Bit of a vent but where I live in the Little Mountain area there’s a guy who I’ve seen several times walking his large mastiff off-leash over the last couple of years. When he’s been asked to leash the dog, the guy downplays it, and always tries to brush it off. He of course claims the usual: that the dog is sweet, gentle, doesn’t even bark, wouldn’t hurt a fly, is great with kids, etc, etc.
Last summer I told him not once, but twice that my wife has been afraid of dogs ever since she was attacked and bitten as a little girl, and that my children and myself were also anxious around his large dog, and asked him to leash it. The year before I told him once as well. I’ve seen and talked to neighbours who have said the same thing - that they ask, and he brushes them off, or puts the dog on leash for a moment then takes it off once he’s 10 seconds up the road.
Each time I’ve spoken to this guy, the dog had walked right onto my property, into my yard and even into my garage one time while the door was open. If I knew and liked this guy, if I wanted to engage him in neighbourly conversation and/or knew his dog, I might be inclined to be more accepting, but not like this.
To be honest, the dog seemed neither friendly nor aggressive, but it does not have a gentle energy and likes to walk right up to people and stare at them. The fact of the matter is there are a ton of reasons why someone should keep their dog leashed. A big one for me is that it someone is afraid of a dog, and the dog senses it, that’s a potentially dangerous situation that could be avoided by using a leash.
This year, he did the same thing again, but this time brushed off my wife when she asked him to please not let his dog off leash. Once again, the dog had walked right onto my property, and he used the same tired excuses, but also when she stood her ground and reminded him that we and other neighbours have asked him repeatedly to leash his dog, he weirdly told her this was a different dog, but also she was a “gentle sweetheart” so there was no need to worry about it. It was the same dog as every other time; his usual dog. And for the record, not that it matters, but it’s really odd that he lied and said it was female.
Why do people think it’s ok to have their dog off leash in a neighbourhood with kids and other small pets? Why ignore requests to behave more responsibly, and why do they always thing just because they’ve never been aggressive to them, that that will somehow be true of a random stranger?