Dog Stewardship 2016

Stewardship is defined as "the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care". Having a dog in your life can mean many things to owners, but taking some time to consider the importance of "good stewardship" can help our 4-legged friends enjoy better lives.

A few months ago I was leaving home and stopped just outside my house to enter an address into my vehicle's nav screen. As I was doing this, a neighbor was walking his dog down our sidewalk past our fenced yard (where my dogs were outside). My dogs watched as they passed, until he stopped and let his small terrier go up to my fence on a flexi-line and begin barking and running the fence line. My dogs, naturally barked back, and my newest also began running the fence line (something I do not permit). I got out of my car to talk with the neighbor who was a bit startled as I asked him what he was doing. He didn't have a good answer, so I told him I didn't appreciate him allowing his dog to agitate mine, and asked him to move along (which he did).

Another neighbor nearby has 2 small dogs that he refuses to leash, and allows them outdoors unsupervised without a fence. Several times a week these dogs make their way over to our yard and also run the fence line. As above, this is very adrenalizing to my newest dog, and I have to drop whatever I am doing to go out and deal with the commotion at the fence. This neighbor while apologetic, often takes 30 minutes or more to come over and get his dogs. And he seems unwilling to do anything to contain them and keep them in his own yard.

Over the years, I have been a strong opponent of dog parks. One of the reasons I have concerns is that you may not know the responsibility level of other owners in those settings. If a dog's owner is not providing good supervision, and teaching it how to behave around other dogs, then those dogs can develop some very problematic behaviors. Those discourteous owners (and dogs), can leave behind a lot of undesirable fallout that is harmful to good dogs that get roughed up or annoyed.