Crazy Woman at Dog Run

This happened months ago but I have not been inspired to blog about it until now. I'm not sure why. Probably because work is very slow and I have the time.

I stepped into the dog run to give a client a short break from his lesson. A woman with an older, very large German Shepherd was already inside. Her dog did something she didn't like, which was so insignificant and obvious dog behavior that I don't remember what the "infraction" even was. That's what makes this story even more depressing.

The woman ran over to her dog and started hitting him on the nose. She hit him hard and in front of a handful of other dog owners. She was obviously out of her mind and a fixture in the run. The other owners turned their backs and rolled their eyes. I, however, couldn't help myself from running over and actually putting my hand out to make her stop. I said something about how that was not the way to train a dog and that hitting him was, in fact, going to do the opposite of what she wanted the punishment to do.

Sharing my thoughts prompted her to turn to her aggression toward me (I was happy she stopped hitting the dog!) and she started yelling things like "why don't you write a paper on why it's bad to hit a dog and once it's published bring it back to me so I can read it." I had to turn away to stifle my laughter. She was deranged and I thought she might start hitting me in the nose.

To think that in current times she has not idea about the depth of research that has been done - and published, none-the-less - about how detrimental it is to hit a dog was beyond me.

I still feel sorry for that beautiful German Shepherd getting hit in the nose that day. No matter what that woman thought, he had no idea why she was doing that to him.