a rant for crappy dog owners everywhere...

i don't know what's been so weird about the last day, but i've run into two really crappy dog owners in a row, and they've both made me SO MAD!

yesterday, a big group of us hikers stopped by a guy's house who was in our guidebook. he regularly invites hikers over for free ice cream and a game of croquet. as we approached his driveway, a large lab ran out into the gravel road and "welcomed" us with growling. a lady followed the dog and grabbed its collar and led it back into the yard. i assume she was the owner. she was at least the handler for the time we were there.

we all had a good sit on his porch as we ate our ice cream. all the while, this lady is trying to figure out what to do with her dog. at first, she puts it in her car. then i see her walking it on a leash. she walks it around. she brings it close to us. the whole time, the dog is never relaxed.

when we all go to play croquet, swayze gets up to come to me. swayze's coming directly to me, and the lady and that stupid dog are in between us. i didn't think anything of it because the lady has the dog on a leash (and a good owner/handler would be reading their dog's body language or have it under control), but when swayze got even with the dog, the dog jumps out and attacks swayze. i didn't see the original nip. when i saw it, the dog was at her neck, so i ran over, checked her neck really well, and she seemed okay. the lady didn't even apologize!!!! or even reprimand her dog for its behavior!!!! she was just like, "oh.. ok. my dog just jumped on yours. that's cool..." she tied it to the railing of the porch after that.

turns out, after closer inspection, the dog's original bite landed on swayze's rear and gave her a single puncture wound to her hindquarter. it will heal, but this morning, i would have been out of camp by 8, but instead i had to boil some water to make a sterile flush for her spot. also, that stupid dog that bit her is an iraq dog that's probably suffering from PTSD. AND the lady is apparently in vet school???!!! how in the hell are you in vet school and you don't have the common sense to keep a post-iraqi dog on leash away from other dogs???? and you can't read dog body language???

and then this morning in camp, some day hiker brings his FOUR very large dogs into camp off leash and lets them just roam around everyone's tents. by this time, i am already in the process of boiling swayze's water for her wound flush, so all of my stuff is already packed up. but it's still so inconsiderate of someone to bring their dogs into camp and let them sniff around tents. we are hikers. we live in the woods. we deal with bears and other large animals, and we hike upwards of 15 miles a day. granted, it doesn't make a lot of sense that a bear would be in camp in the morning time, but if someone had wanted to sleep in, those dogs sure would have ruined that.

so i'm by the bridge, and one of his huskies is approaching us. i stand up between swayze and the dog, and i ask the guy if his dog is friendly and let him know that my dog was bitten yesterday. he says yes, so i move and let them meet. they haven't met for five seconds and his dog is growling at swayze, so i move in and block his dog. i ask him to take his dog away and he says to me, "ah, i've owned dogs all my life, and it's fine. if they'd have wanted to do anything, he'd have done it by now." so i told him, "yeah, and that's what the lady said yesterday, too, and my dog got bit. could you get control of your dog?" and then he took me by surprise. he said, "it's not a f---in' private campground.

i'm from the south. and in the south, an older gentleman would NEVER address a younger lady with that word. but i realized i wasn't dealing with a gentleman, and i quickly lost my lady. i told him, "i realize it's not a f---in' private campground, but when i ask you to get control of your dog, you should do it!"

i have been so angry at people with dogs! how ignorant can you be??? if you have an even slightly aggressive dog, leash the damned thing so that good dogs and good owners may enjoy themselves accordingly! arrrrrr!!!