This evening about 5.30 Molly and I ventured out for our evening walk. It was a pleasant evening, not cold and wonderfully quiet. I could see a group of people walking towards us. Eventually I could see it was a mother and two blond haired little moppets of about 3 and 6. With them they had two small terrier dogs. As soon as they spied Molly they were straining at the leash and barking aggressively. Mother walks on, ignoring dog's behaviour and dragging one dog behind her. Six year old follows mum with second dog who is barking hysterically at Molly. Suddenly child stops and gives massive yank on lead which pulls dog clean off the floor by its harness. This, suprise, suprise, has no effect on the dogs barking, so a few steps further on she stops, grabs the dog where the harness attaches to it bends down and wallops the dog. I was flabbergasted at the casual way the child hit the dog, as if it were merely a thing that she could abuse as she wished. Molly sat quietly by my side and watched the whole sorry incident.
Yeesh. The sad thing is that obviously the child has learned from the parent. Poor pooches. I often get frustrated at how often small dogs exhibit behaviour that their owners don't address by training...pulling on leash, barking, snapping, etc etc. It's just so easy to manhandle them into submission, I suppose.
the thing that always gets me when I see this kind of stuff is the way the dog shrugs it off, its happened so many time before and they have become used to a expect the abuse its chilling
Your thoughts all reflect exactly what was going through my head. I suspect that cruelty and violence are the currency of that household. And if it starts at home at a young age, what hope is there? Guess I am just a peace and love hippie at heart.
It's the casual nature of the hitting that is so disturbing to hear about. The child obviously has learnt it is the accepted way to deal with a noisy or boisterous household member. Quite horrifying when you think about it closely.
Some days I just can't believe what goes on with some people. Tina really sorry you had to witness this awful behaviour it's so very sad not only for the dog but for the children - shocking Yesterday David went to the farm to get some eggs when two Daschunds ran out of their gate and started yapping at him, the owner called them back and clearly told his children "to give them both a good whack". Sadly this behaviour is all around us. xx
It is so sad to see people hitting dogs, even worse when children mimic their parents behaviour Feel so sorry for the dogs!
