[pavelChe]

I had a few experiences this week that really drove me nuts and got me thinking...

Last week at agility a new round of classes was starting so a whole bunch of new people showed up. About 15 minutes in a lady pulls in late with her HUGE dog (looked like a black lab/mastiff perhaps?) he was gorgeous. She also had her two kids with her who were maybe 8 and 10. The lady was so rude and obnoxious but her dog and kids were great. One lucky assistant got paired with Mrs.Sunshine to catch her up on what she had missed. They were practicing introducing the dog to the tire and I was standing right by them waiting for our turn to run through our course. The dog jumped through the tire and then started dry heaving and eventually threw up a stuffed animal! It looked like a beanie baby. There were a bunch of beads and a plush head. The trainer told the woman, "It looks like he just threw up a stuffed animal." and the woman responded "Well I was at work all day don't look at me!" and calls her kid over who couldn't have been more than 9 or 10 years old and starts screaming at the kid. She goes "Well obviously someone wasn't supervising the dog today!! Do you see what you did!!" !

The trainer was horrified. My turn came and I walked away but it looked like she was about to give her a piece of her mind. Who the hell leaves a little kid in charge of a 100 lb dog all day? I'm giving this woman the benefit of the doubt by assuming her kid was at least 10, he honestly looked younger than that.

So just as I am recovering from my horror, I am walking Socrates the next day and see a LITTLE kid rounding the corner with his mutt. The kid looked like he was probably 6. I kept waiting to see his parents come around the corner behind him and grab the leash when they saw another dog. But no...the dog starts pulling and drags the kid over to us. The dog was OK with Socrates but I made it very quick and just as I was walking away see a big golden retriever barrel around the corner with two little girls running behind him, one holding his leash. The girl yelled "OW!" and dropped the leash and the dog charged us growling. He smashed into Socrates and a couple growls were exchanged but I grabbed the golden's leash and got them separated very quickly. Socrates was completely fine. He stood still and kept looking at me like he was scared and the golden was still trying to go for him. The little boy started running away and the dog started running after him. The little girl grabbed the leash from me and I told her her puppy was way too strong for her and she shouldn't walk him alone and she looked really embarrassed and ran off. Had I not been afraid of a fight, I would have stuck around and tried to find out who their parents were so I could talk to them about it but it didn't even cross my mind at the moment. My only thought was get the hell out of there. As we were walking away I noticed Socrates head was bleeding. He got a minor scrape.

I can't even believe people's mentality when it comes to dogs. Who would ever leave their dogs in the hands of a little kid? It's insane!! I understand when a kid gets older and has learned how to handle a dog, allowing them to take it for a walk, etc... but that young? It's just crazy to me...CRAZY!