dogs will be dogs and people will be hypocrites

dogs will be dogs
and
people will be hypocrites

this morning as I walked the dog I ran into an old friend/old neighbor
we are more like friendly neighbors than friends
we have mutual friends
our social lives overlap
but we are not fully of the same tribe
perhaps I get under his skin as much as he gets under mine

years ago we lived on the same block
now we live just a few blocks away
as each of us moved into different houses in the same neighborhood

when our dogs were puppies his slightly older dog was aggressive towards my young puppies
it was not in a dog pack mentality sort of way
it was more in a psychotic mellow standing around nothing happening then attack for no reason sort of way
it bothered me to see this happen to my young dogs with their developing social understanding
I watched this behavior over the years
this behavior happened not just to my dogs... but to any puppy that he encountered through his full life span

one time after our dogs were long grown and the issues that were inflicted were deeply seeded within my dogs we were chatting as our dogs played
his dog did his attack for no reason
then the dogs went about their thing
I made mention of this life long behavior
without much more than a shrug of a shoulder the response was simple
dogs will be dogs

that was years ago
since then my dog roscoe has died and I am left with just my one dog brutus
his dog has aged and is less frequent with the attacks
although I have seen him bully a young pup or two in the woods within the last year
our encounters are less frequent and his dog has slowed down a great deal

this morning as i walked my dog I ran into this same man and his dog
I altered my route so we could chat and catch up as we walked our dogs and drank our morning coffee
the conversation was light
I tried to catch up and tried to avoid conversations where there could be friction
he told me that there is a new dog on his block
this young dog has apparently been chasing and biting the kids
three kids have been bitten
this man's young son was bitten
I responded to this quite simply
a wise man once told me... dogs will be dogs

not sure if he got that
pretty sure he did not catch that

well... I never agreed with this dogs will be dogs hill billy logic

as dogs are domesticated animals and we try to curb their nature such that they can exist in our human world
my dogs were not without their mischief
I tried to keep control of them while offering them certain freedom
while I do not recall this man or his wife ever trying to dissuades their dog from these psychotic attacks of the small dogs

I agreed that the dog should not be biting anyone... especially small children
my thought was that this owner needs to train/contain this dog
if this person can not train this dog they should find someone who can
and if the dog can not be trained... then the dog should be contained

this man disagreed he thought that the dog should be put to sleep
I feel worst case scenario the dog should be given to someone who can train/control it

I wonder... what about the dog owners of all these puppies that his dog attacked/abused?
did these people care for their puppy in the same way that he cares for his son?

no... dogs are not people
but ours are our own
and some people without children displace their love for their dog for children they do not have

did these people think that he should have tried to train or perhaps contain his dog?
did these people with the young pups think that he should perform euthanasia on this dog?

it seems a tad hypocritical
but... that seems to be man' s nature
obvious for our own concerns
blind to the concerns of others

enough on this rant
I could go on
but I have said enough

http://roscoeandbrutus.blogspot.com/