Should He Stay or Should He Go?

No, I am  not talking about Dana. 

As a follow-up from the Halloween disturbance, we have been threatend  by the nieghbor regarding our so called ‘killer dog’, Lukas. 

Several weeks have passed since Halloween and Lukas has been mostly good.  He scratched Seth, again because Seth still hasn’t learned to not get in Lukas’ face.  On the flip side, Seth and Lukas do get along.  Seth is able to walk by him and even run past him without any chasing.  A huge improvement for both.

The particular neighbor has gotten herself  the Tahoe breed of disturbia, a yellow lab.   Very cute dog.  However, this means we may bump into each other at the dog park.  Here are the rules of the Phoenix dog parks. First off, I do not adhere to the rules myslef 100%. I have a deaf dog so he I can’t maintain voice control over him. haha. But, of course he is always in my site. I do take the 8yr old in with me at times. I prefer not to as he is still learning how to behave properly around dogs. I do however, put my dog on a leash if they become aggressive towards another dog or person.

My neighbor shows up at the park with her 6yr old daughter who we know is very scared of Lukas (as I would expect her to be based from Halloween). After about 15min, Lukas noticed her and ran towards the girl. The same kind of running he does when he sees a little dog he wants to play with. It is soooo unexplainable. He has been around kids but Seth and the neighbor’s little girls are the only ones he seems to act this way around. Seth has overcome it mostly. Lukas doesn’t act this way around the many other kids he comes in contact with. We keep a very close watch on him. His breed is not disturbia friendly but it is better than the alternative.

Most would say “get rid of him”, but it just isn’t that easy. My boys and husband would be crushed. I wouldn’t enjoy it, but due to livng in disturbia, we may loose him to animal control. The neighbor has said she will call animal control if he runs after her daughter again. (She feels humans come before animals. I chuckled to myself thinking ‘only some humans’.) Regardless if it is in the dog park. That is what gets under my skin. Of course, the dog park rules clearly read children under 12yrs old are not allowed in. For a very good reason too. When you can follow the rules, then you can call the authorities.

Upon leaving, I handed her a book, “How to Child-proof Your Dog”. It has a few chapters on how to teach your kids to behave around dogs. I firmly believe, that most bites are probably due to inappropriate behavior around dogs. (Not making excuses, but this shows many can be prevented) Unfortunaely, it is definitely a 2 way street. She is not willing to get her 6yr old less afraid of Lukas and teach her proper behavior but instead reinforces that feeling scared is ok since she has been ‘attacked’ by him. I asked her when she was attacked by Lukas and she said on Halloween. That is funny, she told me he didn’t bite her. I feel sorry for the girl.

Perhaps we have bitten off more than we can chew with him. He fits so well into our small pack. I actually think he is such a learning experience for my boys due to his imperfections and handicap.

Do I owe it to Lukas to send him back to the rescue organization? Or do I put the house up for sale?

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 23, 2008 at 15:27 pm and is filed under Neighbors, Pets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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