On-Leash / Off-Leash

As I may have mentioned before, Caleb gets to come to work with me. On the one hand, it is wonderful that my company is dog friendly and I love having him in my office with me. On the other hand, for a company with so many flipping smart people, the ignorance of normal dog behavior is horrifying. Seriously, it drives me nuts. To the point that I've cut back on the number of days a week Caleb comes to work, NOT because he has EVER had an issue with a dog here, but because I figured it was only going to be a matter of time before I told off another dog owner for being a moron. Keeping my blood pressure in mind, Caleb now only comes to work once a week and the rest of the week I avoid the doggy hangouts and my blood pressure stays at appropriate levels.

Now, for a little background: My company had multiple campuses. I am currently on the smaller and more dog friendly of the two campuses. This campus is so dog friendly, dogs run loose outside in the courtyard area. All of the dogs here are good dogs, I have never met a dog where I thought, "Ok, THAT dog has got serious issues and should not be here". I have met a couple of neurotic dogs, I have met overly excited dogs, I have met somewhat nervous dogs, I have met dogs who are not entirely potty trained. But I have NOT met any aggressive, vicious, or overly terrified-to-the-point-of-being-reactive dogs. I give these folks credit for either choosing specific breeds that tend to have soft personalities, or who are so tiny as to be picked up and carried away should they get to be too obnoxious.

The few working / herding breeds I've seen are very well trained, but tend to be kept away from the pandemonium anyway just because their owners see the kind of chaos that reigns during these off-leash free-for-alls and know that it will not matter who started it, if their dog gets involved in anything, it will be the one that looks the biggest and scariest that gets blamed. I tend to fall into this category of dog owner and keep Caleb away from all of this, because, even though Caleb is little, he does not act like it. Small dog owners see Caleb and think that he's the perfect size to play with their Chihuahua / Pomeranian / Pug and make a beeline for us, and I have to explain again and again: He's not a small dog, he's a Corgi. Unless your dog's idea of fun is being herded 900 miles an hour, your dog is not going to want to play with us. So, for the most part, Caleb and I go out during off peak times, when there are not 20 dogs running around off-leash in various states of excitement / arousal, or we will schedule play dates with a few of the larger dogs who can handle, or actually enjoy, playing chase. This keeps me from having to launch into explanations for his COMPLETELY NORMAL BREED BEHAVIOR, and again, keeps my blood pressure at normal levels.

But. You knew it was coming. You cannot read an intro like that and not think, "Hmm...I wonder when she's going to get to the 'But' of this blog. Well, here it is. But.

Sometimes, I have to go to a meeting (This is, in theory, a place where we should be working, since I get paid to be here). I rarely leave Caleb alone in my office, most of the time he is with me wherever I go, and that includes to meetings. Which is fine if the meeting is in the building I'm in.

Sometimes, though...it's in one of the buildings across the courtyard. The courtyard full of more or less happy dogs, off-leash.

Aaaaand therein lies the problem. Caleb has a heck of a time dealing with dogs off-leash frolicking and playing while he is on leash and I am asking him to focus on me while we practically run from one building to the next. Now, I am counterconditioning the crap out of him to get him to associate me with fun and yummy treats when he is on-leash, but seriously, I am not a dog. Dogs are just so much more inherently rewarding to him than Mommas that this has been a struggle. One we are getting better at, bit by bit, but it is going to be a long road before we can walk by other dogs playing and have Caleb's attention on me and not on them.

So that is a training issue. One that I need to work on anyway, so if that was the ONLY thing I had to worry about, I would be fine. I could work with Caleb on focusing on me, and the off-leash dogs could continue to frolic and ignore us.

But.

But they do not ignore us. Usually one, and sometimes more than one see us coming...and they make a beeline for us. Now, they are giving happy, 'oh boy a new friend to meet' signals, but they have been playing for awhile, are in various states of arousal from all the excitement and they ALWAYS come on way too strong. This is a problem. A big problem. Caleb does not like meet and greets on leash. He has been attacked twice while on leash (no bite marks from the other dog thankfully, but only because I am fast and kick like crazy - it was still traumatizing for both of us), and with some dogs it only takes one or two bad experiences before they learn that certain situations are not safe. Caleb learned that other unknown dogs are something to be wary of when on leash. That is ALSO something we are working on, with a private trainer.

So it seriously pisses me off when I call out to the dogs owner, "We CANNOT do a meet & greet right now!" and they halfheartedly try to call their dog off, but their dog ignores them. And barrels right up to Caleb, looms over him, and Caleb has to them to tell them to back off. Caleb is loud, naturally, he is a Corgi. He does not snap, thankfully, but he will let you know when you are in his personal space and he needs you to get out of it. NOW. Then, suddenly, I have the previously oblivious owners undivided attention. He now runs to rescue his baby in dramatic fashion from the evil Corgi who must be a bad dog. Then he gives me 'shame on you' glares and I turn seven shades of purple trying to keep my mouth shut.

It infuriates me every time because Caleb was not in the wrong, he was just the loudest. Caleb gave your dog a multitude of body language signs (which is primarily how dogs communicate with each other) to tell him that he was uncomfortable with him barging in on him while he was on-leash. I know he did, I picked out 4 of them, and I am positive there were many more that I missed, but that your dog should have caught, because they both speak the same language: Dog! But for whatever reason (my best guess is the off-leash dog is in such a state of excitement that he is not really thinking anymore about his manners), your dog missed the cues and very rudely threw himself on Caleb. So Caleb told him to back off. Earth to oblivious dog owner: That is appropriate behavior in the dog world. That was an appropriate correction to a rude dog. My dog is not a bad dog, he is very clearly telling your dog what he is and is not comfortable with.

This has only happened twice that I can remember, I have since gotten very, very good at avoiding off-leash dogs when I have Caleb on-leash with me. But I see it happen EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. And do you know who apologizes every single time? The owner with the on-leash dog. Why are they apologizing? Because all it takes is one complaint about a dog and your dog can be asked not to return by HR. It goes without saying that the folks who make these decisions are hardly animal behaviorists, or are even interested in hearing the other side of the story. Piss off a dog owner by having a dog who dares to tell his dog it is being rude, and you could be asked not to bring him back. Like I have said, I have never had an issue and Caleb has not had his badge revoked, but all it takes is one complaint. So I am paranoid, and I feel horrible when I see it happen to other people.

But, THEN!

Today someone spoke up about this very topic! We have internal email lists for all sorts of groups, and one of them is for dog owners. Today someone sent out an email that basically said:

"This is a friendly reminder that while we are a dog friendly company, and we tend to turn a blind eye to all the off-leash business going on at this particular campus, you had better have a VERY good recall on your off-leash dog, because if it comes over to harass my on-leash dog, and my dog reacts, you're the one who is in the wrong, not me."

Huzzah! It is an email I have dreamed of writing myself many different times! But I knew immediately it was not going to go over well. It was too direct, too accusatory. I knew the author was going to get flamed for it. So imagine my surprise when the emails AGREEING with her started flooding in. Apparently people have been knocked over by off-leash dogs, have had their on-leash dogs harassed and are otherwise generally fed up with off-leash dogs chaos!

I'm not going to lie, I would almost rather have the no dogs off-leash rule in effect hardcore than have people get knocked over by playing dogs or have dogs up in Caleb's face, undoing all the hard work I have had to do through private dog training lessons.

The email thread took a decidedly anti-Dogs off-leash tone quickly, which led the pro-Dog off-leash crowd to reply quickly and beg that a few bad incidents not take away all the fun for everyone. Which made me decide, for the first time in the 3 years I have been with this company, to respond to a public thread:

To add a bit more context to *Name omitted*'s point: There are some dogs who are great off-leash with other dogs (or are fine when both dogs are on-leash), but get nervous or anxious when they are on-leash and are then "greeted" by an off-leash dog. From the on-leashed dog's perspective they are being restrained and know that they will be unable to get away from what could turn out to be a rude or intrusive greeting. Some dogs are extremely sensitive to those sorts of power imbalances, which is what a nervous on-leash dog views a greeting off-leash dog as: a power imbalance. Think of being in a phone booth room and having someone you don't know come barging in, maybe speaking a little too loudly, but in a gregarious and friendly way. You are suddenly in a small space with someone you don't know who although they are greeting you in a friendly manner, is just a bit too over the top for your liking...and they're blocking the door. But while we can say, "it's very nice to meet you...hey let's get out of this phone booth room so we can get some air" to get your personal space back, dogs can only say "BARKBARKBARK!" to let you, and the other dog, and everyone else, know that they need a little personal space while they are on-leash, thankyouverymuch. It isn't considered rude in the dog world to bark at another dog when they are in their personal space; by the time a dog gets to the barking stage, there were at least 3-4 other body language cues that the incoming off-leash dog ignored on it's way over to the on-leash dog, so the on-leash dog is now firmly under the impression that a barking correction is warranted as the off-leash dog failed to notice the 'frozen stance', 'tightness of the skin around the eyes so that it makes wrinkles', 'lips pulled tightly around the teeth' or any of the other many body language cues that dogs give to one another (and their people if they know what they're looking for) to let them know their emotional state at that moment in time.

I'm fine with dogs being off-leash as long as you have enough control over your dog to call him off when you see him headed to greet another on-leash dog, I just wanted a add a bit of context in terms of what can go on between on-leash and off-leash dog greetings. It goes without saying that there are also plenty of dogs that are able to greet on leash and off leash and who can easily ignore "over the top" greetings a million and one times before they give any indication that they are uncomfortable. That is wonderful and you are a lucky owner! But just because a dog needs it's space on-leash and will tell you so doesn't mean it's a bad dog, or is unfriendly, or shouldn't be at *Company name omitted*, it's just speaking it's native language, Dog, to get the message through. I'd hate to see folks be forced to leave their dog at home because we misinterpret every dog-dog interaction that involves "BARKBARKBARK" as "bad dog".

-Julie

So far, the responses have been positive. I truly hope this email thread will be all it takes to serve as a wake up call for those few owners who insist that 'Dog Friendly' means 'Dogs run wild', but if not, at least it will bring it to the attention of the higher ups, and maybe more strenuous enforcement of the leash rule will curb these sorts of incidents. And if nothing else, I have had my say, and I feel better now.