Undisciplined dog!

I guess playing with a ball or rollar skating could be
asking for trouble too with some dogs. Most parks here are
for the general public frequent by dogs and children except
for the areas which are fenced off for swings etc where dogs
aren't allowed. I think it would be unreasonable to expect
children not to carry food or throw food to the ducks at
their park.

Paula...

Mom holds food for ducks in her hands. When child wants to feed
ducks, mom makes sure there aren't a bunch of dogs waiting to get at
the food and then hands some to child to throw into the water. Mom
also carries food for child to eat and does not let child wander
around with it hanging from hand. If you've ever seen the way a child
holds food while wandering around, it looks a lot like they are
actually looking to hand it over to a dog. It's really not safe to
assume that the dogs will somehow realize that they need to stay away.
At best, Jr. is upset about losing his lunch to a light mouthed dog.
At worst, Jr. is upset over losing a finger to a not so light mouthed
dog. Unreasonable or not, when it's a safety issue, it's just not
worth it. It's like my mom used to say about crossing streets when
pedestrians have the right of way: Sure it's nice to be right, but
it's a hollow victory when you're dead right.

Alison

Hi again folks,

Well, Walter had a scary experience about half an hour ago! We were out in
the smaller park across the street, allowing Saskia to recover from a
Harrowing Trip to the Evil Vet, where she had her skin--gasp!--looked at and
a secondary minor infection of a patch of dry skin diagnosed. Then there was
the horrible application of soothing cream, so you can see she needed to
burn some adrenaline. Well, along came one of Saskia's best friends, George
the 16-month-old Leonberger. They were having a great time, when George
reached out and grabbed Walter's piece of bread. His owner, a smallish and
very heavily pregnant woman, hauled on his neck hair and told him off a bit.
Then a while later he came for more, and she pulled on him, and swatted his
nose lightly and shoved at him--while I was doing the same--and he shot his
head around the side of her hand and grabbed the bread. And Walter's hand.

Thank all deities that apply, there might be a bruise but there is no real
damage. Walter screamed and screamed, though, poor little guy, and I took
him out of the stroller and hugged him and walked up and down and sang and
looked at his hand about 500 times. The woman feels just awful about it, and
I wasn't hard on her, but I made sure to point out several times that she is
about to have a baby of her own and this kind of thing needs to be Stamped
Out Now or they could have a Real Problem. I have noticed before that
although serious about training, they always wait for the problem to happen
first and then train it away. I got across that they need to anticipate
things now and get that dog some discipline. Saskia knows that even if she's
having a Butthead Moment, when I use that one tone of voice she had damn
well better not do whatever it was she was about to do--and at first that
WAS try to take cookies and things from Walter (but she's always been a
gentle taker, not a grabber, thank goodness). Mind you, I absolutely adore
George, and I really like both his owners, but obviously there is a serious
problem with his upbringing, especially given that at 16 months he weighs 70
kilos--which is 154 pounds.

Anyway, Just had to share this one. I am SO relieved Walter's OK! That could
have utterly crushed his little hand. From now on I need to keep the

White Monkey...

To be honest, I forgot he had the bread for the first incident (won't happen
again), but for the second have no real excuse beyond that George had never
done any such thing before and his owner had been so horrified by the first
grab that I thought she was watching him (whish it turned out wouldn't have
been enough anyway...), and he and Saskia were tending to be very wrapped up
in each other across the field. Walter had been wanting a piece of bread
since before we got into the vet's office and I gave him one because
otherwise I'd have had a fussy and crying baby with me throughout the
walk--he needed a snack about then but we weren't home to give him one.

HOWEVER--yes, this HAS been a wake-up call; he for the most part doesn't
have anything with him anymore, but after this he won't have anything at all
when we're in the areas of the parks where I might not see a dog coming from
a long way off. What I should have done today was throw the ball a few times
for Saskia and then retreat to the leash-only part of the park, walk a
couple of rounds while Walter ate his bread, and gone back to the
loose-running area when he was done.

As to toys, the only times the one he has with him in the stroller--"Travel
Tiger"--has become involved in incidents, it has been to make cats slink
furtively along the sidewalk trying to decide if it's a real cat or not.
It's very realistic, but about a foot long. It "lives" in the stroller.
Sometimes he also has an activity bar which I suppose might be of interest
to a parrot or a monkey but which has never earned a second glance from any
dog of any breed.

White Monkey...

That's what I thought too, so I was just clarifying that what Walter has
along is not such.

White Monkey...

Nope, just sits there.

White Monkey...

Monkeys, well, just Walter. But we do have some large flocks of feral Indian
Ringneck Parakeets and an occasionally-sighted pair of feral macaws. But
they don't approach people.

White Monkey...

True. Once a French bulldog jumped up on the stroller and she did get
snarky--and he listened--but usually she's a big doofus about these things.
She was very concerned Walter was crying (it makes her lick his hands and
want to stay close to him), but I think she completely missed the whole
thing.

ball-thrower handy to stick up George's nose if he even looks sideways at
Walter, because most of the local dogs are aware he often has something
tasty on him.