Life's too short to deal for any length of time with stupid people. My former career as a firefighter/paramedic taught me that. All you can do is protect yourself and what's yours from them. You can't teach someone who doesn't think they need it, change that person's beliefs or help them in any way. Just pray that someday, they open their eyes and mind to new things before anyone gets hurt.

Isn't that the truth! Very well stated.

Don't worry too much. I've noticed almost all dogs will backslide a little bit now and then. I doubt one "training" session with the plumber damaged the dog any. Also I've noticed that even when a dog does go backward a little retraining takes a whole lot less time than the original training.

Speaking of which Molly is sitting in her crate raising a ruckus. She hasn't cried in her crate since the first week after she showed up. She just had a 2.6 mile off leash walk today too.

I basically went back to square one this morning (turning my back on him when he is acting stupid, click and reward for all four on the floor ... and not barking his fool head off at me. He did calm back down very quickly. I also worked on messing with his collar and leading him around by his collar. This morning (in the presence of his treats) he didn't fight me at all. I made double sure to tell him what a very good boy he was. I even had him sitting on command ... for the first time (we have been working on more pressing issues). So I guess yesterday was just a bad day, overall. He probably knew I wasn't really feeling up to par and decided to see how far he could push me. He definitely needs work before we try teaching the down ... I can just see my nose disappearing when I try to lure him down

I think, however, that I am going to have to put his crate inside the kennel (or even better yet, the utility room ... as long as he stays off the walls) and work on his into and out of the crate behavior and allowing the leash to be put on. In and out of the crate isn't something I have worked on much yet, focused on being calm to put the leash on, but I think his psychotic behavior as he flies out of his crate is contributing to the even worse behavior when I grab his collar to put on the leash. This collar issue is a lot of work ... I haven't been able to decide if he just doesn't like it, or if he has learned (before I got him) that bad things happen when people grab your collar. He gets a rather strange look in his eyes and just totally flips out. I know she said he would bite her when she tossed him off the couch (not literally tossed ... my word, not hers) and I wonder if the collar issue was part of that?

Anyway, just thought I would mention that he was much better this morning. If the plumber hadn't done what he did, I would like to show him a training session to show 1. that I work with the dog and 2. that he is making progress ... but it would be totally pointless (because you can't fix stupid and I am sure I would be doing it wrong anyway) and, after the other day, counterproductive because he would think his little "session" fixed the dog *sigh* I don't know why I care, but it still bothers me that he thinks me incompetent. I don't usually give a flying poo what other people think, but I am a little more sensitive when it comes to people thinking I don't know jack about my passions or that I am somehow mistreating or mishandling my dogs.

Who's the plumber... I mean, why care what some plumber thinks about you and your dog?

I'm going to be a little more blunt then some of the other posters Elisabeth.

1. It is your job to protect your dogs from idiots.

2. There are a lot of idiots out there.


This really concerns me:

"What happened next was what was very disturbing to me. In spite of my requests, pleas, and demands to leave my dog alone, the plumber proceeded to "show me how to calm him down." This entailed BENDING OVER THE DOG, PHYSICALLY RESTRAINING HIM, AND TRYING TO MAKE HIM SIT! Roka responded by looking at him like he was a total idiot. I was horrified and was sure this "dog expert" was going to get a face bite. Finally, he ended his idiocy and let Roka return to his psychosis. I quickly finished refreshing his straw and stuffed him back in his crate."



If you requested, pleaded, and demanded someone to leave your dog along and was ignored you really need to work on this. This is not a good situation at all.

And if you could not handle the situation on your property on your territory so to speak what are you going to do out in public?

In my mind this is not a plumber issue, it is not the dog issue but it is an owner issue. You must learn to protect your dog.

There is absolutely no way anyone would of gotten close enough to one of my dogs to even attempt to physically restrain my dog. There is no way anyone would get close enough to feed one of my dogs without my knowledge.

You must protect your dog. If not, it's not the plumber or you that pays the price. It's always the dog.

I would just tell him that you didn't invite him to interfere or be "helpful with the dog." Just stick to plumbing. Seriously. Why should you care what the plumber thinks about anything but the pipes?

I usually start off with a polite, "Please don't touch my dog."

If that fails, that quickly becomes, "Take your hands off my dog, or I will take them off. If you touch my dog again, you and I are going to have a serious problem."

As far as people offering me unsolicited training advice, it's usually something along the lines of, "That's a very interesting opinion. I'll have to think about it for awhile."

If they keep on foaming at the mouth after that, it's usually a blunt, "Apparently you can't take a hint. I'm not interested in what you have to say about my dog, so save your breath."


Then again, I'm an ass.

David and Melissa, I don't care what most people think about most things. But like I said, I am proud of my dogs and spend a lot of time, money, and effort to ensure that they are happy, loved, and well-cared for and tend to take offense when people act like I am a complete idiot and don't have a clue. He also had me on edge because he had asked me earlier if we had a puppy mill going on (yes, dude, and that's why NONE OF MY DOGS HAVE PUPPIES), I guess now the definition of puppy mill means multiple dogs, whether they are breeding or not. I know it doesn't matter what anyone thinks, even of my dogs, and I need to work on this ... it will make my life easier.

Betty, I appreciate candor and don't take offense to being chided. I realize that this was my failing and it will not happen again. I actually do better out in public when I don't need the person to finish doing their job correctly. This is the fourth plumber we have had out to our house and our tub finally drains and the house does not reek of sewer gas. Our plumbing issues have been going on for over a year and a half. While it is my job to protect my dogs, we also have to get this problem taken care of. As soon as he got away from Roka, I put the dog up and didn't get him out again until the dumb plumber left. The plumber was under the house when I took the dog out, there shouldn't have been an issue except he decided to take a break from his job and stick his nose where it didn't belong.

I don't know what more you can do when you are right there letting your dog relieve himself and the idiot won't listen to you. When someone has so little respect or regard for other people and their wishes that being assertive has no effect, what do you do? Since the dog was on a chain because I was cleaning his crate (he had dumped his water and it was a wet, slimy mess and cold outside) and COULD NOT hold him while doing this, I could not simply walk away and take the dog elsewhere. What more do you do? Hit him? It won't help my dogs if I go to jail for assault either and being a young woman home alone with a man I barely know, I would have no defense if he were to retaliate. Complaining to the supervisor may prevent future issues, but I can prevent future issues by simply not having my dogs out when he is there. If he is there too long, I will take the dogs to the park to potty ... the 15 mile drive would be well worth it to avoid the worry of him doing something stupid again.

Alyssa, I love your posts When I can back up a threat I am not afraid to make one, but I try not to allow my German shepherd mouth to overload my chihuahua ass, lol. If my dad was around, there would not have been a problem, I would not have been afraid of overstepping if he was there to back me up (physically). I try to avoid physical confrontations that I cannot win.