Unfiltered Story #247197

I have a rescue dog who was in the shelter for around 10 years, and as can be imagined, isn’t very well socialized. Shortly after he came home with me, we had some run-ins with awful neighbor dogs that turned his awkward social manners into a furry of aggression at the sight of another dog. Due to the amount of training and therapy he needs above and beyond this, I haven’t yet had the time to properly work with him in this area and just avoid other dogs. He also wears a yellow harness, and has two yellow ribbons on his leash as a signal for others to stay away.

On this particular walk I see a man with his dog walking from the other direction some ways away from us, and immediately switch course and start walking left so as to put as much distance between us as possible as we walk around them.

No surprise, my dog sees the other and starts to work himself into a furry, and I’m very focused on keeping him under control and trying to help him calm down, and not paying too much attention to the man and his dog, as they were on the path a good 20 feet away–or so I thought.

I happened to glance up in time to see that the man’s dog was at the end of it’s leash and waddling it’s way towards my dog, making him even more enraged, and the man was not only allowing it to do so but SMILING at the whole situation.

Being very protective of my dog and very upset when people interfere with his training, set backs are very difficult when you have such an old dog who’s so set in his ways, I immediately began to shout at him to get his dog away from mine, and that he was clearly aggravated. The man said absolutely nothing, and took a few steps closer to us, allowing his dog even closer.

At that point I was livid and just about ready to kill the guy, but was far more concerned with getting my dog away from the creep. I snapped a bit more at him and dragged my dog away.

I already hate most of my neighbors with dogs, but I hope for his sake that I never run into that man again. Not only did he intentionally provoke my dog, but while mine was in such a furry he ran himself into a rose bush and cut his head a bit on the thorns. Not too big of a deal, but taking care of that afterwards was a pain because my pup also has problems with being touched and handled. Not the dude’s fault per say, but because he was such a jerk, I’m still placing the blame on him.