Icarus's blog: "Hurts to watch."

Free advice is worth exactly nothing, but kids
don't RUN toward a dog.
Don't run toward ANY dog.
Don't run toward any dog you don't feel comfortable with pinning, tackling, flipping, or outright judoing for your own bodily safety.

That being said

kids

don't run toward strange dogs even if they're on a leash- and certainly
never
EVER approach a stranger.

What the FUCK are people teaching their kids these days? That Amber Alert is a magical get out of a creep's basement free card?
I remember stranger danger. I remember abducted kids in my hometown turning to cold cases, or winding up in texas with a whacked out blood relative years later.

Do NOT
talk to strangers.

Do NOT
run toward my dog, flail your fuckin chubby arms and squeal with glee. You are MEAT to my dog.

It upsets her, and it annoys the everliving fuck out of me.

Now, I assumed, because I knew better, that this was a rule when you were 10.
I assumed incorrectly.

Two young men about the age of ten ran across a street without looking and approached my dog without asking.
Now that's just bad ettiquette, but not life endangering.
I've had maybe a total of 4 people out of dozens actually ASK to approach my dog (most just don't). I have trained her to do a few things
like bite wrists thrash and drag.
I have trained her to wrestle and buck and kick just by fighting with her.
What she has NOT been trained to do is to be wuvable by anyone but family.

She's a guard dog. Mastiffs by very nature will EAT you for fucking with their master. Ask Alexander the Great.

I've made that point clear yes?
I've had kids put their arms over the fence, or branches in some cases taking swings at her, I KNOW neighbor kids throw rocks at her because well- there are big fist sized ROCKS in my fucking yard growing in number every month.

"Get the fuck away from my dog- get the fuck away from my yard"
is pretty powerful language for minors.
If I catch you fucking with my dog- I'm gonna laugh when she takes your arm off and tell the police you were intruding and that a beware of dog sign is clearly posted. And I WILL shoot a stranger before my dog is euthanized for your tardsy kids or burglars.

Now- when I'm on the street
rules are a bit different but you're still expected to observe some common courtesies, and obey some common sense. I swear to god- people are not hitting their kids enough.

... okay that's not what I really think, but that's related to my point
sit your damn kids down, and pass on some fucking wisdom people.

Like don't drink coffee and eat cotton candy when you need to sit still for a long period of time like say... at school.

Don't run at or away from strange dogs.

Savy
cool

so this kid

is all over my dog, talking too loud, moving too much, she assumes a fairly playful position, but with me I anticipate a few nips or bucks when she starts rolling. So I'm watching her, I'm instructing the kids, another kid approaches
and asks about her first
and asks me if he can come closer- I say he may (slightly older brother I'm assuming)
this kid is following the rules, the other kid seems to be following along, taking notes- keeping in a blind spot of legs and teeth at her back and shoulders but making sure he has seen her. Skinny lil boy, seems to not have had much contact with dogs.
The lil blonde tard
the instigator
the ring leader
is up in her face and patting and shaking her head around

and then he gets this glint in his eyes
you know the one

the one that says "I bet I can run faster than this dog"
So he starts running and taunting my dog saying he can't catch her

now this is the SAME kid I told not 2 minutes ago not to RUN around- at or away from dogs- its not smart, it makes them nervous, and its DANGEROUS.

Clover's ears perk up- her body goes stiff, I tell the other two kids to take a step back- put my knee on her ribs and tug her collar to get her to break focus on the running kid and make eye contact with me.

We're cool- I tell the kid what I already told him, thank the boys for their cooperation and tell them we have to leave.

Now- I've had to do this MORE than once with my cousin's lil tards. One of them seriously is hopeless- he gets in dogs' faces when they're eating (got NAILED on his nose for it too) he flails squeals and RUNS from my dog when I've demonstrated that if he holds still she will
at worst
lick him.

He tries taking stuff from her, or tries running down something when we're playing fetch

I don't like this kid
I don't like this kid around her.

His mother is fucking useless.
So I have to tell him how to act around dogs
repeatedly (because you guessed it
his mother is fucking useless and he doesn't listen to authority or instruction)

Patterns.
Annoying patterns.
Annoying patterns of uneducated generations and useless twats reproducing.

I don't give a GOD damn about your safety around my dog other than for her own good.
I don't want my dog put down like Challice (friend's dog) for something he didn't deserve.

Challice took a bite at a twelve year old girl who hit him with a switch, while on a leash.
I heard the story of the needle in him
in great detail
and watched my friend Jeremy cry when he told it.
Pleaded no contest. He was a new pastor in the community, Challice was a rescued dog that took six months to stop pissing on himself out of terror when approached by people, didn't matter if it was right or wrong, Jeremy did what he thought he had to do.

It's not happening to my dog.
Not for your kid- not for my cousin's kid, not for a meter reader.

Yeah, I like dogs more than I like people...
do I have a reason not to?

Teach the damn next generation.
Mine's bad enough, I don't want to see this shit get worse.