Fine example of today's pansies

My husband told me today that he took our dog on his daily walk and while walking, saw two boys (around 10-12) playing frisbee. Our dog loves other people and especially enjoys playing, so my husband purposely crossed the street so the dog wouldn't think it was frisbee time.

Our pup was billed as a pit mix and we think he's a pit/retriever or boxer cross because he has a wide-ish head, but he's tall and lean. At 72 lbs., he's not exactly tiny but not huge either. And we've lived here for years, so it's not like my husband is a new presence in the neighborhood (and he certainly doesn't look menacing) and we've had our dog for two years, so he's not new either.

Anyway, these two little pansies saw my dog, ran into the house and closed the garage door. They did this when they saw him from *across the street*. Hubby laughed and said the parents probably told them to get inside the second a dog they didn't know appeared in the area.

Now I actually would prefer that to a bunch of brats running to him and wanting to pet him, but it does highlight what wimps these kids are nowadays.

And on another note, is it September yet? I'm tired of plotting my trips to the store like they're covert CIA missions in order to avoid the screechers and pests. I want to live in Japan where summer vacations don't exist. I think they get three weeks off or something as a break.

Was the dog on a leash? Even if it was (dogs have been known to get away from their person(s) even when leashed), one of those boys or someone they or their parents know, or perhaps a relative, may have been mauled or had some other bad experience with a large-ish dog at some point in their lives. Even smaller dogs have been known to go off and do substantial flesh-damage with their teeth. I'm not going to speculate about whether or not dogs that have damaged people's flesh were provoked or not in the wrong for whatever reason because we don't even know if that's the reason these two boys ran inside. However, I don't think it's possible to draw the conclusion that they were "pansies" or "wimps" based on the information (or lack thereof) that you possess at this juncture.

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"I have learned that pleasing everyone is impossible, but pissing everyone off is easy and fun as hell"

:eatu

My dog makes adults cross the street to avoid us, but kids always want to pet her. So perhaps it's not so much bravery as stupidity.

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"[GFG's pregnancy is] kind of like at the stables where that one dumb, ugly-ass mare broke out of her corral one day and got herself screwed by the equally fugly colt that was due to be gelded the same afternoon."- Shiny

CherryIce, it's hard to say for sure from your husband's description if the boys were really pansies. Did your husband hear loud pooping noises after the boys closed the garage door? That would settle it.

Hey.. I've had kids run when they saw my toy poodles.. on a leash! A few days ago I was out with one of them.. in town... and some moo pulled her kid away like I had a rattlesnake on a leash. "Oh Bratleigh! Come away! Poodles bite"
I felt like saying "not unless you bite them first"

So now the kid has this warped idea planted in her head and my never give a small furry dog a chance because moo is an idiot.

I think it's odd, and rather unsafe, that kids today are made to be terrified of strangers and passers by in general, dogs on leashes out for a stroll with their owners, and can't stay by themselves for a couple of hours locked inside their own homes without being terrified of a lurking serial killer. Instead of teaching them fear of the remote and unlikely dangers, how about teaching them not to play behind parked vehicles where they can't be seen, that a home day care worker's teen son has no business putting his hands down their pants, and that firecrackers aren't toys? Also,while they're at it, they can teach them that train tracks and cemeteries aren't playgrounds, curtain cords and bunk beds don't make for good fun for jumping and swinging, and wild animal enclosures are there for a reason.

They might also want to include how lawn mowers aren't for riding and playing on, washers and dryers aren't a good place to hide, and bottles under the sink with X on them don't make good thirst quenchers. It probably wouldn't hurt to include how they shouldn't make snacks out of peeling paint and small toy pieces, that remote controls shouldn't be chewed on, and that knives and forks don't need to be poked into electrical sockets. Along those same lines, maybe they need to warn them about wandering off from their neighborhoods without telling anyone, running off from moo while in the mall, and going along with the nice man who offers them an ice cream cone if they'll only come to his car and get it.

How about instilling self confidence and enough self esteem so they aren't afraid to just say, "NO!" and run when a grown man tries to get into the shower with them or crawl into bed naked with them at night while no other adults are around? Maybe while they're working on all that, they can teach them when people are mean to them it's THEIR problem and not the kids' fault, so he won't hang himself in the closet before he's 13? If they spent more time teaching these things instead of scaring the hell out of their kids for shit that is very unlikely to place them in danger, their kids would be a lot safer and healthier.

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If YOU are the "exception" to what I am saying, then why does my commentary bother you so much?
I don't hate your kids, I HATE YOU!

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SlumSlut
However, I don't think it's possible to draw the conclusion that they were "pansies" or "wimps" based on the information (or lack thereof) that you possess at this juncture.

I'm going to have to agree on that. Maybe the boys were allergic to dogs or something.

The dog's always on a leather leash because if he wasn't, we'd never see him again. And he was on the other side of the street, which in this area means a good distance away.

OK, let's say these 10 or 12 year olds had some bad experience with dogs and need to go inside. You also need to shut the garage door? Like the big bad dog is going to huff and puff and blow your house down?

The kids in this neighborhood generally tend to be on the smothered, overprotected side, as in they can't walk from the bus stop to their homes which are usually 5-6 houses away max. The parents clog up the street in their cars waiting for them and then drive them back. We live in a suburb and I'd even go so far as to say this area is safer than the little city I grew up in and walked around every day.

I still think they're pansies. Most of them are when I reflect back to what kids were like 20 years ago. They've been made to be afraid of their own shadows.

Maybe they feared your H, rather than the dog?



I do find it odd how many people seemingly fear dogs. Dogs love me and come right up to me. There are plenty around here, too.

Actually - this has given me a good idea, or some motivation to resume my exercise walks - I used to like to go out at certain times, to see all the doggies!

I will have to get the 'timing' back in my head. Doggies - good - Kids on Krusty The Klown bikes and skateboards - not so much. At least I can say that most are polite around here, and stay out of your way, and will even apologize if they shoot by you on the sidewalk. So that's good.
I'd still rather avoid them / keep potential accident hazards to a minimum.

Will have to try to remember when's the good 'dog walking' time. Thanks for reminding me of this, should motivate me to get back on the program! wink

For the single and looking here - this is a good way to meet people, too - go walk around your area when it's 'dog walking time' - you can meet lots of people that way, ask about their dog. I met alot of my neighbors (and made new friends) - just from walking around and stopping to talk with people.

Something I just remembered - about dogs and kids - I was at this Walgreens and parked next to me was a Moo in Minivan hauling out a girl who was obviously cranky and on the verge of a tantrum. Great. Gonna be great to listen to that in the store eyes2

But - by the entrance - were a young couple with a puppy - and they let the little girl pet and play with the puppy a little bit - and the kid calmed right down and was all smiles. YAY! Puppy saves the day!

Cherryice-

Just saw your last post - do you live in a 'hard core' suburb? Here where I live it's older and more 'urban' - so there's a mix of all kinds of people. Lots of dogs, too. I've even seen some people walking their cats on leashes.

Just thought I'd mention this for those looking for places to walk. You can always drive to other spots and walk there, and / or walk your pets there too.

I have my spots for this, too - such as various forest preserve areas where people bring their dogs. We have a couple 'dog beaches' also.

Oh - that's an FYI also - I'm reminded of something I saw on the news about life vests for dogs. The person demonstrating these said that it's a myth that all dogs just naturally can 'swim'. Not always. And there are now - life vests for dogs - just something to keep in mind if you ever want to take a pet by water and you are unsure.

The kids around here are seemingly fearless and hell bent on cracking their heads open with the Klown Bikes and skate boards. I could see them fearing dogs though, they kinda strike me that way. I'm in Yuppy Land so there are plenty of Helicopter Parents around here.
I should say Idiotic Helicopter Parents because they seem to think these trick bikes and skateboards are fine, but I can imagine that they are also the sorts who feel there's a pedophile lurking behind every bush and if you so much as touch a tree you'll get poison oak and die. They do strike me as those types.

I tend to avoid pit looking dogs too. Don't trust them one whit.

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Zzelda
Cherryice-

Just saw your last post - do you live in a 'hard core' suburb? Here where I live it's older and more 'urban' - so there's a mix of all kinds of people. Lots of dogs, too. I've even seen some people walking their cats on leashes.

Just thought I'd mention this for those looking for places to walk. You can always drive to other spots and walk there, and / or walk your pets there too.

I have my spots for this, too - such as various forest preserve areas where people bring their dogs. We have a couple 'dog beaches' also.

Oh - that's an FYI also - I'm reminded of something I saw on the news about life vests for dogs. The person demonstrating these said that it's a myth that all dogs just naturally can 'swim'. Not always. And there are now - life vests for dogs - just something to keep in mind if you ever want to take a pet by water and you are unsure.

The kids around here are seemingly fearless and hell bent on cracking their heads open with the Klown Bikes and skate boards. I could see them fearing dogs though, they kinda strike me that way. I'm in Yuppy Land so there are plenty of Helicopter Parents around here.
I should say Idiotic Helicopter Parents because they seem to think these trick bikes and skateboards are fine, but I can imagine that they are also the sorts who feel there's a pedophile lurking behind every bush and if you so much as touch a tree you'll get poison oak and die. They do strike me as those types.

Well, there's plenty of places to walk him around here, so this was just a fluke. They go on daily walks without incident and the neighborhood is filled with dogs of all shapes and sizes.

But yes, I think it would be considered more of a hardcore suburb. I consider it to be a Stepford neighborhood, which is why I've been going through our options to get out of here. There would be some big decisions to make, which is why I've stayed here for so long, but I'm at my wit's end and not because of this. The one set of neighbors pretty much makes life miserable. They're loud and insufferable and are so out of place in this Stepford neighborhood that I don't know why they're even here. Most of the families here are at least quiet. Not friendly, mildly robotic and overprotective, but quiet!

Oh yeah, I've heard about doggie life vests too, because dogs who have big heads like Pugs, Scotties and Bulldogs especially need help if they go in the water. My dog just hates the water, so there wouldn't be any problem there.

As for people not liking Pits, that's their prerogative, but breed prejudice isn't much different from prejudice against anyone or anything really. I've encountered gentle, kind German Shepherds, Dobes and Pits that wouldn't harm a hair on your head and have also had the unfortunate opportunity to meet several Jack Russells who were nasty little things. Scotties have a rep for being nasty terriers, yet mine had a bomb-proof personality and was the kindest little pup you could ever hope to meet.

I never paint any breed with a broad brush. I went to a play group for 100% pure Pits (this is how I know my dog is not one as he has a very different build and body type - he has some Pit in him, but a lot of whatever else he is crossed with) and they were all playing nicely together and any dog that approached me was incredibly sweet.

Temperamental dogs come in all shapes and sizes and in every breed. *steps off soap box*

I've never met a pit bull I didn't like. They might be hyper and jumping on someone but that doesn't mean they're out to hurt you.

If two boys look glance across the street and see a dog that isn't paying attention to them and run into the house, close the garage door behind them and stay in side the rest of the night??? Yes, that's a special pair of pussies.

This is coming from someone who was bitten by a dog not once but several times. And by several different breeds, from the very small to the very big.

I feel the need to defend the pit bull in this thread. As I've said before, I've never met a pit bull I didn't like. I've also seen what I thought was a pit bull turn out to be a bull dog mix. The wide head pit bull mixes are often judged by also belongs to boxers, bulldogs, and bull terriers. What looks like a pit bull mix can be any number of things.

I've watched while two kittens climbed on a pit and played on his back. He only whined if little kitten claws dug in too hard. I've watched while a female pit laid down on the floor and let a kitten wash her face. I've also met the pit who gave one old female cat a very wide berth. It was funny to see a 90 pound male dog cower in front of a 12 year old cat who couldn't have weighed more than seven pounds. It's not the dogs that are bad but all too often they end up with bad owners.

The bad owners part is why I think people run from anything that might be a pit or pit mix. But I still think that if two boys see a dog from across a street, (in my neighborhood that's a twenty foot distance), and hide in the house they'll turn out to be forty year old virgins living in moomy's basement playing video games and living in fear of the outside world. They're still a special pair of pussies.

Back to your regularly scheduled rant.

One Cat Person's "Dog Story"
I have been afraid of most dogs I don't know for as long as I can remember and if I had to analyze the reasons it'd likely be because my mother was terrified, I mean in the phobic sense, of most all dogs, That, and when I was about 3-4 years old and playing in my grandparents' front yard a neighbor's dog playing frisbie in their yard came running towards me fom across the lawns for no apparent reason, knocked me down, and started trying to maul me in the face. I remember little about his breed other than he seemed big and was black and white with brown patches. My grandfather immediately got the dog off me, you know, back when people WATCHED their kids, and I escaped with small bites and superficial scratches, but it left me with a lingering fear of dogs.

However, I have had great dog pets since then including two brother-sister German Shepard-Labrador Mixes I loved dearly and a Collie mix I named, "Mollie the Jollie Collie", may they all rest in peace. I would like to adopt some more dogs once I can properly and safely enclose enough running space for them on my 15 acre property because I would NEVER utilize the small hunting dog cages someone who lived before me installed NOR do I think they should be chained up outside on a regular basis, not out in the country, although many hillbillies around here DO contain their dogs in this manner routinely, but I wouldn't. Anyway, getting to my point:

The Scary Big Dogs in My Area
EVEN THOUGH I am afraid of dogs I don't know, especially big ones and for good reason, I still don't rush to judgement and automatically cause an innocent dog harm. There are hillbillies up here who allow their dogs to get loose or who actually let them out very early in the morning and some of these dogs are pit-boxer breeds, made to be vicious, and they TRAIN them to hunt by letting them chase and maul kittens. NO, I have never seen it, but it's common place and everyone knows about it. Those fucking dogs have come onto my property in the past and killed cats, a few I have seen as they have been chased off by us leaving cat carnage in their wake. I have literally caught them with the blood on their paws, so I am TERRIFIED of them, just to drive home my very real fear. One of these literally circled my vehicle with his sister about 6AM one morning, teeth bared, growling, and lunging at the windows. Although I have only seen THEM rarely, I KNOW they are out there up on this remote mountain.

Enter:"Cujo" the Vicious Black Dog
SO, when I go on my mile walk, I carry hornet's spray because in addition to the loose dogs we have wild cats, bear, and wolf mix canines up here too. However, I purposely do NOT walk. at times of the day when they'd normally be out looking for food NOR do I carry food with me to attract wild animals, NOR do I walk at the time when these hillbillies are known to let these dogs loose, and I also purposely make noise as I walk to give the wild animals time to move on. For SEVEN YEARS almost, I have never come up on any scary animals, only a deer, raccoon, rabbit, low flying Hawk, or the occasional famblee of field mice crossing the road in a long "string" UNTIL a few months ago. As I was nearing the bottom of the mountain road, there was a big, black, teeth bared, growling dog, and he was in the, "I will kill the living shit out of you" stance.:hs

I Didn't Want to Spray Cujo
I was petrified and frozen in fear, even though I had that hornet's spray with about a ten feet spray range, firmly in my hand ready to spray. It was odd, since I was petrified, but I really did NOT want to spray this dog, I really did not! I realize how stupid that sounds, but I just didn't WANT to,although I certainly would have as a last resort. I think what gave me pause was he looked part Lab and I had never seen him, so chances are I was near HIS property and maybe he felt I was encroaching on his territory.That, and he had on a collar so he wasn't part of a pack, we have those too. I did what came naturally instead of what I had always planned to do which was SPRAY and run, and I kept walking, slowly, and also slowly moving as FAR to the other side of the road away from him as possible, slowly becoming parallel to him, but I continued to walk and as I was walking, I started talking to him in my "dog voice". Although it seemed like an eternity, but was probably only a minute, he followed me and then came straight up to me, tail down and doing that low guttural growling, I did NOT like his body language.

The "Attack"
I raised the can with every intent to spray and I said to him, "I really don't want to spray you! DON'T make me spray you!", and then he started his lick attack. First on my hand with the spray, and then all over me and I swear the dog nearly licked me to death. He then followed me about half mile back up the hill jumping around and playing like most Labs do when they want to get petted or play. Then he disappeared for a few minutes and came back with a ball! I threw it as far as I could downhill and into the woods, which was probably his back yard but I couldn't see any houses, and he never came back before I could make it up to my drive way. I am SO GLAD I gave him the benefit of the doubt and didn't spray him because it would have truly caused him an awful lot of pain and he was just a sweet dog I happened get too close to his property. Once he checked me out,. he was fine.

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If YOU are the "exception" to what I am saying, then why does my commentary bother you so much?
I don't hate your kids, I HATE YOU!

I am afraid of dogs and cross the street when I see one. A year ago, I was walking to the bus stop at 10 pm after work and a dog ran out of someone's unenclosed yard, chased me four blocks, and mauled my left leg. I beat it in the head with my bag, pepper sprayed it . . . none of it worked. And the owner claimed it was my fault because my keys were jingling (I dropped them).

When I was a little girl, I was mauled by a german shepherd that lived two houses down from my sister's house. It was always chained in the yard, barking. My moo would always comment on how sad it was, and I thought so too.

One day, I was playing in my sister's yard - she was babysitting me for the day - and I heard "thump thump thump" coming from behind me. I turned around, and saw the dog charging towards me. It was completely unprovoked, because I wasn't anywhere near the dog. I tried to run away, but it jumped on my back, tore my shirt off, and began eating my flesh. I don't remember feeling anything, because I guess I was in a state of shock.

My sister looked out the window and saw the dog on top of me and helped save me. The owners of the dog came to see if I was alright - really nasty, dirty trashy people...my moo and I both knew that they were abusing and neglecting the dog, which caused it to become vicious.

I remember him assuring me and my mooo (who had come back early) that the dog would be put down. I told him that it was HIS fault that the dog bit me, because he was mean to it. By then, my shock was wearing off, and I was just plain angry and in pain.

I was taken to the ER and my back was bandaged and treated for multiple dog bites. The dog had gnawed through my flesh and my back was bloody hamburger meat. I am lucky to be alive today. To this day, I respect all larger dogs. I have no trouble with small dogs, but since the attack I have diffiiculty trusting strange dogs of large breeds.

When I used to walk the track at the local school, people would allow their dogs off the leash, and I was also charged there a few times. The dog owners would be all..."Oh don't worry, he's harmless..." How the fuck do I know that? I am NOT in the dog's head. I am not a pansy either.

If I see a well-behaved, larger dog, leashed and walking obediently with its guardian, it does not bother me at all. I won't touch it, try to pet it or greet it in any way. I just walk around it and keep moving.

I have mixed feelings about this. when I was three, my parents had a mixed breed medium sized dog named molly. although molly was a sweet dog, I wasn't allowed to be near him to prevent me annoys molly.
molly usually slept on the porch. mind you, most of houses here had front gates and fence, and dogs as pet also isn't embraced here due to religious issue.

one day a neighbor's kid whom I usually play with (yep, kids that age often roam freely here! scary for motorized vehicle owners) try to enter my house to play. kid stick its hand through the gate bars trying to reach the lock, while from the porch a wiggling little hand was all that molly saw...then molly bit the kid's hand. kid wasn't injured at all, my parents paid for kid's tetanus and rabies shot, but kid's parents sued my parents for having a dog that bites...obviously wanting some cash. other neighbors even stepped in and stood for these gold digging assholes.
luckily the authority ignored the complain, and we moved from that neighborhood later.

it's not pansy if kids move away from dogs, especially larger dogs. it's good for the sake of sanity of the dog, and it minimalizes the risk of kid being mauled...no matter how sweet the dog is. molly almost got euthanized that time!

also, I know if I ever have any dog, children staying away from my dog would be GREAT. I would like to avoid any possible lawsuit.