Let’s take a break from me ranting and raging at complete strangers, even though, believe me, I have many more stories than that and I will share them overtime. I just want to make maybe an appreciation, acknowledgement whatever-else-positive post to all of the good dog walkers in here and share some nice little stories that made my day and made me smile.

Aw, poor baby.

This happened quite recently, to be honest. As I previously mentioned, owning a bitch (female dog, get over it) means dealing with her being in heat (same as period). While dogs are in heat, they attract male dogs and usually there will be an attempt to mate between dogs. Currently, we don’t want puppies, so while walking our dog (called Ayda) we are extra careful, because male dogs can pick up the scent of a dog in heat from up to 3 miles away (almost 5km), especially when the female is in the male dog’s territory. That’s quite a distance, to be fair.

I was walking my dog on the usual place and I saw a dog walker / handler with dog off leash from some distance and I said at loud volume whether they could put their dog on a leash. They yelled a loud “yes” back and I smiled. Sometimes, it is just that easy. On this particular day, my dog was in heat. As the other dog and its owner came closer, I took a few steps towards them.

“Hey. I really appreciate you putting the dog on a leash. Mine is in heat at the moment, so I am just being extra careful. Thanks for being a responsible dog walker.” I smiled at the woman and at the dog that was sniffing around.

“Yeah, no worries. We understand. Aw, poor baby.” said the woman while she was looking at my dog. My dog got all happy and she got a few friendly pats on head from the stranger and we both proceeded to go our separate ways.

Sometimes, it really doesn’t require that much. I know that I completely didn’t have to explain myself. But I wanted to show appreciation and to be kind. Because, as you could have read in the previous posts, common sense is not that common anymore.

And “platz!”

I don’t even remember when this happened, but it did leave an impression on me and made a promise to myself that one day my dog will be equally trained (huh, I was naive, man). Another day, another walk. Another day me hoping for smart dog walkers and zero drama. I don’t remember anymore whether I was starting the walk or ending it, but we did encounter a dog without leash and a dog owner. After all of my experiences, you could guess what I started to think. I was slowly switching to all defensive mode, however, the few following seconds made me cancel the switching procedure and come back to normal.

The dog was running full speed towards us, my dog started to go into aggressive position and started barking and growling (I can’t really blame her anymore). However, as soon as I opened my mouth to ask the dog’s owner or walker, which I couldn’t see just yet, as the dog came out of a little street, I heard a firm command.

“Platz!” was the command coming from a stranger man. The dog’s obedience and reaction left me shocked in the best way possible. While the dog was running towards us, as it heard the command, it immediately dropped to the ground to a lying position and stopped mid-run. Bear in mind that the dog didn’t even see the owner, it could just see a fellow canine and me. I was surprised and I stopped walking.

The dog didn’t move a muscle, he was just patiently waiting for it’s hooman and then, when the human appeared, he got called to heel. He obeyed, heeled and they both passed us in absolute peace, elegance and sway.

I didn’t even dare to speak and say thanks or something, but this really left an impression. And, to just add to all of my stories before, this is how a trained dog looks like. Bulletproof commands even if they can’t see the owner. I know how difficult and hard it is to achieve this, but we should at least try. And while we get there, there is a reason why leash was invented. I’m not saying that the dog should be at all times of its existence leashed. Hundred percent no. They should roam and enjoy the freedom they have. But once someone asks you to leash your dog, please, do it.

Thank you for reading. Next part coming next Thursday.