Dog owners please enter . Am I wrong about what happened today??

[Aerows]

109. Keep your dogs leashed

if you love them.

I had a male Doberman Pinscher that I absolutely adored. At home, he would not hurt a fly connected with the household. He was humongous for his breed, but gentle as a lamb with family members, my frail uncle that was very sick and went out of his way to restrain his boundless enthusiasm around children that came in the home.

A teenager entered the backyard (fenced, trespassing, but certainly not worthy of a death sentence), and my dog plowed down a six foot fence attempting to keep him out of our yard. The teen escaped without harm, but I do imagine he had to change his underwear. This was in a New Orleans suburb.

He took me on walks, or more frequently, he towed me along while I was on rollerblades. We both loved it - I got to roller blade, and he got to work off his excessive energy. He was a sweetheart!

Once, though, while we were barreling along down the 2 mile stretch, a dog came out of nowhere. I smacked into a parked car, and lost the leash. He did what he was born to do - protect his person. He savaged at the dog until it ran (I think it was a malamute or a huskie) then trotted back to me, nuzzling me with his nose as I picked myself up from the street.

Jolly as you please.

I was a bit injured so we went back, and he seemed to understand and took it slowly as he towed me.

That day, I truly understood the might of what I was happily leading on a walk. It made me rather in awe of it, too, his protectiveness and willingness to put himself in harms way (while the irony that I crashed into a car for holding the leash didn't escape me) to protect his people.

Dogs need to be leashed. The very best of them will give their lives to protect you from everything that you don't see coming, and never should be put in a position where their dog instincts are put up against their need to please their owner through obedience.