Dog Repellent

[schoonergirl]

Today as we were walking Balou and Trillian after work the people 2 houses up came outside and gave us what for. Apparently Balou peeing on their bushes is Not OK. Despite the fact that their bushes are perfectly green they are displeased about him doing that. In fact they are so displeased that they have had to put out "Dog Repellent." And

Comments

[lyssabits]

Yeah I'm kinda with naomi_traveller here. ;) While I think the dog repellent is overkill, as someone who had a pretty significant fear of dogs for a long time due to having been bitten by one (I still have the scar!) as a kid, I'm pretty sympathetic to people who are afraid of dogs. We had neighbors who were afraid of our silly golden retriever, and while I thought it was a baseless fear, we made sure she didn't bother them.

So yeah, the bushes thing is stupid, but I was a little dismayed to see her fear so casually dismissed. I think my co-worker's fear of all animals of any kind is ridiculous, but then, I also try to keep the animals at work away from her.

[lianthe]

I think if the request was to keep the dogs away from HER, or walk the dogs on the other side of the street when she's out in her yard or something... that's one thing. But to ask that they not walk past their house AT ALL is ridiculous. What, does the woman get freaked out just KNOWING a dog walked by? This is ridiculous

[lyssabits]

Our family is *totally* rude about the dogs they've had. The Dog Goggles are strong with them. It always made me uncomfortable how confrontational Papa got when people would give him shit about it. There are leash laws for a reason, and it's not unreasonable for people to want that law to be adhered to. The people who'd quiz him whether he had a bag to pick up droppings were over the line, but they really should keep Becks on the leash, for her own safety and everyone else's.

As for the Arroyo.. you know, there are a lot of people who do irresponsible shit. I wouldn't trust dogs there to be off leash any more than on the street. Which isn't to say that they shouldn't be allowed off leash, just that I for sure ain't gonna approach them without trepidation.

[schoonergirl]

I'm sorry you got bitten. :(

But I didn't dismiss the lady's fear. If she had actually come out and said she was uncomfortable and could we keep the dogs away from her that would be one thing. However she didn't say that, instead she had to some up with some lame "your dogs are hurting my bushes so walk on the other side of the street" thing. I object to being asked not to walk on a public sidewalk. We always keep the dogs on leashes. And since it is so very obvious that she is afraid of dogs we stop up the street a ways when we see her going to or from her car.

[lyssabits]

Dismissed insofar as it seemed here that your acknowledgment of her fear seemed to come with an eyeroll, not that you dismissed it to her face. I think if you're correctly diagnosing her bullshit about the bushes to actually mask a fear of dogs, then that's really the salient point and not so much that she's being ridiculous about the bushes or the public sidewalk. Because both of those things ARE ridiculous.. but clearly the underlying problem isn't completely rational, but is understandable.