As the Paw-In-Chief I always get the difficult job of writing o’pawnion pieces. I can’t say I enjoy the short submission deadlines but I’ve to do what I’ve do. For example, I got only a few hours in the morning to do this o’pawnion piece, because the human insisted that we must. To give you some context, my human was very upset last night because we saw a commotion in front of our building. Some humans were fighting. A fellow dog was involved. And whenever a dog is involved, my human must step in – I nudged her to calm down, but she didn’t. She tried to explain that its not the dog’s fault which wasn’t very well received.

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Here’s what happened

My friend, a young Husky mix, from the building was out for her walk and happened to excitedly greet a human on the road who didn’t like it very much. Well, of course we understand that all humans don’t like such sudden greetings by dogs. I mean think about it a decently big dog suddenly emerges, climbs on you to greet and in the process tears a part of your t-shirt. Her unclipped nails leave a few scratches too. The human is well within their rights to complain. After all they must have felt afraid and perhaps didn’t realise that the dog was only greeting and meant no harm. The situation escalated and they called the police.

Whose fault was it?

In our o’pawnion it’s not the dog’s fault. You might ask why? Because we feel that the dog should have been restrained by the human. If a human knows that their dog is excitable, it squarely falls on them to handle their canines in the most responsible manner. For example, don’t keep your dog on a long lead during walks if they tend to stray. It might cause accidents and unpleasant incidents. If something unpleasant happens its also the human’s responsibility to respectfully address the issue instead of creating a scene.

Understanding breed specific requirements is necessary

Moreover, we feel it’s important to understand dog breeds. Some dog breeds, such as Husky, are strong, athletic and intelligent. They are amazing escape artists too; in fact, my humans had rescued one a few years ago. We later learnt it was the fourth time that the Husky had escaped from the backyard. This breed tends to act independently which might be challenging for those who have not had a Husky before. So, training might be necessary in some cases along with active play and socialising to expend their energy.

Over to some ground rules in the UAE

Obviously, what happened last evening wasn’t pleasant and in the hope of preventing such incidents here are some ground rules that humans of dogs must be aware of:

• Keep your dog on the leash in public places.
• Don’t take your dog to places where they are not allowed.
• Don’t let your dog approach other dogs or humans without permission (your dog might be the friendliest canine on the planet – we believe you! But the person/canine at the other end may still not want to interact, please respect their choice)
• If an accident happens even after following all the ground rules, please deal with the situation respectfully. Creating unnecessary commotion might worsen the situation.
• Finally, keep your dog’s registration and vaccination details updated.

You may like this: Dos and don’ts for UAE doggies

Our Paw-in-Chief Mr. Popo contributes O’pawnion pieces for PawzNRead website.