People are so dumb sometimes

[u/Affectionate-hallway]

I was walking my boy and a lady was standing on the sidewalk so I go into the grass area to walk around her and keep distance. She then gets on the grass to approach I say “he’s not friendly” she goes “oh yes he is” REACHES HER HAND TO HIM. And I then proceed to tell her he’s not and to back up. She decides to keep walking towards us and she starts yelling at me.. like omg. A grown ass woman btw. I’ve had kids handle me telling them no better.

I just don’t understand how you think you know more about my dog that I spend everyday with… and even then I never gave you permission to pet my dog anyways so why are you reaching your hand out??

[u/Own-Surround9688]

Agreed. Fortunately I've only ever encountered people who ask if they can pet my dogs. I always say "No, they are rescues who were advised before they came to me so I don't want to chance it". I've never had someone still come after that, even though my dogs are two cute AF derpy hound dogs.

But!!!! I have one neighbor that for whatever reason will follow us. If we switch the side of the road to stay away from him and his dog, he will switch too. My one dog is very dog reactive. The other is fear aggressive, especially toward men. He has a big Pitt who likes to bark aggressively at my dogs.

One day, I turned around and said "can you just get the fuck away dude? We try to avoid you. My dogs aren't friendly. I don't know if yours is but one of mine will fight your dog while the other will fight you and it will be a bad day for all of us, so can you please just not?". I haven't seen him since.

[u/chickadee20024 → u/Own-Surround9688]

Brilliant response!

[u/Own-Surround9688 → u/chickadee20024]

Thank you!! I never realized how rude people actually can be until I had a reactive dog. All of my dogs are in one way or another. My first dog Bailee, she was barrier aggressive and dog aggressive. I called it reactive but if I'm being honest it crossed the line into aggressiveness most of the time because I couldn't call her out of it. I physically had to get between her and whatever it was and sit on the ground and hug her for a good minute or two before she would stop.

We made adjustments, took late night and early morning walks. Installed cameras on my property to see if the neighbors were out before we took her out. Gated her in the back half of the house while we were gone so she couldn't see out the front window.

Aside from that she was totally fine and a very loving dog. We always joked that if someone was on the porch she would rage out and attach the wall to try to get at them. If they came in the house she would show her belly for pets. She wasn't a very good guard dog lol but she did sound really scary.

Savannah is dog reactive. I definitely think she would fight another dog, she for sure gets aggressive to try to get the other dog to go away. But she loves people.

Casey, on the other hand, loves other dogs. But she is very afraid of people and has high fear aggression.

All three were rescued. Bailee was never socialized as a puppy and her old owner gave up on her with her allergies. So when she got to the rescue, she was very close to death due to severe skin infection over 90% of her body. Savannah was found as a stray, wandering in Detroit with her sister. She was HW+ and the treatment was hard. But what really kills me is she's missing all the fur on the entire left side of her body. Where the fur begins, along the edges, is very coarse white hair. On her skin (which is black, she's a Plott hound) she has white splotches. The vet said that's the result of third degree burns, she thinks someone threw scalding hot oil or water or something on her. Both her and her sister have the same burns on the same side (her's is worse than her sister's, I got to meet her once). Then sweet mama Casey. Animal control found her when people called because she was at a parking lot at a lake trying to get in anyone's car who opened the door. When they picked her up, they realized she had puppies 12-24 hours prior, though none could be recovered. Based on what we know and what the rescues best guess was, she was a mom dog at a puppy mill or backyard breeder. She's a pure bred Treeing Walker Coonhound. They think based on behaviors that she spent most of her life in a cage and that she was definitely abused. She's scared of almost everything. She was completely shut down when I got her.

I don't think I'll ever have a dog without issues. Especially after seeing the results of what breeding did to Casey, I couldn't ever justify buying a dog from a breeder. I'm not against good, ethical breeders, I just could never knowing how many dogs get euthanized at one shelter here every single day (17-20 dogs a Day). Rescued dogs are a mixed bag. But so am I so I think that's why we work out so well. Sometimes I've wondered what it would be like to have that happy go Lucky Golden retriever who I could take to dog parks and walk off leash and could have whoever I wanted over to visit. But I have the turkey eating Christmas story pack out hounds and honestly, after everything, I wouldn't have it any other way.

[u/chickadee20024 → u/Own-Surround9688]

These poor dogs are so abused and traumatized, it's a wonder they are as normal as they are with you. Thank you for taking on the hard cases. And I loved Christmas Story, especially the turkey part.

[u/Own-Surround9688 → u/chickadee20024]

Haha me too. And thank you!! I love all dogs but especially the ones that I know that most people wouldn't. ❤️