Doggy Etiquette

I am no Emily Post of the doggy set. My dogs are as likely as any to bark at a passers-by or to jump up on a visitor or anyone who has a kind word for them. I am happy to have almost anyone's dog jump up on me and give me big, slobbery kisses. But I do have some expectations of people and their dogs.

It would be nice to think that we are all good dog handlers and that all dogs are trained well, but most of us know better.  Think of all that forewarned, forearmed stuff.  Case in point:  Don't get close to strange dogs (may work for people, too) when you don't know how they'll react.  When we walk, I give other dogs and their walkers wide berth.  Mine tend to get crazy and bark a lot, scaring others.  (I told you I'm not the expert!)  and who knows about the other dogs.   The park where I walk Caprice and Canon has some narrow walks along the drainage ditch, which we call "dog alley."  There's really no roon for two-way traffic, without pushing someone on the edge of the ditch.  When we come to one of these alleys, I watch for walkers coming the other way.  If someone enters from the other direction, I circle back with my dogs and wait. 

Others, trusting me, I guess, are not so thoughtful.  They forge into the alley, leaving me to backtrack, or try to handle my dogs (sometimes I can, and sometimes, I can't, depending on space, preparation, and my dogs' frenzy.)  The other day I couldn't.  The space was small; the grass was wet; I had to turn at a funny angle.  Result:  my dogs got very close to the little black dog coming towards us, close enough to possibly scare mom and dog, and I ended up twisted in the leashes and on the ground.  "That's your problem," you might say.  It certainly is, but I still think some common sense and consideration by others is called for.  Manners can make walking the dogs a bit easier for whimps like me.