I'm sure glad there was a good fence!! Sorry for the bad picture, but he was a little camera shy.
That's the part of our job that I like the least!
... but we have to deal with frequently.
chr.
It doesn't always work, but keep a box of milk bones in the truck. A hungry dog is an angry dog.
He is wagging his tail. Pet him on the back of the neck and he will follow you around for the rest of the job. The biscuit idea is a good one. I will have to remember that one. I will take my chances with dogs over snakes and bees any day.
My brother said the same thing about the milk bones.
So far in the 20+ years of field I have only bit nipped in the leg once, and that was when I was walking down the middle of the street.
Waging of the tail only means that the dog is waging its tail, that action can be a display of aggression. Shepard's can be very protective of territory they feel is theirs to protect. Need to be able to read the dog and to gain their trust or respect. Sometimes will take longer to do that than you have time to divot to it. Don't have the time to complete, don't start and let the owner control the dog even if a day is lost.
jud
Fear is a difficult emotion to detect in canines, but "Buster" there looks scared to me. Musta startled them.
Nice doggy....stay on your side o' the fence'n I'll stay on mine...
They usually settle down after they have gained your scent.
Ignore them and they may just become curious.
If not you may have to bristle up and show who the big dog is and go on your way.
The ones that bother me are the ones that are tied up and in a foul mood and of course they are always too close to the evidence you are looking for.
Yeah, I always carry a treat for them, "Let's be friends". Went to a village one time and the dam dog was tied to the mon I needed! And he did NOT wanna be friends!
-JD-
Yesterday we were working in a typical older city block. No problems from such critters. Then a lady, two houses away, came home and turned out two anklebiters so they could do their business. Instead, they headed directly for us, yipping like they had been drinking tequila all afternoon. One was a dachsund that would have been decapitated if his owner had not come scurrying along to retrieve her overgrown rats. I was quite polite about the whole thing as it had only nipped my pantsleg once and hadn't actually insulted my flesh. However, had "mama" not shown up immediately, things could have been much, much different. The sharpshooter I was using at the time would have made an excellent weapon of choice.
