Bad Silver Lake

I really enjoy my job. James brings me along when he needs some perspective and a little teaching. This morning we had a new client, Stella. Normally we run around Griffith Park, where there is less dog traffic and fewer people. But today James decided to run around Silver Lake Reservoir. He thought since we are only a block away, why not save on gas and incorporate some time management. All was well for the first 30 minutes of our run, up until about 7:20 when we hit our four mile mark, then we began to notice an increase in foot traffic, more dogs being walked on flexi-leashes, an increase of fresh unpicked poop on the trail, and 4 to 1 ratio of dogs to handlers.

I have been trained to run along side James and trained to ignore onlookers. James uses this practice as training, especially when I am around new dogs who join us.

However, there are times when unenlightened dog owners think they have expertise to express their opinions to someone they believe is doing it wrong. Like this morning, Stella and I were totally in sync with each other up until this lady who had 3 dogs decided it would be best to micro-manage the world and correct James. First off, this lame owner had 3 dogs too many, was tense and not relaxed. Her dog handling skillz were atrocious, so tense on the leash as to be lynch-like. After she gave her two sense, James told her, "be quite and manage your own dogs!"

Stella and I said, "BYE!" ..... "BYE!!!!"

There's already frustration built up in these humans, so overpopulated in this city, with no privacy or solace. Then each one has children, and no one seems to want advice about their children. And then they get a dog for each child they have (or don't have) and think it's okay to give advice to other dog owners. I think these people think that because my Daddy's dogs are well behaved, that we aren't happy and free. What they don't know is that their out-of-control dogs dominating their lives are the ones who aren't happy and free. And you know what else? Dogs don't tell other dogs how to raise their puppies. We only tell other dogs not to violate our personal space. When telling something to a stranger isn't going to help anything, why do they use words?