</p>
<p>I love dogs but despise having them jump on me. I taught my own dog not to do this just by turning my back on her every time she jumped up (and insisting that my kids and husband do the same). So she never got any positive reinforcement for it. </p>
<p>I do the same with other people’s dogs when they jump on me, not sure if it’s effective for the dog but at least it demonstrates to the owner that I don’t think it’s cute, and they will usually call their dogs away. (I never see unleashed dogs around here but I take my dog to the dog park pretty often.)</p>
<p>I’m with fendrock:
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<p>I especially don’t like it when I’m dressed for work, and they’ve just come from the dog park (muddy paws).</p>
<p>From what you say, I agree that the dog’s owner was rude, obnoxious, and a bad role model to the kids. If the dog somehow got away from him, he should have run over without your having to call and apologized. </p>
<p>One fine point - the law involved is not strictly speaking the “leash law” but the one that most likely prohibits dogs in your area from leaving their yards to roam at large. Obviously, no dog is required to wear a leash when properly confined to its own property. Some jurisdictions require enclosed fences or runs, others might consider that direct supervision of a compliant dog constitutes reasonable control. Even where fences are required, there’s a lot of leeway for a dog that gets out momentarily vs. one that’s an ongoing problem. </p>
<p>But the dog is not an issue in the neighborhood as far as you know, and there is no good reason to fear rabies. The boy brought the dog back quickly and apologized. I would also keep in mind that it’s a young dog, new to the street, and perhaps not as familiar with boundaries and territory as at home. In a first time situation like this, and if it involved running up to you in a friendly way, I would never report.</p>
<p>Not sure how to respond to the belief that a whole(!) suburban community can be described as “snotty” or that a school’s reputation can be marred by the behavior of a single alum.</p>
<p>Thanks younghoss, I stand corrected.</p>
<p>I think common sense is the operative word. There is a large difference between unlicensed or licensed dogs running loose and someone who is in their yard with their kids and their family pet. The chance of rabies is probably nil with the family dog. Loose dogs should be reported for the sake of the dog and others. Turning your back to a jumpy dog is a good way to handle, but it’s not difficult to train dogs not to jump although many people get dogs big and small and never train them properly. A well trained dog will stop or stay on command also but it takes alot of work and some maturing on the dog’s part and a brain larger than a peanut. I would be upset if a stranger yelled at my kids in my yard when I was standing there but no one is disagreeing that the guy was being a jerk.</p>
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<p>^^ The OP said she didn’t yell, and that the conversation with the boy took place about 100 feet away, after the boy had been sent to retrieve the dog. However, I agree that any legitimate issues should have been taken up with the dad.</p>
<p>I don’t see what this has to do with “how not to advertise your alma mater,” though. I’m assuming this is Lake Forest College? I wouldn’t think one thing or the other about the college based on the guy’s t-shirt. It’s not as though the college is responsible for his dog-training habits or his talking-to-neighbors habits.</p>
<p>My dog is leashed, and I wouldn’t allow himi to bother other people, but nonetheless people who are irrationally afraid of dogs don’t need to act as though the world should automatically recognize them or accommodate them.</p>