"tiny dancer" wrote in
:

Get Harriet a *very distinctive*, brightly colored collar and
lead, so she can't be 'mistaken' for any other dog and no other
dog can be mistaken for her.

I think that's going to be Plan A. In fact, it's starting to get
chilly at night, so I'm thinking a new sweater might be in order.
Something bright and obnoxious.

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

Terri wrote in
:

Shelly wrote in
6:

If I get my pet lease revoked onna counta
someone else's dog, I am not going to be a happy camper.
(They're not the only problem owners, but they're the ones who
are potentially going to cause me a bunch of grief.)
Dammmit. I HATE this!

I'm going to try talking to across-the-hall neighbor (she works
for the management company), to see what she thinks. I'm
weighing the pros and cons of pre-emptively telling the
management company exactly who the problem owners are. I really
don't want to do that, though, because I don't want to be a big,
fat tattle-tale. On the other hand, the stakes are kind of high.

You know? No one wants to rat out people but you and Harriet are
at risk here and quite frankly, I'm getting more than a bit tired
of the many irresponsible ruining things for the few who aren't.

Oh amen! I'm really frustrated with the dog-related bozocity here.
Just another of those things I woke up at 3am and thought about.
There really are several dog owners who are problematic. I'd been
thinking mostly about the folks who don't pick up after their dogs
out front, but *no* one picks up out back, except me and the owner of
a nice little Chowy mix dog. And it's not just the big dogs, either.
There's a woman with two Pugs (a breading pair), who lets them run
off-leash all the time. The male prefers my patio for leg hiking,
probably because Harriet and I spend a lot of time out there.

And then there's the Pit Bull in the next building. She's a
wonderful, sweet dog, but the first time I ever saw her on a leash
was yesterday, after the fliers were delivered. Hopefully, her owner
will retain the clue he got.

It's time to take a stand and fight for your rights. It's not
going to get any easier to find places that will allow dogs.

No, it's not. This is a fairly pet-friendly town, especially
considering that it's also a college town. I'd hate to see that
change.

Definately let management know who it is and make sure they know
it's not you and Harriet. In fact I'd go so far as to put giant
hot pink panties on Harriet just to make sure everyone sees YOU
making a point of picking up your dog's poop.

I did just that yesterday, in an effort to keep her from licking her
butt. Foulard boxers (ha!), actually. They were *very* cute.

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

ceb wrote in
:

I'm wondering whether it might be worth approaching Kayla's owners
-- you've had good interactions with them, right? Or am I
misremembering? If so, you could share your fears with them. Peer
pressure can be pretty effective...

Whenever I've tried that, I've gotten an "It's under control" brush-
off. I really had high hopes for them, as owners. The dogs are
pretty well cared for, don't get me wrong, but there's so much they
could be doing to make things better, with very little effort on
their parts. At this point, though, both dogs (and Kayla especially)
are lunging, jumping machines. They did take the Lab to puppy
classes, but there doesn't seem to have been any follow through. And
Kayla, they decided was too obnoxious to take to obedience training
(WTF?!). That pretty much b0rked my brane.

When Zoe was a puppy, we lived on a farm and it wasn't necessary
to clean up after her. The whole idea of cleanup kind of grossed
me out, which seems laughable now, but I talked to someone at work
who lived in town and thus I knew he had to be cleaning up after
his dogs -- he kind of talked me through the process (don't
laugh! I didn't understand what to do!) and made a crude remark
which made me laugh and from then on, I had no problem. If these
folks never clean up after Kayla, they might have these issues...

Oh, I can understand that. If you've never done it, and you've never
seen it done, then it might seem gross and/or mind-boggling.

The thing is, they've been out with me and Harriet, and watched me
clean up after her, so they've both had live demonstrations of How
It's Done. The girl even commented that it was really cool that I
did so. M'kaythen! I said that A) we're supposed to, B) kids play
here and don't need to be walking in dog ****, and C) it's gross to
leave it sitting in a public area. I just don't understand how
someone can appreciate that I clean up after my *one* dog, then turn
around and let her two dogs crap everywhere.

Also, I buy blue poop bags with handles -- even though some
(most?) would find that a waste of money, for me it makes the
whole thing easier to deal with.

I buy them, too. They're scented (berry, vanilla, or citrus). No
handles, but they're four-gallon capacity, so there's plenty of room
to knot them.

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

Rocky wrote in
:

I've known agility groups who've lost the use of the facility
because a competitor has allowed their dog to defecate on a
playing field or chase polo ponies.

That really sucks.

Okay, y'all have convinced me. I'm going to have to figure out how
to go about it, though, so that I don't feel like a rat fink. I may
write a note and take it by the office tomorrow. That way, it's in
writing, but it's not anonymous. I don't have a problem standing
behind it, but I want it to be in black and white. Spoken
conversations have a way of getting misinterpreted.

I will go on. I stayed in a motel with my three dogs last
weekend. I picked up poo that wasn't mine or my dogs'.

I do that, as well! Sadly, there's never a shortage of other dogs'
piles nearby.

I combed the carpet every morning to pick up Rocky-hair. All so
that the next dog person can get a reservation.

Amen. I want people to feel positive about my dog, so I do
everything I can to minimize the negatives and accentuate the
positives. Making sure that your dog doesn't leave crap or hair or
whatever behind is one of those minimizing tasks.

Heck, I even put sheets over everything at my *mom's* house, so that
Harriet doesn't get hair on her furniture. My mom's not a neat
freak, but she's allergic. I know she'd never ban my dog, but that's
not good enough. I want her to unreservedly enjoy having my dog come
to visit.

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

Kathleen wrote in
:

I wouldn't even approach the problem dogs' owners. Go straight to
the management company and let them deal with it.

I'm not going to talk to owners. I think most of them know that
they're being dead beats, and don't care. Plus, I don't want to open
myself up for retaliation. The only possible exception would be the
Boxer owners in my building. But I know from past experience that
they aren't inclined to change their behavior, so why bother?

My dogs wear blaze orange vests with reflective striping that make
them instantly recognizable from far away.

I'm thinking of something along those lines. And since I take my dog
out a lot in the pre-dawn hours, a reflective vest would be a good
idea, anyway. Heck, I should have thought of that ages ago. Thanks!

Nobody is going to
mistake them for any other dogs, and conversely, it keeps me on
the up and up as well. They drop a load or misbehave in any other
way, I own it.

Yep. We all make mistakes, and lord knows, no one's dogs are
perfect.

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

"Sue and Atty" wrote in
:

While the tattling is tricky, I'm all for letting management know
who's responsible. Let them deal with it - that's why they get
paid. And while you're there, make sure you let them know that
it's NOT you. It's not your fault if they can't follow the rules
and get evicted. They have obviously had complaints and have sent
the generic letter to all people. If it doesn't stop, *they* will
need to deal directly with the offenders. It's not fair for the
tenents who follow the rules to be punished for those who don't.

Exactly.

On the one hand, I've been here two years, and have never had a
complaint made about me or my dog. Management has to know that. On
the other hand, I don't want to say nothing and then end up getting
blamed for someone else's asshattery. I really, really hate this,
and I resent even more the jerks who made it an issue.

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

On 2008-09-11 11:48:23 -0400, Shelly said:

And then there's the Pit Bull in the next building. She's a
wonderful, sweet dog, but the first time I ever saw her on a leash
was yesterday, after the fliers were delivered. Hopefully, her owner
will retain the clue he got.

Recently, my city banned Pit Bulls, Pit mixes, and "Canary Dogs". This
has been publicized in a number of ways.

If you have any of these dogs, you have a couple of months to register
them with the city, get a huge insurance policy and follow a number of
peculiar requirements, including always having your dog muzzled in
public.

Last night I saw a young man walking the most adorable Pit Bull puppy...

"Sue and Atty" wrote in message
...

"Shelly" wrote in message
6...
I got home from cat sitting this morning to find that the management
folks had sent out fliers to everyone in my building. Apparently,
folks have been letting their dogs run loose. They've also gotten
complaints about people letting their dogs relieve themselves out
front (a huge no-no that's addressed in our leases) and on the
sidewalks (yuck!), and that people aren't cleaning up after their
dogs.

We went to the closing of the pool on Sunday - a local YMCA has dog games
in
the pool on the last day. Very fun, and constant announcements to pick up
after your dog. There was an, oh, about 14 year old girl there. Her dog
left a pile on the cement, poolside. She started to walk away, and the
lady
sitting there asked her to clean it up. She looked at it, looked at the
lady, and replied... I'm not cleaning up that ****. And walked away. At
the other end of the pool, a dog had vomited right beside the pool, the
owner left it.

Was there anybody overseeing the event that she could have been reported to?
She should have been told by the organizers to clean it up and/or escorted
out of the event!

Kathy

montana wildhack wrote in
news:2008091112452016807-montana@wildhackcominvalid:

Recently, my city banned Pit Bulls, Pit mixes, and "Canary Dogs".
This has been publicized in a number of ways.

Aw, hell!

I've been horrifying myself by watching too much daytime teevee.
Mostly, Animal Planet, which means lots of Animal Cops, Miami Animal
Police (my cousin was on it!), and Animal Precinct. The number of
Pit Bulls that get siezed on those shows and their ultimate fates
makes me weepy.

If you have any of these dogs, you have a couple of months to
register them with the city, get a huge insurance policy and
follow a number of peculiar requirements, including always having
your dog muzzled in public.

Or move. Unfortunately, that's not a course of action that most
owners are likely to be able or willing to take.

Last night I saw a young man walking the most adorable Pit Bull
puppy...

That's heartbreaking. You have to wonder if the person is blissfully
unaware of the law, or just doesn't care?

--
Shelly
http://www.cat-sidh.net (the Mother Ship)
http://esther.cat-sidh.net (Letters to Esther)

Shelly said in rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

WB

Heck, I even put sheets over everything at my *mom's*
house, so that Harriet doesn't get hair on her furniture.

I forgot about that. I also bring a sheet to put on the motel
dog bed, but only when I drive to stuff.

Last Friday, I had a traffic jam in the Rockies: a whole bunch
of Big Horn sheep. I was the first in line waiting for them to
move and didn't get a single bark out of Friday, who obviously
recognised them as not-dogs.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.