It doesn’t surprise me that I would have been at fault, but my only hope is that it scared this imbecile sufficiently to keep her from sticking her mitts where they clearly don’t belong.

As for the dog, it is a safe bet that he would have bitten had she tried to gain entry to the vehicle. What bothered me was the fact that his head was NOT out the window according to her. She was chasing his head with her hands INSIDE THE TRUCK through the window according to her own testimony. Thankfully the dog had the wherewithal to avoid her unwelcome groping with tact and decorum.

***

I gotta say I would NEVER suggest in any way that any specific dog of mine could/would bite in any situation, even though, in theory, any dog will under if there’s a “perfect storm” of circumstances.

That’s because years ago I interviewed a dog-bite lawyer, and he said anything that suggested you “knew your dog was dangerous” was bloody red meat to him if the dog actually bit someone — or even knocked someone over, even in play.

He included into this category a “Beware of Dog” sign on your gate, by the way. I used to have one, not because I ever thought my dogs would bite an intruder but because I wanted people to stay out of my yard.

After interviewing this guy, I took the signs down and wrote about it. It wasn’t too long after that that I got an e-mail from a man in IL who’d read that column and started small business making “Dog in Yard” signs.

Perfect! It says there are dogs in the yard (so strangers will stay out) but doesn’t say one word about what the dogs might do if you walk in.

Nice looking signs, and a nice guy making them. Win-win.

Here’s the company.

I’m very ambivalent about CM. I think he’s done a lot for making people aware that dogs need more energy input from people to be happy and psychologically normal pets, and that training CAN fix a lot of problems. I think he’s got phenomenal timing and ability to read a dog. I have no problem with him as entertainment. (I think some of the ‘look how reactive this dog is’ that bothers me the most is created partially by editing - showing a lower stress interaction and then the overhthreshold response that may or may not have gone with THAT reaction- it’s almost never shown as a continuous take.

But I really hate the dominance paradigm. I’m not denying that dogs have a hierarchy (Gee, really? Who knew? :P) but I hate the oversimplified way that people use it as an excuse to be a bully. I hate the pssst thing. I hate the neckjabbing. And I *really* hate the way the public seems to have glommed onto the ‘magic’ of those things that seem so dramatic, and completely missed the utility (and MUCH wider applicability) of the less concrete stuff.

In _Bones Would Rain From The Sky_, Suzanne Clothier relates a story about a woman asking “Where do you tie the knots?” about a leash that had knots tied in it and missed the entire POINT of the training session that SC had demo’d. People are superstitious. They like NAMES for things and techniques, and concrete “Do this and it will fix that” type answers. Behavior (in any critter) is never that simple. Away from the CM folks, I’m seeing wide acceptance (equally erroneous) of the “Look at that!” game from Leslie McDevitt’s Control Unleashed book, performed without understanding that you’re SHAPING a behavior, not simply marking an existing behavior that you want to modify, and without the understanding that you have GOT to build the foundation of calmness before LAT can be used with any degree of success for the purpose McDevitt assigns it. It’s not so much that I think it’s necessary for folks to know and understand WHY training works (not entirely. Quadrents of behavior are super-useful but still limited, although I don’t like the black box thing either.) but I think it’s ESSENTIAL to understand that advanced techniques build on basic ones. You see this in horses, too - newbies and re-riders who want to break colts and train mustangs because it looks so simple and easy when Clinton Anderson does it on RFD; dressage newbies who want to learn to do the upper level moves like tempi and piaffe without being able to sit a trot correctly or really understanding and FEELING lead changes, seeing them as just something you simply ASK the horse and the horse does it if they’re trained, not something that involves YOU as director as much as horse as performer.

TL;DR? People are dumb and want instant solutions that fix any problems and tend to glomp onto the most novel or concrete or specific instance of a professional’s techniques without the basic understanding of how to use the techniques from the ground up.

PS: Good thougsts, please? Rittie is missing tonight- going back out as soon as it’s light enough.

I learned my lesson about four years ago when I met a border collie on the sidewalk who was happy to be petted (owner present and having given permission), but when I reached out to pet him again when he was sitting in the front seat of the owner’s truck, his teeth snapped shut just, barely, short of my nose. Absolutely could have taken an inch off the end if he’d wanted to. I can still see it in my mind’s eye.

I learned not long after what exquisite awareness and control of their bodies dogs have, so knew that that border collie did exactly what he wanted to do. Fair warning. If I’d tried to approach him again, I would have gotten a well-deserved bite.

I NEVER go up to a dog in a vehicle unless the owner is there and invites me to pet the dog. Even then I pay close attention to the body language since I’ve also learned that many, many people haven’t the faintest clue what their dog’s state of mind is or even that they have one.

I had an experience not too long ago with a woman who although heavily degree’d from one of our nations finer institutions of higher learning; has never had a child or engaged in any meaningful long-term relationship with any member of any sex, but…. was willing to inform me of a “problem” she had with an agreement I had engaged in with my own 11 year old child.

She insisted that she had a Masters and knew about such things. That I should listen to her.

I insisted that she needed to have at least a passing experience with the actual raising of a child first hand before she was allowed to extol the benefit of her vast experience in child rearing on me or anyone else actually with kids.

She has a tendency to avoid me during encounters these days.

I had a woman who was foolish enough to put her hand in my truck to “pet” my male Pointer, because he was “so beautiful”. She is fortunate that he did not take her arm off at the shoulder.

The only reason I even knew about it was because I was paying for some stuff at a convenience store where the incident took place and overheard her behind me talking about the pretty black and white dog in the blue truck in the parking lot.

I proudly admitted that that was my truck and my dog.

She proceeded to tell me that when she inserted her hand to pet him, he kept on moving his head away so she never got a chance to touch him. That he was very watchful of the door to the store, where he obviously knew I would reappear from.

I asked her what right she felt she had to invade my personal space, accost my personal property and what assurance did she have that the dog would not bite her.

All in a voice that elevated with my anger, in front of the entire human content of the store.

I asked her if in her worldly experience she ever remembered her parents telling her not to approach strange dogs since it was never an assurance that they would be friendly and before I permitted her a word edgewise, I told her that all dogs bite, especially the ‘pretty black and white dog’ in MY TRUCK. And moreover, I would have rewarded him for it.

I told her that even pretty dogs bite. Just because they are pretty, doesn’t mean that they are without teeth, or a sense of propriety over the things they are left to meaningfully PROTECT.

Sometimes, ya just gotta wonder.

I really like that comment (I resemble that remark) - and I really like my Dyson. As far as the woman thinking it was up to her to do anything at all with someone else’s dogs - that’s where a fast sideways body slam to get her out of the way is what I would have gone for. Since I weigh over 200#s, I would have successfully moved her with my ‘calm, assertive energy,’ probably two car widths away!

And the disclaimers that no one listens to - maybe some people would listen if it was actually Cesar himself saying them, with full explanations as to why John/Jane Q. Public shouldn’t be trying to train without proper help from someone who understands the various training methods. Since it’s not him, well, the disclaimers are only viewed as legalese, which thise without common sense can’t hear or comprehend.