On the next Judge Judy

I am starting to run into problems here in town exercising the dogs. I would venture to suggest living in a rural area in West Texas that the local towns folk would be tolerant of dogs. Turns out that is the contrary. On multiple occasions I have deterred other people with dogs of the same size and stature from walking even in the same vicinity. The first came when I was riding my bike with Guinness and she was on hot pursuit of myself and I saw someone walking a lab literally turn and run in the opposing direction multiple blocks away, somewhat expected but seemed a little excessive. Recently even when walking the dogs on a leash fellow Seminolians walking their pets will pull a 180 and progress from a slow walk in my direction to a slight jog in the other. Which is strange to me because dogs 'smell' fear. If you don't give the dog something to get them excited, most of the time they don't care, though its not 100%.

Perhaps its a combination of the liberal manner in which I let my dogs conduct themselves and the conservative manner in which the locals dress their dog up in a Santa's outfit with dog booties for the family photo. I obtained a dog as an animal to play and interact with, not because I thought it would make a good extended member of the family.

What really sent this blog into motion is my neighbor has a 3 lb Chihuahua that he keeps in a makeshift pen and was getting complaints because when he is home he lets the dog run out in his yard. So...the dog catcher came by and told my neighbor that he needed to put the dog up. He complied, put the dog in the pen and received another warning that his 'pen' was not up to city code because the city requires a 10 foot high fence for any pet left outside. Furthermore its a $250 fine if your pet gets picked by the city dog catcher.

Which brings me to another dilemma with letting the dogs 'run free.' For those of you from New Mexico most of the land is State or BLM land that is open for public use. In Texas most of the land is privately owned and leased out for use. Guess I am just stuck with hyper dogs and short walks until I can find a solution.