Barney, Scruff, and Christy

I seem to be stuck on this idea of finding random literature in emails. I was going to post the "Barney" story as it's own entry, but somehow, the random lead-in seems to add something to it.

---Montegirlss@aol.com:
> Hey Craig, I just wanted to apologize for being the
> worse partner ever last week. If you're willing to
> give it another shot, I'll be much better this
> week...I promise! Also, thanks for asking how scruff
> is, he's feeling better, but is surprisingly still
> vicious. See you tomorrow, Christy.
>

For some reason, you're message makes it sound like we slept together.

As for the Scruff situation, my parents' dog was attacked while I was taking it for a walk this spring.

It's a yellow lab, and fairly social, so I didn't really think much of it when two dogs—about the same size as "Barney"—bolted out of a yard gate and ran towards us. Turns out they were crackheads and tried to go apeshit on Barney, who—truth be told—isn't much of a fighter.

So here I am, trying to slap away two strange dogs, without injuring them, and without letting my dog run away. Finally, the owners ran out of their yard and helped pull the other dogs off.

Honestly, I was surprised by two things: First, that I had no idea what to do when I saw the dogs bolting for us: Do you run away? Try to look menacing? Say "NO! BAD DOG!" Second, I'm surprised at how the other dogs didn't touch me, even though I was yelling and slapping at them.

It's hard to figure out exactly how to get someone else's dogs to listen. What do you say? How much force do you use? I don't want to injure someone else's dog if I can help it. But these dogs were absolute crackheads (a fact later confirmed by my parents).

I think my direct reaction was to say, "Hey. No. HEY! NO! HEY!! NOOOO!!!!" while slapping the dogs with one hand while I held Barney's leash with the other. Not the most menacing thing in the world.

Well, that's my dog attack story. What's yours?