Try being the cop that has to respond to these calls. Sure, if you leave your dog in a hot car in the summer, that's one thing. The winter is completely different. I have had more than one dissatisfied complainant on these nonsense calls. The best was someone who called in about a mistreated cow. Cow was fine, caller just had no understanding of how cows live. The owner just said, "well, I'll just kill it then." It was glorious.
Being wary of unfamilar dogs is a survival trait. Going to full alert when one suddenly appears at a screen door or car window is one of those handy things that allowed our ancestors to outlive the T-Rex and Smilodon. I've only had one full-on spittle contest with a larger dog and it was one of those silly things that's only done when you just don't give a . Not something I would recommend or like to repeat. ATB, Sam
I agree with indigo wolf, be careful around all dogs. I one time asked an old man if his dog bites, he said it has teeth, all of them will bite. I've only been bitten once, it took 8 stitches to close.
I usually just bark back at dogs, it leaves many of them wondering. Most just look at me or back away from me, they don't know how to respond. One time back in my old neighborhood people had this big German Shepard that was left in the yard all year round he would bark at and jump on the fence and scare people silly. So this one time I'm walking past and he starts to jump the fence and bark and I turn around and bark back at him real fiercely well he took off running the other way.
There was a D-bag once that busted my ex girlfriends unmarked running k9 SUV back window open while the vehicle was running. There was ONE marking though, on the window she busted. It said "caution : K9". That Belgian Malanoise chewed her up pretty good. She was charged with destruction of city property and vandalism after she got out of the hospital, and had to pay for the veterinarian bill to make sure her blood hadn't infected the 20,000 dollar dog with anything. I'm betting she doesn't try any like that again.
