Greetings,

I had an incident today that I thought I would share with the group as an overall observation of the common dog owners in my community that have led me to the conclusion that most are people of limited perspicacity. This pass Sunday afternoon my girlfriend and I took my German Shepherd to a nice park along a nearby river that has a short, but beautiful path through wooded areas along two playgrounds for children.

Typically our walks are uneventful and relaxing, but today would prove the exception to that state of normality. As we turned the bend in the path heading back to my car we came upon a large gathering that we suspect was a family reunion at a picnic area that adjoined one of the playgrounds. Hidden among the group was a mixed large-breed dog weighing between 60-70lbs. on a tie-out connected to a ground stake.

Certainly most people of average intelligence would have been aware of the fact that a ground stake when placed into earth that had the days prior been saturated with rain would serve as a poor anchor to a dog as the one described above. Unfortunately, the owner of the mixed large-breed dog lacked such acuteness of perception and the dog upon seeing my own puppy ripped the ground stake entrusted to restrain him from the earth. With ears back and cowl up the dog began to charge straight at my puppy teeth in full display. I stepped in front of my puppy and said very sternly and firmly “Nein,” as it was the first thing that came to mind, and the dog retreated briefly. My girlfriend with mace in hand called upon the dog owner to retrieve his dog to which he replied “ohhh, he won’t hurt ya.” The dog once again sought to attack my puppy after its short retreat, but I was able to step in front of my puppy again preventing this. Finally, a child grabbed the tie-out of the dog and forced it away in what must have been no more than two minutes, but seemed much longer in the heat of the moment.

I told the owner that it was a violation of our local city ordinance to have a dog off a leash and that I would have “tort him right into the poor house had his dog attacked either of us or my puppy.” I also told the owner that he should learn to read his dog as it was clear from his lax attitude and negligence that he knew nothing about dogs. Luckily age has given me restraint that I did not possess as a younger man when I would have certainly fed this man his own heart in front of his entire family.

Overall, I am amazed at the inability of this individual and countless others like him to understand dog behavior when they have taken it upon themselves to own one. I would hazard to guess that less than 20% of dog owners actually take the time to read a book or internet article on dog training or behavior. Certainly the members of this website are a rare breed in that they spend more than fifteen minutes of their lives educating themselves about dogs. The unfortunate thing is that it is the dogs that suffer most from owners either incapable of understanding dog behavior or who lack any common sense.

Rather than leave this post on a negative note though I’d like to point out that my German Shepherd of German bloodlines who has trained in Schutzhund for five months now behaved perfectly making no aggressive movements toward the dog. Dieter stood his ground brave and ready, but did not for one second lose control remaining the very definition of an obedient dog. I expect absolute loyalty from my Dieter boy, mein sohn, and I was ready to give it return as that aggressive dog was only going to get to him by coming over my dead body.

So, in closing I would like to say thanks to everyone on this site for being more than the common dog owners of limited perspicacity. The world needs more people like the ones found on the Leerburg Dog Training forum.

I totally agree. Just last week I had to use the leerburg techniques. I am the pack leader I take care of other dogs.

I was walking both my pits and a dog came running at me. I put them behind me and ended up kicking the other dog. My recieved some scuff ups from the pavement on there feet but a near disaster was prevented.

I told the owner I would report them next time and not one word. These people are annoying.

But thanks to leerburgs articles I was able to control two pitbulls who were on the verge of being attacked by staying in charge.