[lit-ideas] Pinch and prong on dark nights and lonely places
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "lawrenchelm1. post@blogger. com" <lawrencehelm1.post@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:16:30 -0700
As to pinch and prong collars and the like, they strike me as cruel and
unusual punishment. On the one hand owners will coddle dogs in a way I
never would, and on the other they will take them on walks with portable
iron-maidens affixed to their throats.
Out in the real dog world, the world they are most comfortable with, such
collars would be counterproductive. If my Ridgeback girls are going to
engage in their favorite sport, chasing rabbits (no lions being present in
my neighborhood), then pinch or prong collars would be a decided handicap.
Also, on days when rabbits are hiding out and we're just walking along, if
some kids on dirt bikes come rushing at us, and I tell the girls to "stay
out of the way," they do. They had better because chances are I will be too
far away to be able to give them anything other than verbal advice.
And if there are feral dogs growling and gnashing their teeth from a nearby
copse and I say "leave them alone," they do. Lest anyone think that they
would have left them alone anyway, out of fear, on one occasion after having
them "leave them alone" I imagined that what we encountered might not be
feral dogs but faithful dogs guarding their master after he had a heart
attack; so on the way back I decided to check things out. This time I told
the girls, "come on" and marched toward the feral dogs. The girls went out
around me with enthusiasm and the largest of the feral dogs ran away. The
smaller one stayed to guard a raccoon carcass.
Of course if I am walking the girls in town limits where a leash law is in
effect, I have leashes on them. I would anyway because of the cars dashing
by without regard for pedestrians whether canine or human. But even then,
the leashes aren't always that useful. Take the other night for example, we
were walking down a dark unlighted road adjacent to a racing stable. It
was about 23:00. No cars passed us while we were there and not even the
horses were stirring. On the way back the girls perked their heads up and I
saw someone walking toward us on the other side of the road. Then I saw
that he had a dog. The dog seemed just a few feet in front of him but when
the dog saw the girls he dashed across the street toward them.
Now I might have turned the girls loose to defend themselves, in fact I
should have, but I expected the dog's owner to take some action. When he
didn't I yelled in stentorian tones that would have made my drill instructor
proud, "hey meathead! How about calling off your dog."
With a bit of a whine in his voice, the fellow yelled back, "it's not my
dog."
Lawrence Helm
www.lawrencehelm.com
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