Owners fail obedience class

This is what galls me about owning a big dog in a country where dog etiquette still remains at an abysmally poor level.

The Boy generously donated his time and car to haul us all down to Pasir Ris to bring the Fuzzy to the doggie swimming pool. The weather's been awful for a long-coat German Shepherd who's not allowed in the house (except when Slinky's Dad isn't around).

So we paid up for membership, paid for an hour's time and gleefully let her off the leash. I love bringing the Fuzzy to the beach, but god help me if some lifeguard doesn't immediately come running up to me bleating about how all dogs need to be put on a leash, bypassing at least fifteen yappy little UNLEASHED toy dogs on his marathon trek to the furthest, more isolated corner of the beach where we are. German Shepherds obviously are vicious killers who are a threat to the (nonexistent) human population in the immediate vicinity.



Ooooh yeah, a real sociopath.

The Fuzzy made tentative friends with a pony-sized Great Dane in the shop area. I swear, hitch a wagon to that thing and the early pilgrims would never have been stuck in Donner Pass.

Being the only ones there, I immediately let the Fuzzy off her leash. Delirious reveling in unaccustomed freedom ensued. Poor dog didn't seem to realize that there was a pool, until she fell headlong into it. She was running confidently right at it, then sploosh, wet dog. Much frantic paddling ensued. My theory is that having only ever gone swimming in ocean before, this mysterious clear water confuses her, and the bottom of the pool appears as a level solid surface.

The Fuzzy is not a good swimmer, unlike her sub-aquatic brother. After a few more extremely unfortunate falls into the pool, the Fuzzy decided she preferred lying alongside the pool to actually being in it, and would refuse to fetch balls floating enticingly in the pool, resorting to pitiful expressions directed at the humans around her. There was some experimentation with pawing the ball toward her, but after that led to some unintended head-first kamikaze dives, no more of that occurred. My dog is nothing if not a fast learner.

We were getting all good and wet when a lorry pulled up and much yapping was heard. These..... people (for want of a better word) showed up with their dogs, a miniature pinscher and a terrier-sized cross. The Fuzzy got all excited and went running up to the fence to investigate then ran to her ball again, in total conflict as to which was of a higher priority. Said people (we'll call them the Mini-Pin Morons from now on) started opening the first of the double gates to the pool. As a precaution, I asked them to give me minute while I leashed the Fuzzy first in case any of the dogs freaked. My dog is not by any means a vicious dog, but all the dogs were excited, and at a glance, my dog was about seven times heavier than theirs. Considerate, c'est moi.

Without a word to me, the Mini-Pin Morons let their dogs off the leads without bothering to check if (a) my dog was friendly to other dogs or (b) if their dogs were friendly to other dogs. The answer to (b), by the way, is oh hell no. Their dogs, given freedom, decided to run around the compound, then sporadically charge at the Fuzzy, barking and snarling. I pulled the Fuzzy away and yelled "No!" at the first sign of her even looking crosswise at the other dogs and praised her when she didn't pull at the lead or try for a sniff at the other dogs, but wondered if the owners were going to do anything soon.

Silly me. The Mini-Pin Morons eventually settled down at a table, ignoring me and the poor leashed Fuzzy and their dogs, which went on to pee and poop on the concrete ground. One of them pulled out a pipe and started smoking it (Excuse me, fucker, you drive a lorry. And you wear cut-off berms. Hello, pretentious much?). Meanwhile, I got more and more annoyed as the Fuzzy stayed quietly by my side while little annoying yappy dogs barked and snarled at her, despite several attempts to let them get used to the Fuzzy.

Eventually, I got fed-up. I don't have many chances to bring my dog out, and in our dog-unfriendly culture, I certainly don't get many chances to bring her out and let her go off-lead. I'd paid to bring my dog out to enjoy herself, and these inconsiderate idiots and their poorly-socialized dogs were ruining my day out with the Fuzzy. So I went up to the head Mini-Pin Moron and initiated a conversation, trying not to glare (I nearly gave myself a cramp).

Slinky: "Excuse me, but are your dogs friendly?" (Yes, I already knew the answer, but this was a wake-up-and-use-your-idea type question)
Chief Mini-Pin Moron: "Er....no...hee hee." (Slinky mental facepalms)
Slinky (big mental sigh): "Will they bite?" (testing the depths of stupidity here)
Chief Mini-Pin Moron: "Errr...I dun think so lah."
Slinky (actual sigh): "Well, will they get along with my dog?" (this is called leading the idiot to the obvious.)

At this point Chief Mini-Pin Moron finally leashes one of his psycho dogs but leaves the other one loose. The Fuzzy is standing rather alertly but calmly by my side, and I'm hanging on to her collar with a death grip, just in case. The remaining yappy little horror makes exploratory sniffs at the Fuzzy, but freaks out every time she so much as breathes, and starts snarling and barking and charging at her. We are both silent as the little monster completes an entire circle around the Fuzzy and me, sniffing and barking and charging all the way. Chief Mini-Pin Moron decides not to answer my question.

Slinky (doggedly, ha, pun): "Look. I've paid for my time here, and I want to let my dog off her leash to –"
Chief Mini-Min Moron: "Ah? You pay?"
Slinky: "Yeeeeeessss. You need to pay on weekdays."
Chief Mini-Pin Moron: "But I member"
Slinky (trying not to sigh out loud): "Yes, So am I. But you need to pay on weekdays. Now, did you pay?"
Chief Mini-Pin Moron: "Uh....yar, I got pay." (even less convincing than his pipe-smoking)
Slinky (counts to 50 in her head then starts again) "Look, I can't let my dog off her lead if your dogs are going to keep attacking her. My dog's a lot bigger than yours, and if there's a fight, it's your dogs that are going to get hurt, not mine. And I've already paid to let her use the pool, and I just got here."
Chief Mini-Pin Moron: "Like that....then how?"
Slinky (frustrated beyond belief but willing to compromise, pat me on the back): "How about we split the time? I'll let my dog off her lead and you keep yours on the lead for the first half, and I'll go after that and you can let your dogs run around." Fuck, I nearly gave myself a hernia.

In the end, Chief Mini--Pin (who I believe did not understand a word of what I was saying because he kept trying to talk to me in Chinese) took his stinky pipe and his crazy little dogs and went out. I assumed that he would be back, but perhaps realizing that he did have to pay for the use of the pool after all, he did not return. Towards the end of the hour we had paid for, he emerged from somewhere with his horrible dogs and they all drove off in his lorry, the dogs in the back barking and flinging themselves against the metal screens of the lorry all the way down the road until they were out of sight.

The Fuzzy and I, in the meantime, discovered a great game (for her, not me) where I would throw the ball, she'd retrieve it, then she would place the ball on the very edge of the pool, watch it intently, then very deliberately nose it into the water and look meaningfully at it until I retrieved it. My dog learned quid pro quo.

[This is the part where I get on my soapbox]

People so often assume that because they own small dogs that are okay with people, it's perfectly fine to let them run around off lead without checking with the owners of other dogs if it's okay because they believe that because they're not a physical threat, that's enough.

It may be true that they're not a threat (dogs which cna fit in a handbag aren't, as a general rule), but it's inconsiderate in the extreme, because that presumes that the burden is on me to ensure that your dog, regardless of its behavior towards my dog, won't get hurt by my much bigger dog, which often requires that I keep my dog on a tight leash. I cannot count the number of times some unleashed toy dog has run up to the Fuzzy, barking and snarling and otherwise acting in a manner which startled or excited her, requiring me to drag her away.

Listen, assholes. Responsibility for your pet shouldn't be required commensurate with the size of your dog and the breed of your dog. I absolutely hate that in Singapore, this kind of thinking persists. If the situation was reversed and I had come to the pool and my dog was behaving aggressively to other dogs who were already there, I'd have taken my dog away and make sure she was more socialized before she came back, not let my dog run around snapping at other dogs, like the Mini-Pin Morons. It shouldn't matter what breed or size my dog is. It's just bloody common sense. I hate because your small dog's aggressive behavior means that if my dog gets annoyed just once and bites your dog, your dog would be a goner and it would be somehow my dog's fault. I hate that this means that my dog is the one who doesn't get to go off-lead as often, who has to be told off if she looks even slightly cranky at a dog that's annoying her, and which leads to a double-standard of responsible pet owner behavior with regard to your pet's size and breed. Why get a dog if you can't be a good owner? Fuckers.