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Owners Should Follow the Basic Rules of Canine Courtesy

By John Przybyz, Review-Journal
Reprinted from the Las Vegas Review-Journal

Always keep your dog on a leash when walking in public places.

You love your dog. Who wouldn’t? Well, there’s the approaching jogger who hates it that you walk your overly excitable dog without a leash.

And that second-grader who walks by your house on the way to school every day and whose palms start to sweat every time she sees your dog — which weighs twice as much as she does — running around unleashed and unsupervised in your yard.

And don’t forget your neighbors, who are tired of having their lawns turned into compost piles just because you can’t be bothered to take a plastic bag on your dog walks.

Of course, nobody blames your dog for these breaches of common courtesy.

They blame you.

Owning a dog means following some basic rules of canine courtesy. To get some idea of what those rules might be, we consulted a few Southern Nevada dog experts-by-trade and dog lovers-by-choice. Here are their suggestions about what dog-owning etiquette entails. We even offer a few rules directed at people who don’t own dogs.

While none of the rules are complicated, following them will go a long way toward fostering peaceful coexistence between our four-legged companions and the two-legged people they meet.

Know your dog and know yourself, too.

The fact is, some dogs play well with others and some don’t, and knowing how your dog reacts in various situations can help to short-circuit a rude, even nasty, encounter. Some dog owners are "in denial" about their pets, notes dog trainer Fred Hassen, owner of Las Vegas-based Sit Means Sit Dog Training.

Just check out a typical Saturday morning at the dog park where, Hassen says, you’ll see aggressive dogs picking fights with other, more docile pets as their owners look on blithely

.

"It’s not a breed thing, it’s an individual thing," Hassen adds. "Some dogs of any breed do not like other dogs, and if they get in their space they’re going to take a shot at them."

Similarly, some dogs don’t get along well with children or with men or become jumpy around distractions. That means that, when around others, the most polite — and most responsible — move an owner can take will be "having a dog on a leash or maybe, in some situations, even a dog muzzle," Hassen says.

Courtesy and safety also require that the dog owner not delude himself about how much control he has over his pet. Hassen has met dog owners walking their pets off-leash whose command of their animals proves to be not as solid as they’d thought.

"Just ask them to get the dog to sit," he says. "Now, you see the owner going, ‘Sit, sit, sit,’ and the dog is, like, totally oblivious."

Always maintain control of your dog in public.

In some places — including Las Vegas — laws require that dogs always be leashed when out in public. In other places — unincorporated Clark County, for example — a dog owner is required only to have control of his animal at all times.

Whatever the requirement, the underlying principle is the same: A dog that’s under the control of its owner is a dog that won’t run away, won’t bite somebody or won’t cause problems to others.

"The general rule of thumb is, the dog owner should be the one that’s controlling their dog," says James Almon, owner of four area Bone Appetit pet boutiques and bakeries. "If they know their dog is going to bite or bark, it should be leashed appropriately."

The American Kennel Club’s Canine Good Citizen Program offers several standards about the base line skills a well-mannered dog should possess. They include: accepting a friendly stranger; sitting politely for petting; walking on a loose lead; walking through a crowd; behaving when another dog approaches; and dealing well with sudden distractions.

Never approach or pet someone’s dog without permission.

Nice dogs are affection magnets. But, says Dr. Ron Lytle, a veterinarian at VCA Lake View Animal Hospital, "I think common courtesy for a pedestrian is (to say): ‘Oh, your dog is so nice. Can I pet your dog?’ "

Reaching out to a dog or approaching a dog suddenly can startle the animal and cause the dog to "strike out in defense," Lytle says.

After the owner says it’s OK, reach out to the dog slowly, letting him get to know you first.

Never feed someone else’s dog without permission, either.

"Don’t feed anybody else’s dog, and don’t feed anybody else’s pet," says Joe Boteilho, Clark County’s chief of code enforcement. Consider, first, that the person sitting with his dog at the outdoor coffee shop just wants to relax and may not want to be bothered. Beyond that, Boteilho says, "if you let everybody feed (the dog), that dog’s going to weigh 300 pounds."

A dog also might be allergic to a particular food or be on a special diet. "When somebody comes into our store, we always ask them, ‘Is it OK to give them a treat?’ just like we always ask, ‘Is it OK to pet him?’ " Almon says.

If it’s a peanut butter treat, Almon also asks if anybody in the family is allergic to peanut butter.

"There are a lot of peanut butter allergies," he explains. "And, you give a treat to a dog, the dog licks the kids, and the kids get an allergic reaction."

Don’t let your dog run unattended and loose in an unenclosed yard.

A loose dog can become a dog that gets into trouble. "Do not let your dog just hang around outside," Lytle says.

"Keep your dogs gated and use a secure gate," he adds. "And if you know your dog’s aggressive, keep a locked gate."

When walking your dog, yield to oncoming pedestrians, bicyclists and joggers.

Dog owners and their pets share sidewalks, hiking trails and walking paths with other people. Lacking any hard-and-fast rules of the road, it is best to just exercise simple courtesy. Boteilho says most courteous dog owners "will sit their dog" and let the oncoming pedestrian or jogger pass. Lytle says that, when he and his wife walk their dogs, "we will actually stop or move to either side or go on the street and walk around" to let oncoming or passing joggers or walkers by.

On the other side of the encounter, Hassen recommends that joggers slow down to a walk when approaching or passing a dog, because movement may trigger a dog’s chase instinct. Also, Hassen says, "ideally, the person without the dog should be aware of the dog coming at them and not take it for granted they’re dealing with a responsible owner."

Others may not be as enamored of dogs as you are, so don’t force your dog on anybody else. Maybe someone has had a previous, unpleasant, encounter with a dog. Maybe someone is allergic to dogs. Maybe someone just doesn’t like dogs. Whatever the reason, Boteilho says, a dog owner should respect others’ feelings.

The fear and anxiety experienced by someone who has been bitten by a dog is "very real," he says, and a dog owner should "never minimize that."

In the same vein, some businesses are dog-friendly and others aren’t, so don’t take it personally when the owner of the china shop asks you to leave your Saint Bernard outside.

"It’s their store," Lytle notes. "They can do what they want."

Always, always, always clean up after your dog.

It’s amazing how many dog owners don’t wish to bother themselves with cleaning up the natural by-products of their dogs’ digestive processes. But here’s the thing: Not only is removing the stuff polite, it’s the law, and a dog owner who doesn’t remove it promptly can be cited, Boteilho says.

Oh, and keep your yard cleaned up, too, especially if you have more than one dog, Almon adds, lest the scent from your yard waft over into others’ yards.

For more information, contact Sit Means Sit dog training at 1.866.748.6748

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