I just need to vent about something that happened between a friend/relative and Truman last night.

We were hosting Thanksgiving for 22 people yesterday. It was quite busy and hectic throught the day with everyone milling around my house eating, and drinking and having fun.

Truman was crated in my bedroom, being very vocal letting us know he wasn't happy to be missing the party. After everyone left, the only people here were myself, my husband and *******.

I took Truman outside to do his business, and let him have the run of the house while I cleaned up. The friend, my husband, and Truman were hanging in the living room while I bustled around cleaning. My husband passed me in the hall on the way the bathroom and told me that Truman had growled at our friend because he had stood over him.

I hurried to the living room to find our friend facing Truman with both hands on his collar, his face about 8 inches from his, trying to force him to the ground! He wasn't budging and was staring him in the face. I quickly bumped him out of the way, and returned Truman to his crate.

After questioning ****** about what happened, I heard a different story. Turns out he was straddling him pretending to ride him like a horse. He said "giddy up" and slapped him on the butt. He then growled.

I tried to explain to him how dangerous what he did was. Both the "riding" the dog, and then the trying to force him down was. He could have done some really serious damage to his face if he decided to bite this virtual stranger trying to intimidate him. It pretty much fell on deaf ears.

Thanks for letting me rant! I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving!

In the infamous words of Ron White ...." you can't fix stupid"...

How scary for you! I bet your heart jumped into your throat!

I had a similar incident last year this time. While I always ask guests to ignore the dog, a very good friend (he is a cop and works with the K9s) had been drinking a little and figured that he didn’t need to any more. Quinn was in a down/stay in the living room, on his bed and out of the way, and this friend decided to go pet him. He got down on his hands and knees and sort of rolled Quinn on to his side and was rubbing his belly (I was told this after the fact, as I was doing dishes). I was about 15 feet away and heard Quinn growling under his breath, his warning growl. I looked up and the friend was on his hands and knees with one arm over the dog and growling back! He even said, “Look, he likes me!”

I yelled at him to get off as I was running over there. The dog jumped up and threw my friend off balance and pinned him down with his front legs. That was about the time I got there and grabbed the dog in a rear choke and pulled him off. There was thankfully no bite, but I just about had a heart attack! From there on out, the dog is crated when we have ANYONE over that is not around the dog on a very regular basis. This man also mentioned that it is what Ceasar would do to make a dog submit.

Boy did I learn a lesson!

And your husband thought it was ok?

And that is why nobody is ever left alone with my dogs...

My husband can be pretty stupid when it comes to dogs as well. Our opinions differ when it comes to training, but he respects that Truman is my dog, and he (my husband) is to follow my rules when it comes to my dog. Although, he obviously needed reminding. He has his own dog, a black lab, that he is training to hunt, and he can train him however he likes.

Believe me, he got ripped up one side, and down the other for allowing that scenario to take place. Truman is not a goofy black lab that will take that sort of abuse and then cover you with kisses. His thought is that **** is family, and Truman should respect her. How the hell is a dog supposed to know that a girl he's met about 6 times in 2 years is "family". Also someone who has earned a dogs respect wouldn't "ride" him, or physically force him to submit.

I don't think he realized the danger ***** had placed herself in by trying to forcibily down Truman. He wasn't in the room at the time. He had walked out after the initial growl letting her "correct" him. Stupid man. His daughter could have ended up very disfigured. I think he gets the gravity of the situation after I explained what I saw. This will not be an issue in the future cause the dog will be crated unless I am there in direct control.

Lesson learned!

Yikes! Those stories made me cringe. I might trust my current dogs to behave themselves with stupid visitors but I don't trust those visitors! If I don't have my eyes on the dogs at all times they are 'put away' downstairs in the family room on their beds (I did have crates for them but lent them out to new puppy owner friends). I don't know what it is about some people but common sense just escapes them when it comes to following simple instructions. We have a Rottweiler and a chocolate Lab and it never fails, when the cable guy comes to the house/workers or any sort etc., they all want to fuss over the dogs. Both dogs are polite, though excitable, and I am not worried about anyone getting bit but I do worry about someone getting knocked over or a grunt being mistaken for a growl (one of the dogs grunts because she's out of shape, ha ha) so I have started putting the dogs either 'away' or in a down-stay on their beds and telling the visitor they are protection trained and not to bother them. Big lie since neither dog knows more than off-leash obedience, ha ha, and the Lab less than that, but it works. Heck, neither of them seldom bark at visitors, I have to encourage it if I don't know the person coming to the door. Kind of ridiculous actually.

I am glad nobody got hurt in either of your stories. Yikes...again.

Is Truman the dog in the photo?? Gorgeous!

Yup, thats Truman. He outweighs my relative by 30 lbs. Funny thing is she is super smart.

I'm just glad it wasn't my dog that gave her the reality slap that she needs! It sure gave me one though.