Posts tagged ‘rude people’

Mar 13

Pocket Sized DINOS™ Handouts

UPDATE 10/1/12: Cafe Press is stocking business cards again, so you can now purchase mini-handouts (if the whole DIY Flickr option isn’t your jammy jam). Find the cards here.

Remember that time when you were walking your DINOS and you noticed a woman and her dog walking straight at you? Remember how you looked around, wondering if there was someone behind you, but there wasn’t, so you realized she was coming for YOU? Remember how she had a big smile on her face as her goofy dog dragged her towards you at an alarmingly fast pace?

And how you had to scramble to get out of the way, but she kept calling “Wait, my dog is friendly!” and “My dog just wants to say hi!” as she chased you across the park? And then, sick of hiding behind trees, you turned around and said, “My dog needs space. Here’s a card that explains everything. See ya!” and then you skipped home smiling because, for once, you didn’t waste any time trying to explain your DINOS to a stranger? Remember that time?

Now those cards exist!

I whipped up a teeny tiny, business card size version of the DINOS Manifesto. It’s available to all of you to download for free and print at home. Yippee!

All you have to do is go to the new Team DINOS Flickr page and you’ll see two images: DINOS Cards Front and DINOS Cards Back.

Download both images (choose “original” size), then print them out (double-sided style) on a regular sheet of paper or, better yet, business card paper. Viola! You have a pocket-size handout to give out to MDIFs you meet on your walks.

(p.s. If you’re like me and, while you’re with your DINOS, you can’t get close enough to a strange dog to hand these to the other person, feel free to stick them in mail boxes or leave a bunch at the local park.)

Here’s the text on the back:

(note: The text might look blurry here, but when you print it out, the words are clear)

If you live in an area without leash laws or if you use the term “lead” instead of “leash”, here’s a version for you.

And here’s the logo on the front:

Nifty, eh?

I know there’s much more we’d all like to say, but that’s all I could cram onto a business card in a regular size font! If you’d like to share the full length version, check out the DINOS handouts.

I hope you find these helpful as you spread the word that DINOS are GOOD dogs, they just need space!

(And special thanks to Team DINOS member Nadia B. for giving me the loving push I needed to finally get these suckers out into the world!)

Dec 1

176 Comments

My Dog is Friendly! A Public Service Announcement

There is epidemic happening across the country and no one is safe. It’s occurring on crowded city sidewalks and spacious country walking trails. It doesn’t discriminate based on race, age, or economic status.

Innocent dogs and their owners are being terrorized, chased down the street, pinned into corners by…other dog owners.

But, you ask, don’t all dogs like to meet, greet, and play with other dogs, even unfamiliar ones? How rude of them not to greet me and my dog! Not so, kindhearted dog lovers, not so at all.

In every city, town, and suburb, loving, law abiding families share their lives with dogs that, for a variety of reasons, cannot or would rather not, socialize with other dogs.

Today I call on all dog lovers to take a stand on behalf of dogs that walk in public while they simultaneously cope with one or more of the following:

contagious diseases
leash reactivity
service or working dogs
injuries and painful physical conditions
intolerance of other animals
recovery from surgery
fearful of unfamiliar or rowdy dogs
aging and el
derly
learning self control around other dogs
are owned by people that want to be left alone

To keep it simple, these dogs and their owners shall be known as Dogs in Need of Space (DINOS)™

These DINOS have every right to walk the streets, using a standard 4-6 foot leash, without interacting with strangers, human or canine.

And yet…they are hounded, day after day, by cheery, well meaning dog owners who insist on meeting them.

Despite frantic efforts to cross the street or hiding between parked cars, DINOS are chased down by other people walking dogs, who refuse to believe that there is someone out there that does not want to meet them.

How do you spot these terrorists? You can recognize these people by their battle cry, “My dog is friendly!”

Henceforth known as My Dog is Friendly (MDIF).

Pick any corner of any town in America and you’re likely to see a scene similar to this one:

A DINOS is working on his manners, let’s say it’s leash reactivity. He has some issues with strange dogs, but is in training so that he can learn to stay calm in their presence. The DINOS owner spots another dog coming and, like their trainer instructed them, they create some distance and do a sit-stay with eye contact. The goal: to keep cool while the other dog passes.

But they didn’t realize they were being stalked by an eager MDIF.

Look! There’s they are now, crossing the street, speed walking in a beeline right towards the seated DINOS, their own dog straining at the collar.

The DINOS owner steps further away, trying again to create distance. Any anthropologist (or kindergartner) can read the clear body language in play from the DINOS team. Observe: no eye contact or smiling, they are facing away from MDIF, glancing frantically around, looking for an escape.

MDIF is impervious to body language and insists on coming closer.

The signals from the DINOS owner become escalated, and like a dog losing its patience with a rude puppy, the DINOS owner issues a quiet, but firm warning, “My dog doesn’t like other dogs.”

Unable to understand their native language, MDIF continues their advances until DINOS is trapped and begins to lose his ability to stay cool. See: lunging and barking, coupled with awkward struggles to get away. Now, like a dog that’s being humped relentlessly by a teenage dog with no manners, the DINOS owner snaps, so the message is clear, “Stop! Don’t come any closer!”

And, without fail, MDIF calls out their cheerful battle cry, “My dog is friendly!” Their plea is received by the back of the DINOS team as they jog away.

Then, with a hurt look, the MDIF mutters, “What’s your dog’s problem?”

The DINOS owner, shaken, wonders why they are working so hard on improving their dog’s manners when the humans around them have the social skills of, well, a dog with no social skills.

A brief interlude from the author:

Quickly, let’s turn to the similar epidemic of off leash dogs that are not under voice control. It’s the law: Put your dog on a leash. No one but ME gets to decide who my dog interacts with. Not you, with the “friendly” dog who just wants to say “hi” or you, with the dog who “knows” not to leave your property, but charges me up my porch steps. I, and I alone, will decide if my dog will be interacting with your dog and when you let your dog run loose you are ROBBING ME of my right to choose whether or not we want to interact with your dog. Not cool.

And now back to our Public Service Announcement:

Dogs In Need Of Space are good dogs. They may not want to socialize with your dog, but they have the right to walk with their owners, on leash, without harassment from strangers who insist on a forced greeting. Their owners do not want to cause a scene or yell, in a panic, at strangers. They don’t want their dog to act inappropriately, get injured, backslide on their training, or frighten anyone. Please, dog lovers of the world, allow these dogs and their people some space and, if they are walking or turning away from you, keep your dog close by and pass them without comment.

All they want is to walk their dogs in peace, without having to hide under a park bench in order to escape the relentless pursuit of dogs owners calling out…

“My dog is friendly!”

If your dogs are DINOS, join the movement on Facebook!

You can also:

Take the online class!

Read the book!