First, I want to start this post off by saying Hadley and I are both doing very well and she is doing great with her training. Here are a couple photos of my little cutie playing outside. She is exactly four months old today! She is growing so fast, I can't believe it!
Now to the story...
About a week ago, Hadley and I were in a scary situation. We were taking our normal walk near my apartment and I saw a man with a German Shepherd across the lawn. The dog was right next to the man and I assumed the dog was on its leash, so I didn't think much of the dog. Hadley and I were minding our own business from across the yard and then she found a piece of plastic in the grass that I had to take out of her mouth. I bent down and was prying open her mouth (a regular occurrence on our walks) and all of a sudden the German Shepherd was charging at us with its teeth barred. I tried to step between the dog and Hadley but it went around me and stood over Hadley. She was crying and so scared. I had to push the dog off of her and whip Hads off the ground as fast as I could. Once I got her off of the ground and in my arms, the dog ran back to its owner, who didn't try to call his dog, and Hads was shaking and terrified.
We were relatively close to my building so I looked back and the dog's owner had the dog by the collar. I assumed he was putting the dog on a leash. I put Hads back on the ground to walk to the front door and go inside. We were walking toward the door and I heard the dog charging behind us again! This time I whipped Hadley off the ground before the dog got to us and had to use my legs to get the dog away. It ran back to its owner and this time I was livid.
My dog-mom instincts kicked in and I had so much adrenaline flowing through me. The owner didn't even try to apologize or say anything and he STILL did not put his dog on a leash. I am not a confrontational person and I have never yelled at another person before but I lost my cool. I felt so protective over Hads and I was so livid that I yelled at the dog's owner. I told him, not so nicely, that he needs to leash his vicious dog if it is going to charge at other people and other dogs. He said "calm down, your dog is fine." As you can imagine, this set me off even more and I had some choice words for the dog owner. After I finished yelling at him with Hads in my arms, I stormed back into my apartment. I was still so angry, I felt like I could have beat that man to a pulp. I must have made quite the impression on the German Shepherd's owner because I have not seen him anywhere near my apartment building since it happened.
It was such a scary situation to be in and I was so angry. If something ever happened to Hads I would never forgive myself. She is so important to me and I just love her so much that the thought of her getting hurt makes me crazy. In that moment I truly thought that dog was going to harm her and I would have done whatever I had to do to make sure she got out of the situation unharmed. We were lucky that the dog didn't bite either of us.
It was kind of cool to know that I have those protective mom instincts I have always heard about. I've heard stories about moms who lifted a car off of their kid because they had so much adrenaline and I always thought that was crazy but now I fully understand it. I just hope we are never in a situation like that ever again.
Also, just a suggestion to dog owners out there.... there are leash laws for a reason. These laws are put in place to protect other dogs, other people and even your dog! This particular dog clearly is not well behaved and I feel its owner was too trusting of his dog and of other peoples' dogs. His dog was definitely in attack mode, it had its teeth barred and was charging at us. That says attack mode to me. Some dogs may see another dog charging like that as a threat and may attack back. Luckily for this dog, Hadley is very gentile and still just a little puppy so she didn't attack back but a lot of dogs would have because of their instincts. The other dog could have been seriously hurt, Hadley could have been seriously hurt, and I could have been as well. Please leash your dogs!
