Yesterday I read an article about a doctor that made a person with a guide dog leave his office because of his fear of dogs (http://www.lifewithdogs.tv/2011/08/doctor-kicks-blind-man-and-his-service-dog-out-of-clinic/). What that doctor did was wrong, and I think maybe illegal.
Today I want to talk about the fear that led that doctor to make a bad choice. Lots of people are afraid of dogs and/or cats. I know that some people are afraid of me. Trust me, I can tell. When a person is afraid of me and is honest about their fear, I am gentle. However, when a person becomes defensive to the point of hostility, I respond to that hostility. Don’t act so surprised; humans do the same thing.
It’s very important for us dogs and cats to recognize and show respect for a human’s fears. When we do so we create goodwill among others. We may not help that human overcome his or her fears, but we let them know we understand and won’t do anything to exploit their fears.
Here are some things DeDe and I do to show our neighbors we are responsible dogs:
1) We don’t walk near school bus stop areas when children are waiting for the bus. We don’t want to create ill will with parents should their child become frightened.
2) We have Jen pick up our poop- it’s just the right thing to do.
3) If another dog is walking his human, we always have Jen ask first before socializing.
4) If a person is walking down the sidewalk, Jen stops and holds my harness until that person passes.
5) Jen smiles and says hello to everyone we meet, and us dogs wag our tails.
It’s not my mission to save the world. I’m just trying to let my neighbors know that I’m not a scary wolf, that my human is a responsible pet owner and that they have nothing to fear from us.
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Oh Dog! It’s Friday! That means it’s time for more Haiku! Here are my offerings for this week:
Markets rise and fall.
Futures in sloppy kisses
will always be strong.
.
Sniffing a cat’s butt
is almost as much fun as
sniffing a dog’s butt.
.
The perfect dog treat:
Peanut butter with bacon
spread over cat poo.
Dogpaddling Through Life 
I’m noy so sure about your perfect dog treat Rumpy! 🙂
To each his or her own I guess. woo woo woo!!!
What you are saying here Rumpy is all about respect. I agree 100%.
Are you sure about the perfect dog treat ?
*does Aretha Franklin impersonation* R-E-S-P-E-C-T, I like cat poop, so don’t diss me! woo woo woo!!!
♪♫ ♫♫♪ ♪♪♫
woo woo woo!!!! *snickers*
Skins are so stupid, they see scare stories in the papers about killer dogs and devil dogs and they think we’re all feral! I feel sorry for Rotteweilers especially, they’ve had such a bad press that skins cross the road rather than walk past them. Theres one down the road from us and he’s the gentlest dog in the area.
It’s a sad reality….*sigh*
Good advice, Rumpy. We encounter that kind of thing a lot when we walk the three dogs. A lot of people are afraid or don’t like dogs so we try and keep our distance. I always warn people that Tyna is skittery and doesn’t like strangers rushing up to her. Loup and Tanner are okay about it but Loup can be a bit on the exuberant side and jump all over the person which can be a bit scary.
I can’t believe anyone would be scared of a doggie as sweet as Rumpy is. He loves everyone, even cats!
Really! June Buggie cat is more scary than me! woo woo woo!
This is an excellent bit of writing! Our person is going to share it on her FB wall. We hope that’s OK. There is an older man down the street who is afraid of all dogs, even chihuahuas! Whenever he sees one, he waves his arms in the air and jumps around. We’re afraid he’ll fall down and hurt himself someday and it won’t even be a dog’s fault!
We completely understand about the perfect dog treat! We had a dog friend named Pookie whose hobby was digging for buried treasure in the litterbox. He always tried to deny it, but he usually had litter in his moustache even if he was at the other end of the house. 😀
Love from RainbowCats
Not at all- but would you link to my blog please when doing so? Thanks’
We did and several people commented on it! It has your picture from up above, too, and the consensus is that you are a fine-looking fellow! Loud purring from RainboxCats
You guys are the coolest! Thanks so much!
OH RUMPY,U ARE SO HANDSOME AND SWEET.BUT CAT POO AND PBUTTER AND BACON.EWWWWWWWWWW.YUCCKY
To each his own! Woo woo