Fierce dogs on my daily walk.

[RSKY]

When I do my two mile daily walk I meet with dogs from several households. Recently the lady at one house was walking out to her car when I walked by. Her two medium sized dogs saw me and immediately left her where she stood. They ran out towards me barking and growling and acting like they were going to tear my legs off. One always goes into a stalking mode creeping toward me growling and squatted down. I growled back and started walking at them with my arms spread. When they get to about twenty feet I clap my hands and straighten up and here they come, instantly changed from fierce attack dogs to puppies wanting their ears scratched. I have to stop walking and scratch some ears and pet them for a few minutes and they are happy. The lady of the house walked out to talk and said the dogs never act like that towards anybody. I had to explain that we had played this game since they were puppies. She had just never seen it before. I pass the house twice on my walk and the second time they are waiting without all the play acting and I scratch their ears again. Told her that sometimes they are asleep and I have to clap my hands to get their attention and they always go thru the same routine. On my walk the big dogs are always friendly and there are two others that I occasionally meet on my walk. One is so old he cannot run up to me anymore. Just slowly walks up for his ear scratching. Another is still a pup and very skittish. The little ankle biters are just that. I growl at them and all but one keep their distance. One ankle biter is rarely outside but when he is he cannot wait to have his ears and belly scratched. Our little neighborhood has many curves on it's road and traffic moves slowly so we have many people walking. If the dogs know you they will greet you. If you are a stranger they ignore you.

RSKY