When to leash your dog in public?
Normally I would stick to topics that are just related to animal rescue and the issues that come along with the stray animal population of the world but today I want to talk about something that is never really addressed in Thailand at all and really should be.
When should I leash my pet dog ?
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Well the short answer is pretty easy but most people just ignore it. The answer is all the time if you are off your own property or around other dogs. This is especially certain if you are not sure about the temperament of your dog.
I don't know how many people I have seen that swear up and down that their dog is a little angel that would never hurt anyone and then it runs off and is aggressive to some other dog or snaps at a kid.
The reality here, and I see plenty of this with the hundreds of dogs that I have handled over the years is that although dogs are greatly domesticated, there are some leftover urges, fears, and reactions from times when they were not and we never really know what is going to bring this out of them.
I know a woman who has this dog named "Blackie" and no, that doesn't mean anything negative here in Thailand before anyone asks if it is racist. This woman is a sweet old lady and she believes that her dog is because the dog has never given her any reason to believe otherwise. This woman would bring her dog around to this cafe on a leash for a long time and the staff all loved her and Blackie. One day the sweet old woman, who would never hurt a soul, decided to let Blackie walk around and say hello to everyone and Blackie was more than happy to do so.
While I wasn't there I heard the story because the sweet old woman was forced to leave town out of fear because of it. There was a family that was there and the child had some sort of toy that made a sound and that sound must have brought out the demons in Blackie, or brought back some PTSD but one things was for certain, Blackie saw this little toy and therefore the child as well, as a threat. Blackie attacked the child in a way that we had never seen and even ragdolled the 3 year old at one point before the staff and family were able to subdue Blackie. The sweet old woman was completely incapable of controlling Blackie, who was in a rage that was brought about by this toy.
Nobody could have seen this coming. The child needed stitches and the old woman of course offered to pay. She was really apologetic but the fact of the matter is that she cannot control her animal and therefore it should never be off a leash in public. There are tons of stories just like this of otherwise really friendly dogs just turning on people one day and although they are rare, they happen more than never and therefore you as a pet owner have to be responsible.
The sweet old woman moved away from Krabi because the family, rightfully so, was calling for Blackie to be put down and honestly, I think they wanted Blackie to suffer a much worse death than just lethal injection. They wanted blood and while I don't have children, I can understand why a parent would feel that way.
The old woman left in the night with Blackie and she never told anyone as far as I know where they ended up. There was never a police hunt for her because Thai police tend to stay out of matters of this sort.
It is my understanding that in most western countries that the euthanasia of the animal would be mandatory even if both the old woman and the parents of the child were opposed to it. I'm not sure on that but western society has a very stern rule about the life of a human being worth much more than a dog's and if a dog is in the wrong they do not get a second chance. Don't quote me on this it is just a rumor that I have heard but in the absence of any sort of animal control in Thailand, normally these sorts of things are financial in nature here, or they are "solved" with "mountain justice" that is itself illegal but the police will turn the other way.
Now I know that is a very extreme example that I just presented but it is extreme for a reason. Lots of dog owners are just like this sweet old lady and a lot of dogs appear to have a very cool temperament just like Blackie did. Even though I handle a ton of dogs on a weekly basis I still approach the ones that I am not intimately familiar with, with a sense of caution. The only exceptions to this would be the dogs at the shelter I go to every day as well as the 3 (sometimes 4) dogs that live at my house. When I take my dogs out they are ALWAYS on leashes because just because I am a bit more skilled than most are at training dogs, I do not believe I am perfect at it. There might come a time when my own dogs would ignore me as well, if the right scent or sound spooked them.
The lack of leashing far more often results in dogs fighting with one another but for the most part, dogs are very resilient creatures and they don't actually want to kill the other dog, just establish dominance or chase them off. There are very few recorded instances of dogs killing another dog unless they are provoked to do so by humans.
If you have a dog, you should really have it on a leash, even if you think it doesn't need it. It only takes one day like Blackie's to completely change the outcome of not just your own dog's life, but the lives of other dogs or even a child. I can only hope that that child that Blackie savaged that day is too young to be permanently traumatized by it but I would imagine that the parents are always going to remember.
If you would like to see how you can help out or simply spread the word, please visit our website at
http://krabianimalwelfare.org
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