Dog Rant

So today we took Gomi with us and went to Butch & Nellie's (which I remembered as being dog friendly, but, apparently, isn't so much anymore), and then she waited nicely in the truck while we had lunch at Hooter's, and then we took her to PetsMart, since they are very dog friendly.

Everything went fine in PetsMart, and Gomi got to meet new people, and sniff at some dogs. There were no issues, because we paid attention to what she was doing, and who was around us, including canines. We got some dog food, and a waistband treat sack for all those moist and yummy treats we're going to be using to train both dogs, and we got a couple different varieties of treats. We got three bags of soft cat treats, and two soft dog food chubs for cutting up into chunks and dishing out. These are what our trainer was using, and the dogs (well, Tatiana, anyway, Gomi was with SweetPea, so I don't know) just went nuts over them.

Everything was going just fine until we went to check out. I checked out, and SweetPea took Gomi to stand off to the side, out of the way.

Well, here comes this lady with a Golden Retriever who just wanted to get at Gomi. Sure, just to play and say hi, like dogs do. And Gomi, because she's a puppy and doesn't exactly have great manners yet was all about playing and saying hi.

Only we try to keep our dog under control and don't really let her go after other dogs like that because she doesn't have the best of manners and hasn't been socialized a lot with other dogs yet and is still very mouthy and nips when she plays. Sure, she's a pup, pups do that, and it's not like she's nipping hard enough to break the skin or even hurt. But all it takes is one little nip and one yelping dog for Gomi to become the Evil Vicious Pit Bull That Shouldn't Be Allowed Out in Public.

Because the breed has become so demonized that even normal puppy behaviour can't just be normal puppy behaviour.

Anyway, so here is this lady with her dog that just won't leave Gomi alone and she can't get her dog to get away from her so she starts saying things like "oh, they want to play" and "it's ok, they can play" and "let them play".

And all the time, all I really wanted to say was:

"Look, bitch, just because you can't control your dog does not mean that it is ok for your dog to act that way around my dog. Now back your fucking dog off because I do not want my dog learning that this is acceptable behaviour."

Oh.

And when we were down at B&N's, having our coffee outside, this dude walks by with his two dogs. Of course, SweetPea strikes up a chat. He's got a small white female pit, and a larger, brown male pit & lab mix. Guess what? Neither of them are fixed, because he plans on breeding them.

WTF?

Are there not enough mutts in the world, already? Get a fucking job, dude! Don't try to make a living off your poor dog's uterus. Leave the bitch alone. There are enough mutts being slaughtered everyday without your dumb ass intentionally making more.

I'm torn between whether I need to just keep on keeping my mouth shut about things, or if I need to learn how to tactfully tell someone they're a dumb ass. Although I do know I need to learn how to tactfully tell someone they need to get their dog back away from my dog.

Then again, maybe just telling someone that my dog's "playing" can potentially snap their dog's neck might work pretty well, too.