Good dogs and service people

This is just to give dog folks an idea of what people are going through when they come to your house to do work. Sorry about it being so long.

I used to work as a plumber, doing repair work on peoples homes and apartments. It was a very refreshing situation when I would be met at the door by a customer who said "hang on a minute, let me lock the dogs up.". Usually they would say "dont worry about him, he loves people."

Please dont be like that. Secure your dog. Im a dog lover and made friends with 99 percent of the dogs. If I went to 100 homes a month and each had only one dog that equates to 1 dog a month that is a potential problem and that is waaayy too many.

Small or large does not matter. A small bite can infect just as easy as a big one and dogs can do some pretty strange things when a person strange to them is in their house making racket. Even if they are friendly they can be a job site hazard, tripping you on stairs getting caught up in machinery ect. Its also just rude to allow your dog to be jumping on people who you have invited to your home.

One day I went out to a customer and he met me in the front yard. He had a great looking golden retriever. The dog came up to get some luvin and I was happy to pet him and throw his stick a few times. The customer explained the problem and I told him that I would get my tools together then meet him inside. He went in and left the dog outside. As I went to the house, arms loaded with tools the golden attacked me. I dropped my tools then whipped the dog with my extension chord as he came in for another taste. The customer heard the commotion and came out running. By then the damage was done I had several puncture wounds in my calf. The man asked me why I was beating his dog and I told him that he was at fault for the damage to his dog and the damage to my leg, but he just couldnt see it and tried to get me fired. I dont blame the dog! I would have been much happier beating the owner. As it turned out this is the way the judge saw it as well when he tried to sue me. The dog was fine BTW.

In the years that I did that job I was abused by unsupervised dogs many times. Wether it was being jumped on, nipped, cornered or even having my leg serve as the target of a dogs affection. It isnt welcome! That smile on the servicemans face is a total lie. They smile to keep you from not liking or not trusting them. Please secure your dogs.

Whenever anyone new comes over Katya and Neva have to "go to bed". Gunnar gets to stay out because he is a pup and loves everyone at this point and it is good socialization but I can completley understand where you are comming from. You just never know how a dog will react to someone.

I worked for a home care doing home visits several years back. It was a rule, dogs had to be put in another room or we werent allowed in. One place had to put a cat in another room (it was an attack cat!). I keep that same rule for myself. My dogs arent allowed to have the run of the house when someone is here working, or be outside if someone is outside working. The last thing these people want to do is work around someone's dog. They want to do their job and get to the next place. And you never know who is scared of the dogs or not. It's just good practice to keep your dog seperated from people who come to do work at your home.