Disciplining Dogs

As I was walking to work today, there was a woman walking her dog. She was crossing the street and as she was in the middle of the cross walk, the dog decided that he or she did not want to go wherever his or her master wanted to go. The woman looked helpless in the sub-freezing weather as she pleaded with the dog to do as she wished.

She was clearly having a difficult time and she really wanted the dog to just cross the street with her. Of course, the dog had on a harness connected to the leash instead of a collar, so he or she was almost being encouraged to pull the woman.

As I was watching this, I couldn't help to think how fruitless her empathetical commands to her dog were. I wanted to take a rolled up newspaper to her nose and inform her how to properly train and correct a dog. Cesar Millan would agree with me.

She was painfully aware of the scene she was making with her dog, and as I passed her in the street, she said to me, "This is what happens when you get a dog that weighs as much as you do."

To which I wanted to reply "In your dreams, lady." Of course, that thought didn't come to mind until I had already gotten to work, and even if it came to me instantaneously I never would have actually said it.

This isn't even a slight to the woman's physical stature (she was absolutely average in size), more so to her inability to do simple arithmetic.