Growing up, growing tall

Walking dogs sound fun and easy.. afterall you just strap them up and take them out, what could be so hard.

Well, first off, your dog does not always listen to you off lead. I never realise the level of discipline, communication and commitment you need to have to keep your dog and yourself happy AND safe.

We used to walk Bronx and Jake off the lead in the nearby park.

Most days, it is okay but sometimes you meet the most idiotic and unreasonable people.

I personally believe in only telling my own dog off and not another's even if the other dog is being a nuisance.  I don't think it is my place to discipline another person's dog or wave them off.

Sadly, there are others that believe differently..

There used to be a lady with a Tibetan Terrier who walks her dog in the same park as us and one 'lucky' day we bumped into her.

Bronx was off lead and as usual he would sprint to the other dog to investigate and say hello (if it is a smaller dog, he would try to herd it like sheep - Bronx is a collie and we think he used to live in a sheep farm).

This lady immediately went on defence and started waving her hand at Bronx shooing him away.

We quickly went to grab Bronx and the lady complained that Bronx was trying to attack her dog.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...........................................................

Bronx attack another dog? Really????

Bronx gets bossed by the neighbourhood cat.

Bronx runs when a plastic bag blows his way.

Bronx sits and patiently allows L to investigatively poke his eyes and pull his ears.

Gosh..

Why would Bronx attack her dog?

Her story was this - My dog is a Tibetan Terrier. He is very rare, and other dogs for some reason or other like to attack him. We think they're jealous.

Can you believe that?

We rolled our eyes, walked away and nick-named her dog Pompous.

A week or so later, we heard from another fellow friendly dog walker that Pompous's owner have been going around telling people Bronx attacked her dog!!

What a nut job!

Thankfully we never saw much of her again, the second time we saw her we were across the street and when her dog saw Bronx he launched into a frenzy of loud barks while Bronx quickly move away.

Heh.

Last we heard she's also moved out of London. Thank god!

Pompous isn't the only dog with stupid, unreasonable owners. We have met quite a handful over the year.

So far, there's already Pompous 2 and Pompous 3.

We have noticed, it is mainly owners with small dogs that are a pain. They always think other dogs are trying to attack their dog.

I used to be really scared dealing with people like that and would constantly apologise even if I wasn't on the wrong but these days I don't anymore.

I hold my ground, tell them off for being rude and walk away.

Jake's death put things into perspective for me and I realised how unimportant all these idiotic and problematic people are.

I realise I didn't have to deal with people who are just out to make life difficult for me. I just have to put them back in their place and move on.

And it has worked a treat.

We no longer have to deal with painful, accusatory emails demanding that we get divorced (I know! How ridiculous is that?) even though we are happy together, love each other and have worked so hard to build the life we have.


I can now stand my ground and fend off unreasonable, unthinking and lazy classmates.

It is still not easy, but we are getting there.

I know it is all part of growing up and we will have to learn all these sooner or later.

Thankfully, we have found ways around our problems and now that we have Bunny, I don't think many people would like to mess with her.