I’m having a very conflicted evening. The conflict is presumably internal and I am a hypocrite.

I’m going to note that my dog is not dog lover, loves people and has very few friends.

Her friend was attacked by another dog today.

Lila had a friend at my last apartment complex named Chico and he was a yorkie. Li herself is a pekingese mix. Her friend at this apartment complex is a shih tzu mix named Lucky.

Lucky and Lila are great girls and can be trusted off their leashes even during play and walking around while the pet parents talk. I have always felt that leash laws make people feel safe from dog attacks or a big pile of loving dog slobbers when your fur kid doesn’t get permission first to go and talk to strangers. Unwanted attention of either kind can be a pain in the butt, so leashes are there to keep other people from getting panties twisted. They are there for unruly dogs and they aren’t there for me.

Well that’s as stupid as driving the car without a seatbelt fastened because you feel confident in your own driving. I am a hypocrite and I’m having trouble retraining myself.

I would say that ESPECIALLY in cases of smaller, behaved dogs that we need to have them on a restraint so keep them safe from other dog’s attacks. The girls are about 12 lbs. Lucky was attacked by a medium to large size dog today and had several puncture wounds that just barely missed arteries and a lung and has required surgery today because she was sweet enough to not be on a leash. Even still, leashes don’t always help to the extent you need so I’m going to put this out there as well:

USE HARNESSES

My dog was attacked a month or so back. I had Lila on a retractable lead attached to a harness. This dog walks by us on a leash with a person attached and I swear the height to shoulder on this dog reached my hip. Lila was out about 10 feet of the maximum 14 and the dog lunged and she tried to defend herself. I started grabbing at the lead twine instead of trying to use the lock feed on the grip to get her back in. It was a “tug o war” maneuver that got her out as fast as possible and rope burned a scar into my wrist. The force of that could have ended up pulling at her neck instead of between her shoulders, more appropriately distributed around her torso.

I had never really given a harness a thought until I brought Lila home from the rescue. They look to be confusing things and how on earth would I know how to size my dog and read that to the info on the tags and get the right one?
The store rep at Petsmart walked down the row with my dog and I and helped us pick one, adjust it to her and I walked to the checkout with the tag. Done. It was that easy.

I’m upset. I’m pissed that things aren’t ideal and that these things happen and that my dog’s friend got hurt. I’m crappy because I feel that my methods are fine and can justify them when I know I should be doing better.

I told people I got that scar on my wrist while saving my dog from a pterodactyl.