Having had Piper for ten months or so, we have begun to develop a mental list of "Pet Pet Peeves". While not egregious, they merit attention here in our blog and are listed below in no particular order.
1. Owners who force their dogs to spend cold, wet days and nights on the concrete stoop or driveway, or in an unheated van, year-round. Take them inside, please -- at least into your garage, or build them a dog house in that big back yard of yours next to that nice, big equipment shed.
2. Owners who leave their dogs in the front yard, off-leash, because they are "well-trained and never a problem." Got news for ya, neighbor -- they're a problem for us walkers and our dogs. Your dogs aren't THAT well trained, and when they come running out to meet us, sometimes they're friendly and sometimes they're not. Put them on a leash, please, or take them back to school.
3. At the local dog park (a): Owners who bring their big, aggressive, I'm-in-charge-here dogs, and then let those alphas have their way with the dogs who are there to have fun. Get off your cell phones, please, and take care of your animals. Better yet, take them home. Also, potty your dogs before bringing them inside the fence. Also, clean up the potty, please.
4. At the local dog park (b): Owners who send their young children, unsupervised, to take their dog into the park through the safety gates, having told them nothing about how the safety gates work. They work like this, Mom & Dad: you open the first gate, take your dog in, close the gate, unleash your dog, then open the second gate and let your dog into the park. You do not let little Susie stand there with both gates open, dogs all around wanting to meet the new dog, while she freezes, confused and frightened, not knowing what to do next because you aren't there. Dogs will get out, as Piper and several others almost did last week.
5. Owners -- like us -- whose dogs jump up on people. We still haven't signed Piper up with Auntie Sally for Obedience School, which we have delayed because ... well, just because. Hopefully in April (of this year!) we'll get going on this, because we hate inviting people to our house and having to manage her "five-minute-furry-flurry" of aggressive affection. She does settle and becomes quite the good dog after that, but we've got to teach her about "four on the floor" before she alienates all of our family and friends. Just to keep things in perspective, however, it should be said that she is probably better behaved around humans than I was when I was a bratty little preacher's kid (David speaking here).
6. Dogs who fake out their owners into thinking they need to go out at night to do their business, when in fact they just want to go out and check out the moon or protect us from squirrels. Piper is just a bit manipulative. In doggy-land, where right/wrong does not exist, she does not see this as a problem.
7. Dogs who take what is not theirs. Dogs who think everything actually IS theirs (e.g., shoes, dinner napkins, or, by far the worst, UNFINISHED CROSSWORD PUZZLES). Ditto here about doggy-land.
So that about covers it. Let us know if we missed anything.
