RANT MODE :- today I walked my dogs, on their leads, down the driveway. It is private land with a public path running through the bottom of the land for walkers and their animals if they wish.
It is not farm land as such, but it will shortly have horses in the two paddocks which are fenced and gated, the new stewards will be riding their horses through the grounds to make it quicker to check and for pleasure as is their right as they are paying a vast sum to stay here.
A man, had his dogs off lead ( three large black retrievers) . They decided to pack as a group and hunt me and my dogs. 3 dogs in hunting mode....how can you tell? well for a start a dog hunting lowers his shoulders and extends his neck forwards. They walk in a loping movement, tracking then as they sight the target they begin a slide running movement forwards towards the target and some will begin to bay or bark, others just go straight for the kill. These were slop shouldered , heads down, eyes focused and loping towards me. No idea if it were me as the target or my boys, my dogs decided it was me.
My Jake is blind in one eye, elderly and suffers epileptic fits and lately a suspected leaky heart valve. He should not be getting excited , running fast or as happened today...leaping to my defence. I could hold Caesar the big dog, his training is more in depth but Jake, went for it. I chased my little dog, screeching to the male who was over 150 yards away down at the bottom of the property to call his damned dogs off.
He didn't listen and certainly didn't act fast enough. My Jake ran like the clappers after them, they turned from hunters to hunted in five seconds because by then Caesar was baying and I couldn't hold either of them back.Jack Russel's do not stop, they will die trying to defend you, they are aggressive hunting dogs in their own right, it is part of their nature. Jake was in full defencive mode of his Mum and determined, leaky heart valve or not, to get these dogs on the run. He succeeded. With Caesar in full Staffy mode, a big strong dog in his own right, yet not as large as these three, he joined Jake in full defence mode, not a good sight to behold. My boys are not trained to kill, they are domestic pets. Yet their full nature was let loose immediately. I personally wouldn't like a Staffy to have a go at me, for that matter the ankle biting Jack Russell is a fearsome foe if riled.
Yet whose dog would feature in the media as vicious? as uncontrolled?. The media takes no notice of truths, Staffordshires are constantly hit on as being vicious and violent. Not true in the main. Bad owners make bad dogs 99% of the time. But my dogs are both rescue dogs, both gentle and loving in the norm. Not today, today I saw what my dogs are prepared to do for me, their Mum. I will defend them with my very life, because today, they thought they were doing exactly that for me. Jake knows he is sick, he makes every effort to remain quiet, he suffers his ailments quietly.
It is strange to see an animal act with dignity, yet he does exactly that. Caesar would lick youto death ,just to be patted and praised. Though today, I saw bunched muscles, I saw teeth bared and I saw determination to defend. I hope never to see such a thing again. It is, in a strange way very reassuring to know I am defended, it is also very scary, because it took me a good five minutes to get them back to my side, under control. The man raising his voice caused them no concern, they didn't see him as a threat, they saw the dogs as a pack, threatening their Mum and retaliated immediately.
I managed to catch Jake by tangling his extention lead in passing vegetation, the same for Caesar. The man very arrogantly sent his dogs down a steep stairway and informed me he would have his dogs off lead whenever he liked he was on a public path..WRONG dogs are not allowed freedom to enter the private part of the property, nor are they allowed off lead going through private property. They are supposed to be controlled at all times.
Tomorrow, my dogs will go for their walks again, I haven't got a different route to follow, their isn't one that doesn't involve scratchy brambles or deep vegetation. I will be keeping them leashed for their own safety. I will be watching for these dogs, because now they know their is a target, a prey, and I am certain, the arrogant owner will have his animals off leash again...........and I will defend my own dogs appropriately.
These dogs packed, they were hunting, albeit ineffectually. They put me, my dogs and the local wildlife at risk...if i could I would have punched the arrogant sod on the nose. grrrrrr rude, arrogant and stupid man. end of rant or so i thought.
Turn around to come home and two cyclists are happily taking a short cut through the private and well marked driveway claiming they didn't know it was private...Having passed the large sign at the gate, the second sign on the left, the third sign on the right that is so big it could be used as an advertising board, then a fourth sign...all saying 'private property, 24 hour cctv' ......and continuing,......with such bad eyesight they shouldn't be on the road gahhhhh and riding a bike on a walkway isn't right either grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr now...end of rant
The person who owns this estate, is not a rich mogul, they saved, scrimped and saved some more, they bought the land and the property to enjoy and to love. They are perfectly nice people...who if I had my way, would buy a large thick treaded bicycle and ride it through these peoples gardens , up and down their drives. Then return again with a horse and do the same, then return again with a few dogs and let them loose to crap all over the garden, chase the rabbit and the cat, run through the lawn leaving digging clawed marks, tangle themselves in the flowers and destroy a few bits of hedge...then when the owners came out and said 'what are you doing, this is private property' calmly state, 'I didn't know'.
The size of a property is not what should be envied or arrogantly judged, if its private, then it should be respected....shouldn't it?
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