Do dog bylaws give power to the mentally disturbed?

Upon reflection the last incident with the woman who complained to the City about my dog biting her dog when Aloofus and the neighbor's Sheppard put the run on her dog (click title for link to court outcome) is very disturbing to me. I have never witnessed the Wolf actually bite any other dog, so I am pretty sure it was the Sheppard who put a tiny puncture mark on her dog. Yes he is a big bluffer and alpha posturer, but he knows the rules: no biting. This woman who lives in the neighboring building came by with her pup about 3 years ago, or more, and somehow things went wrong. I didn't see the incident but I imagine that her pup was being rambunctious played its part. The Wolf likely postured, snarled and probably her pup nipped him out of fear. This is a no no in the dog's world of proper etiquette. Likely the Wolf went ballistic and tried to really threaten this little whelp and probably get her to submit. Still no biting though. This is where things have gone wrong since. The owner, this crazy woman from hell, started screaming and escalating the tension. I came out then, was verbally abused and threatened with bylaw enforcement because my dog was off the leash.

About a year later came the incident where the Sheppard and Ali rushed her dog and put a puncture mark on it. Why the city should be involved in this when it has no role to play in a fatal human hit and run on its streets, is a mystery. Are dog owners not responsible for their own dog's life traumas? Does the City of Vancouver not have better things to friggen do than to referee dogs? If the goal was to actually raise the level of awareness and safety among dog owners wouldn't my solution to off-leash problems be a better way to go?

Last Friday night this neighbor with a dog from hell almost blew her cork and I became aware that she is mentally unstable. The incident which is about the 5th time in three years is always the same and is as follows.

I had my head down coming down off the stairs and when I looked up I saw the wolf ready to do his feigned attack thing. The crazy woman was standing in a fear and loathing laced stance holding her aggressive mutt tightly. A companion was standing next to her also in fear. The wolf rushed in all snarly, teeth barred, and aggressive. Nothing dangerous in a normal big dog and it would not be this way if this idiot hadn't escalated matters to this point by wading into dog arguments and not allowing the normal course of things to run. He's in and out in about 3 seconds not having touched her dog as usual but having expressed his displeasure with this dog who had the temerity to bite him in the first place all those years back. What happened next has given concern that this woman has life issues of which I seem to be a major part.

She came at me with her dog on a leash lunging like an attack dog at me, snapping at me. Then she manhandled her dog weapon beside her tightly and began to shout, swear and spit at me from the distance of one inch. This went on for a full two minutes and I shouted back that her dog was the spitting image of her vicious self and that I was sorry that my Wolf was so quick in leaving off with his verbal harassment. She was again threatening to call the Bylaw enforcement officer the next day.

I didn't worry about her threats as much as her obvious mental imbalance over such a minor incident as a dog snarl fest. Sure it is a build up over her personal hate for me and all I stand for. The result is that she is in my estimation becoming dangerous to me.

Why I write about it today was that this morning there was a similar but opposite incident concerning the Wolf again. This time it was in the East corner of China creek park, perhaps 200 hundred meters from where the Friday evening dog incident took place. I was close and watched it happen. Three dogs were off leash playing and the Wolf came in the stranger. He stood in his Alpha stance for the young powerful slightly bigger male to sniff and greet. The cocky young guy wasn't having any of that and so did the feigned attack/slash aggressive drama thing and put the run on the wolf. Yeah, the old Wolf tried to snarl back, but the young guy rolled him off balance a bit and he almost went down. Before the owner could catch her big healthy boy it was actually over. The wolf had disengaged and was low tailing it back to me. He had been shown his social standing and accepted it and I petted him in assurance and he trotted off tail curled and up again in the next second. All over. During all of this I made no move and did not open my mouth. I was chuckling a bit inside to see the Wolf get a bit of his own medicine and how he handled it in stride. The owner of the victor, too, made no sound but did actually catch her guy after he let off putting the rush on the Wolf.

I was not at all upset in any way, shape or form and neither was the other dog's owner. The reason why people get all bent out of shape during a dog interaction is because they don't understand dogs. To be upset at a human owner because their dog doesn't get along with your dog is idiotic behavior in the first degree but then to have the City enforce this idiotic behavior with leash laws is really over the friggen top. People are total morons if they need to have the City of Vancouver make up for their lack of understanding of dog behavior. Don't get a friggen dog if you are not willing to put up with normal dog interactions. No wonder the entire system is breaking down! Rather than allow people to develop dog handling skills, understanding, these uniformed bylaw cops are called upon to escalate a bit of growling into legal action. The uniforms are there to placate the mentally imbalanced who can't help themselves. They have procured a good paying city job out of it.

The solution would be to raise the level of dog handling awareness, not engaging in more human legal conflict. This would be too simple, rather, everyone must be held to the lowest common denominator, which is a mentally disturbed hateful person who should never be allowed to own a dog in the first place. Just because her dog is leashed doesn't mean that she and it are not a big problem, a danger to peaceful people.

The City of Vancouver bylaws don't apply to me, my Wolf is well behaved and has caused no one, or their dog, any injuries. The next time there is an interaction, if she charges me with her dog again and it touches me, I will put it down there and then in self defense and be done with the problem.

Well maybe not. The poor dog isn't at fault.

Sorry to hear a favorite of mine has passed on. Thanks to the magic of Utube he will live on