My intention has been to post on days of the month that are multiples of five: fifth, tenth, fifteenth, etc. Today is not on my schedule. But this morning I had a distressing experience.

So first a beautiful photo, and then the rant, in case you are interested. No dogs were harmed . . .

We were own our way home from our walk and searching “Neverland”—a huge patch of gravel onshore, so-called because we never finish searching it. We saw the woman with the retriever. A young, but fully grown dog, it ran straight for Gary and jumped on him. Then it turned to me—my hands up, saying “no” and “down”—and jumped on me, then back to Gary who pushed the dog away. It growled. Then it was back to jump hard on me again! In the mean time, the owner did not do the obvious: shout “No!”, run up, leash her dog, and tell him “Bad dog!” Apologize.

No. She did not even apologize for her dog’s misbehavior. And the thing is, that was not a bad dog and the owner was not a bad person. That was simply an untrained dog and a clueless, “soft-hearted” owner. She only called out “He is trying to learn.” But no. Dogs are not all that smart. They do not try to learn, they need to be taught. They are pack animals and behave well if owners establish their order in the pack (with the the owner at the top) and demand proper behavior. By failing to demand better behavior, she only reinforced her dog’s bad behavior. This is how bad dogs are made.

People are forever telling me their dog is “friendly” or that misbehavior of dogs is only the result of bad owners. That is sometimes true. Some dogs are cruel treated, have nasty experiences, but others are poorly trained and that is what we saw this morning. And because people love their dogs, they often fail to appreciate the potential harm their poor fur-baby parenting does. Some dogs look or behave in threatening ways but their owners are certain they are harmless so they fail to curb them. Maybe they are right when they claim their dogs is harmless, but the rest of us should not have to rely on the judgement of others about the temperament of their pets.

I love dogs and now that I am vaccinated, I again pet the dogs I know on the shore. I am wary of the ones I do not know. That large male retriever should have been a reliably friendly dog. Breeds do have character traits bred into them. They are selected to chase or retrieve or pull weight or sniff or sight prey or guard. A guard dog in the wrong hands is violence waiting to happen. Retrievers would not fall usually into that category. (German Shepherds are more than a hundred years past herding anything; they are guard dogs.) Some owners love that their dogs are “protective” and that can lead to dangerous situations.

More than a few aggressive dogs I have witnessed over time were owned by people who were afraid to discipline them or were actually afraid of their own dogs. That is how 568 people died in the U.S. from 2005-2020. Last year, 46 people died as a result of dog bites. UCMP, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburg, reports “according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Ga., there are approximately 800,000 dog bites each year that require medical attention. Even more amazing is the fact that 334,000 are severe enough to warrant treatment in a hospital. . . . There are 2,400 dog attacks every day, 100 each hour or one every 36 seconds.” More than half of bite victims are children. Most dogs never bite, but the ones that do cost lives and billions of dollars every year in America.

Every runner I know has been bitten, sometimes by a dog whose owner is saying their dog is friendly while they are biting! Poorly trained or untrained dogs are always a danger, but people love their dogs; they see their dogs as an extension of themselves; and they think they know how their dog thinks. Often they are wrong. Human beings do not think like dogs; dogs do not think or reason like human beings. However much we care, however much we want to anthropomorphize them, dogs are not people. They need restraint imposed upon them. They actually yearn for it.

It is one reason we have leash laws. Leashing a dog should protect both the dog and others and remove unwarranted anxiety on the part of someone who does not know the dog well enough to trust them. I should not have to “trust” your evaluation of your own dog.

When I first moved out of my parents’ house in my Freshman year of college, the local USPS carrier became a friend. He showed me six stitches on his ankle from a little dog up the street that had, in fact, already bitten him before. He had also petted and fed cookies to that same dog. He said he didn’t like to report the dog, but you may wonder if letter carriers can refuse delivery because of a dog?

Yes we can. Postal regulations require that a letter carrier not attempt delivery of the mail to any address where an urestrained dog is present. If the dog is roaming loose on a street the carrier can refuse delivery to the entire street. Penalty for a first time offense is a letter of warning explaining that if a second offense occurs you will be required to erect a curbside box in order to continue delivery. If a third offense occurs you will no longer be able to have home delivery of your mail and you must get a Post Office box if you wish to receive mail.

Dog bites are a serious problem for letter carriers and if a carrier is bitten it is not uncommon for the homeowner to be sued for any medical expenses and punitive damages. While most dog owners claim their dog does not bite, I personally have been bitten by two dogs whose owners made that exact statement. It’s also important to note that one of the most common dangers involves a family member opening the front door when we attempt to deliver a parcel or item that requires a signature and then having the dog run past the person opening the door. Many people think they would be able to keep their dogs from getting past them but a great deal are not able to due to how fast things happen. Better to be safe for everyone involved and avoid any legal woes that can cost you a pretty penny.

People that go out of there way to keep letter carriers safe are much appreciated by us. Remember, it’s not just whether or not your dog will bite…there should also be concern for whether or not the letter carrier is comfortable. We know you’re comfortable because it’s your dog but if the letter carrier feels any kind of fear then it is respectful to recognize that and not put them through the experience of wondering whether or not the dog will be aggressive. You never know how many times your letter carrier has been bitten and how many times they’ve almost been bitten. Having been bitten twice by “dogs that don’t bite” it’s insulting to me when I explain my situation to a customer and they still insist that THEIR dog will not bite me. In essence the customer is telling me the odds are favorable that the dog will not bite. Put yourself in our shoes and ask yourself if “favorable odds” are what you want when dealing with a potential dog bite. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated.

—”Can the USPS refuse to deliver due to dogs?”

Being bitten is not in the job description for the US Postal System, but well over five thousand letter carriers are bitten each year. We have a leash law in my area, but most full time local dogs are fine around people, and I have never had cause to complain about them being unleashed. (There are a few frequent visitors we know enough to avoid.) Gary has personally rescued local dogs who wandered in the direction of the highway. Even in your own yard, call your dog to you and hold them or put them in the house to spare the feelings of others walking by. If your dog will not immediately respond to a voice command, it shouldn’t be loose to begin with.

The first time a friendly dog jumped me, many years ago, I lost half of my front tooth. I’ve had that tooth repaired three times and it was giving me trouble this morning. I am going on 69 and weigh about fifty pounds more than the dog that jumped me. I walk every day, I am healthy, and I saw the thump coming. I was calm but braced myself. Both times that 70- 80-pound dog body-slammed me in (dog-like) play, I thought about my neighbors who walk the beach. Many people of my age would not have been able to keep their feet if a dog of that size and weight jumped against them. They would have been knocked to the ground, and a broken hip would not have been surprising. I was sore at first, but do not have a bruise.

I had to chase the owner down. She kept walking away, saying she couldn’t come close to me because her dog would bark. He was barking anyway. Finally, I crossed the stream and told her what she should have done. It comes down to control your own dog and be clear to the dog about good and bad behavior. I still did not get an apology or any commitment to better control her dog. There are plenty of books and complete series about dog-training free online (try searching “training your dog” YouTube). Back in the 70s, I took classes that included how to do CPR and the Heimlich maneuver on my dog. This owner seemed to be trying to train her dog as if he were a child. Dogs are not people.

The dog-owner utterly failed to discipline her dog. “He is trying to learn,” she said.

And yes, he did learn, as I explained to her: the wrong thing. He learned that jumping on people was fun. He also learned who was in charge, and it wasn’t his owner.

“He is trying to learn. We both are,” she added.

I hope so.

Dogs are not people. Their psychology is not like a person’s.

Maybe all that dog-owner learned today was that if her dog jumped on people, some of those people might chew her out. She was embarrassed. Maybe that will suffice.

No one should have to unnecessarily risk injury while doing their job or taking a walk.

The dog I met this morning was not born a bad dog, but he is already becoming one.

Since the beginning of the pandemic when demand for pets exploded, I have been particularly worried about the fate of all these recently-adopted house pets once their owners go back to work after pandemic restrictions are lifted. Because eventually, people will spend more time away from home, and dogs are not seasonal entertainment. They are likely to live and make demands on their owners’ time for many years. What happens, I wonder, when people are gone ten hours a day at work or decide to go on vacation for a week and their dog is left at home.

I should also have worried about owners who adopt dogs they are unequipped to train. I love dogs and cats. My biggest concern is that these briefly-loved and once-essential house pets will flood shelters in the coming months.

I wonder what lesson we will learn from that?

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