Furocious
I walked past the indoor fenced kennels of the shelter to which I had just delivered food, towels, sheets and toys. I stopped at each gate…Tanner, Chubby, Lulu… putting my hand flat on the fence gate of each, allowing each dog to smell my hand. Then, in the universal language of an open-hand, allowed them each to take a good whiff.
Making my way down the line, a hale of barking surrounded me. A black lab mix named General jumped as if a pogo-stick had replaced his tail. Then, my eyes fell on a disheveled, scruffy looking character.
“Oh, a terrier,” I said to myself, immediately transferring all my affection for terriers into my next [stupid] move, which was to shove my hand directly into the kennel.
Snap! Crunch!
“Ow, OWW!” is all I could think (peppered with a few choice expletives that ran through my brain). That-dog-just-bit-me. I was incredulous – maybe, even, a little insulted. Didn’t “Sparky” ever hear: don’t bite the hand that feeds you? And following the blood blister that formed on my right index finger, along with the flush of warm throbbing around the joint, that little dude was still looking to take me on.
“Yeah, come on, come and get me” his little, scraggly face was saying “I can take you.” Yeah, I know.
I refer to this as Unfortunate Incident #1.
While waiting for my husband outside a drug store in Annapolis, my two dogs and I sat in the car enjoying the scenery, which included two other canines leashed to a picnic table outside a café. While sitting there, the Golden had somehow gotten entangled in its leash becoming unable to completely turn around toward its owner, who was sitting at the table.
Pay close attention: this is where good deeds go bad.
I told my husband I might mention to the woman that her dog was entangled. Walking just a few short steps toward her while trying to get her attention, “M’am, m’am?” —still a good six feet away from her-—the second dog, a Shepherd mix, ran around the Golden, leaped at me, its jaws landing on my right thigh, biting through my new shorts! I never saw it coming.
I refer to this as Unfortunate Incident #2.
Never a dog bite in my entire life until these two, which happened within two weeks of each other. Furocious, like Confucius, acknowledges “the superior man is modest in his speech, but excels in his action.” This is no more profound than when dealing with dogs that ‘read’ and interpret movements. In this ABC report with The Pet Doctor, Marty Becker, viewers receive a good primer on techniques on how to approach a dog for the first time http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/proper-approach-pet-11394390.
In her 1993 award-winning article focusing on the interaction between children and dogs, Vicky DuGruy points out that dogs “don’t think in the same way that we do. They look at the world around them with a different perspective.” When 3- or 4-year olds scrunch and pull a dog’s ears with no parental supervision, often accompanied by laughter from witless witnesses, I cringe. I am convinced the dog may be driven to bite (who wouldn’t?). In summary: physical damage occurs, dog is blamed, child ends up with dog-phobia the rest of their life. In her full article, which you can read here, the tips are timeless http://www.canismajor.com/dog/kidsdog2.html
Furocious fully accepts responsibility for Sparky’s need to protect himself in an already stressful environment. In Unfortunate Incident #2, note that the owner of the Shepherd mix threw her hands up in the air as a warning signal for me to not approach – but all too late. The dog had already bitten through the fabric of my shorts. If owners know their dog may attack, it is probably more prudent to leave it home or leash it more tightly to you or an object near you. Had I not been Furocious, dog admirer extraordinaire, this situation might have ended differently for the dog. A child who’d lost a ball or a person who dropped paperwork anywhere near this dog would have suffered far more undeniable and inexcusable damage than a lost pair of shorts. As dog owners, and those who wish to interact with dogs, we have a shared responsibility.
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