Another Unleashed Rottweiler

This morning on the way to school we had to stop walking in the middle of the Crow Lane Green Space and wait for 15 minutes or so.

We had spotted an unleashed rottweiler up ahead. Given that our family has been attacked no less than four times in the past 18 months by fighting dogs, we are quite afraid of them now. Consequently, it is extemely dangerous for us to go near them.

In the words of a policeman i recently spoke to about it:
'They do have a nasty streak. If you are afraid, they do not like it.'





It is our fear that causes them to attack. A friend of mine interprets this in terms of astrology - how i have some 'thing' that I need to work out, but I tend to think of it in terms of pheromones. Dogs smell fear, and breeds with an vicious streak turn nasty at that smell. Their social conditioning is overridden by an attack instinct. Owners of fighting dogs are largely blind to this because they are not afraid of them (with some exceptions, believe it or not) and because a dog is basically a member of their family. I can understand this. Until the first dog attack on *my* family I was a dog lover, although not a dog owner for many years.

Todays incident on the Crow Lane Green Space, Henbury was not particularly dangerous. We saw the dog a long way off, stopped and backtracked a way. I took a photo with my phone, but closed the phone before hitting save. The lady, noticing we had stopped and backed off, leashed her dog. Its was the case, however, that the dog was not under her control, when we first saw it.

Frustrated, I took another picture, this time of her with the dog on the leash. The photo that remains on my phone is so low quality anyway - taken from such a distance - that its probably useless, but taking it served its purpose anyway. At least that particular owner now knows how uncomfortable these dogs can make parents and children feel.

From my point of view, its getting silly. On monday we saw a large dog with a boxer-like head being walked by a small girl of perhaps 8 years of age and avoided it no problem. However, last week I was forced to physically fight off two Staffordshire Bull Terrriers in the same area, an incident that the aforementioned police officer became involved in.
I'm not going to go into the details of that incident right now, but i will note two more things.



We are going to have to start walking charity owned dogs from a kennel, in order to counter our increasing fears.

I am in a state of heightened adrenaline and awareness twice a day; walking to and from Blaise School.

I'd rather be abroad in the dead of night! :(