I'm suprised folks haven't made this connection earlier. I've had almost nothing but good experiences with other dog owners in my life; but since moving to the city I've had at least two encounters of the moronic kind.

The first was a neighbor a few houses down who wouldn't think anything of it to let her extremely large dog out of the house, unleashed and unattended, at several times during the day to wandered around and defecate on others' lawns (it almost seemed like the dog was trained to go on everybodys' but hers), which of course, to her would be out of sight and out of mind. What was great about this is one of the prime times she would let said dog out would be in the morning when the neighborhood kids would roam the area to find their buses, and those of us with jobs would head out.

After a few weeks about this, I began to try to chase the dog off our lawn when I saw it. To no avail, apparently it thought the block was its territory. My neighbor talked to her. I attempted to have a discussion with said person after the 2nd or 3rd time her dog chased ours while on OUR own property. She refused to come to the door. After the 4th or 5th time this happened I waited on the sidewalk outside her house for her to come to the door to let her little bundle of joy in. Her response to apparently let me know she was going to do something about it? She went and hit the dog and yelled at it; because obviously a dog can make that connection and understand what was going on. Good people.

Another fun experience I've had is some dude who lives over a block away. He's apparently one of those "Well, I know there is a leash law, but it doesn't apply to me because I can control my dogs so well" kind of types (which I guess I don't actually have a problem with much as long as it is true). Except he really can't seem to actually control them. He'll get home from work or wherever and he'll open the door to his truck and apparently expects his pets to sit patiently beside him on the curb while he unloads the thing, and then calmly cross the street and go inside or something.

It doesn't seem to work like that. His pets seem to want to run hither and tither in all directions.  One time I was out in the front yard at night with our dog , he gets home, and his dogs run from over a block away to come straight toward us for some reason. I see them coming, so I pull our (small) dog in to the back yard. The followed us down our driveway and into our back yard, growling. Mr. Responsible Pet Owner apparently sees this, because he started waddling down the road, completely unconcerned occasionally yelling things like "Hey there, fluffy-boo! Come here girl!"

Now, we live in a state where deadly force against loose dogs is authorized in any case where they even "worry" a domesticated animal (such as anothers' pet) or advance aggressively toward a human on land the animal has no legal right to be on (such as private property). If I carried mace or something it would have been used at this point. Repeatedly.

I tried having a discussion about how possibly "fluffy-boo" and "Creampuff" should be kept on a leash, but he simply retrieved the dogs from our backyard and walked away without even acknowledging my presence or even appologizing.

Now, this wouldn't have been such a big deal except for the fact that the same thing happened a second time a week later. This time when I suggested he obey the leash law so it may be easier to at least keep his pets at least on the same city block as his house he got all huffed up and pretty much exploded "NO way I'm putting a leash on my dogs! The yard isn't big enough." Whatever that meant.

95% of the folks who own pets are responsible, take time to socialize them while they are still young, train them to bark only when nessecary, etc. Then you have the 5% who have problems and the problem is in most cities the SPCA police are only used as revenue enhancement (issuing dog tags, etc) and won't enforce pet laws because they have their hands full investigating cruelty complaints.

Agressive people have agressive dogs, this is news?  

I had this neighbor with a Rottweiler.  It was huge.  It was a lamb, absolutely terrified of strangers and always hiding behind the neighbor's other dog, which must have been a third it's size.  When those dogs played together, the Rottie would take the small dogs entire head in it's mouth and gently rock it back of forth.  My neighbor was a real sweetheart too.  

My aunt got a Doberman when her husband moved out.  My aunt is a lamb.  The Doberman wet itself when the doorbell rang.

Every dog I've ever had trouble with had owners I thought should be in jail.

...Dwayne was hoping that he would pay exactly the right amount of attention to Francine's clitoris.

You're all ignoring the possibility that it is the dogs that are driving people to do these heinous acts.  I know that I feel the urge to smash something whenever I'm around one of those yippy little toy-accessory-thingies.

(is 3fingerspointback)

I don't have a big tough dog, like a Rot or Pitbull.  

No, I have an eensy little chinchilla named Speedy.

Here's a pic.

Thank goodness he is totally recovered from his trauma.