Juj the 10 lb. Terror!
Let me share a personal experience to give you food for thought on this one from years ago when Mae was small and we still had our Jack Russell/Chihuahua mix dog Juj with us.
BTW, this dog LOVED all people. She weighed about 10 lbs, but was a ball of fire! Something you would expect from the breeds of dog she was! She would take on anything, and I mean anything! One year when we took her trick-or-treating (on leash of course), which BTW, she loved to do...this was not a first time trip for her, nor did she resist going...she trived on these little expeditions! But this particular year we were in a neighborhood just ALIVE with people and kids, and all of a sudden a loose dog from across the street came at full tilt right at us. The target of this dog's design was Juj, not us. Plus, the dog was about 50 lbs. in size, and making the most vicious of deep-throated growling noises I had heard in a long time! We froze in our tracks...by the time we realized what was happening the dog was at our feet. Both my husband and I were trying to think fast, but it was fultile for either of us, as Juj already had the matter under control. She lept right into the face of that dog without a moment's hesitation as soon as it stepped into her personal space! Why did she do that? I'll tell you...she went for one of the dog's eyeballs! You read that right. She took ahold of an eye and wouldn't let go!
A moment before we were wondering what to do about this charging dog...now we were wondering how to disengage our dog from it! Well we need not have worried at all it turned out, because Juj knew what the heck she was doing all along.
If you could picture this; a 50 lb. dog with a 10 lb. dog hanging off its face. Plus listen to that picture; the larger dog was screaming in pain!
Now, only then and only when the larger dog screamed, and then tried to back away did Juj know it was safe. Only then did she know it was time to let go...and she did.
Then the four of us stood there looking at the dog run as fast as it could back to where it had just come from only about 3 or 4 seconds before. And only then did we notice the owners of that dog standing there with their mouths hanging open! One of them then feebly said to us, "sorry..." in a very small voice. The only feeling of 'sorry' we had was for their dog.
Well, we certainly had a different perspective of Juj after that! And a huge amount of relief, too!
Years later, especially after working as a pet sitter for so long...I know how that same experience could have gone oh so wrong the other way. And I have heard way more often than I'd like lately about small dogs being killed by large, loose dogs .
So, I guess the moral of the story, and the question you may want to ask your self instead of Should I take My Dog Trick-or-Treating, is Who Else will ALSO be taking Their Dog Trick-or-Treating?
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