DPD Driver v dogs

Obviously I feel sorry for the dogs in all of this.
I understand how upset the owner is in this situation, and I would also be mortified it had happened to my dogs.

However some people are terrified of dogs. Shouting at someone saying that your dogs are fine, does not stop that person from being scared of them. What if they had been attacked previously? He may not have thought it through, and his body may have just reacted to the potential threat posed to him. Maybe he was unable to read doggie body language and just saw a load of barking dogs running towards him? Maybe he over-reacted? Doesn't excuse him for hurting the dogs though.

Alternatively the driver could have been acting maliciously, of course which would be truly terrible. On re-reading it, it sounds like there were 2 DPD workers, and it was the 2nd man that appeared frightened. He probably should have stayed in the car! And the owner should have kept her dogs away if she knew a delivery was being made. She saw that the guy was getting more nervous, but did not call her dogs away?

I think both were in the wrong. Poor dogs!
 
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I would go absolutely ballistic if someone kicked my dogs, in fact I probably would have been arrested for assaulting the DPD employee with the nearest very heavy implement in this case!

Having said that, the owner was remarkably stupid not to have proper control of her dogs if she observed that the employee was increasingly nervous around them. It doesn't excuse his actions in any way, but it is common sense surely?
 
the owner should have kept the dogs away but the driver overreacted IMO....i never let my dogs get close to delivery people as i just open the top half of my door then if the person wants to pet my dogs they can as the dogs are looking over the door. my postman always brings biscuits for dogs in our area so they absolutely love him. i had an engineer to look at my broken washing machine this week and i shut both dogs in their crates so they didnt jump all over him(in a friendly way) he was a dog lover but it just made it easier for him to sort out the machine...
 
I think it is entirely the owners fault. I never let our three run up to delivery drivers, even though they are friendly, they all know 'sit' and 'quiet'. Dogs not drivers!
Not long ago we had the thread where the dog ripped the driver's arm down to the bone, they must feel under constant threat.
Stupid woman, poor dogs.
 
As ive said on the original post, the owner should have called the dogs but i dont condone the DPD man kicking it. However im afraid she has done herself and her dogs harm here by admitting so publicly that her dogs were surrounding the person, barking at him, and that despite him showing fear (and probably saying get them away...) she failed to act and he felt he needed to act to protect himself. She might have the police on her door step but not to take her side of the story...
 
Clodagh said:
I think it is entirely the owners fault. I never let our three run up to delivery drivers, even though they are friendly, they all know 'sit' and 'quiet'. Dogs not drivers!
Not long ago we had the thread where the dog ripped the driver's arm down to the bone, they must feel under constant threat.
Stupid woman, poor dogs.
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yep, entirely the owners fault-she admitted the guy was nervous, she should have got them out of the way asap. another entitled dog owner imo.
 
A couple of weeks ago, I was walking the dogs before work. I keep Luna on a shorter lead as we approach people, as she is a puppy, and will jump up. Aled I let walk ahead as he ignores everyone and everything unless “spoken” to. There was a young girl on her way to school, and as Aled got close, she froze. I stopped immediately and called out that we were friendly, but pup was jumpy and in training. We talked for a couple of mins, she petted them both, and then we walked on.

I don’t want to set my dogs up to fail, and immediately understood she was nervous.
 
I'm another that agrees the owner was at fault, I was amazed reading the comments how few people stated that she should have removed them when she knew he was getting upset by them. One person wrote this and someone replied to say "why should she put them inside,it's their property and if people don't like dogs they shouldn't be delivery drivers"
 
The link is now broken but I think I saw some of this somewhere else.

I think the owner is mainly at fault for allowing her dogs to be out of her control - whether they were friendly or not. Some people dislike dogs, some are scared of them. It is up to the owner to keep control of their dogs so they do not interfere with anyone else.

The DPD driver did completely over-react imo, but that could have been through fear.
 
Walking Stanley a few weeks ago on a narrow footpath I saw four huge dogs off lead, I put Stan on his lead but there was nowhere to go to get out of their way. TBH I felt rather intimidated and Stan who was only just out and about was very worried. I then saw a guy with another three dogs on leads so I asked him to call the four dogs back. "Oh they are fine, don't worry they are just friendly" he replied. Actually they were fine and Stan said a brief hello to each of them but not the ones on leads which he said were not so reliable. I think owners of large dogs sometimes don't appreciate how intimidating it can be to be faced with an unknown large dog that is off the leash, let alone a pack of them.
 
My YO/landlady's would.
It used to drive me nuts TBF, I understood that they wanted her to bark but I think at that point she should always have been told to go and lie back down out the way rather than continue to harrass, but not my dog/property/rules.
 
CorvusCorax said:
Just out of interest, how many people's dogs come into direct contact with delivery persons?
It's an alien concept for me to be honest.
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Mine don't. The sheepdogs are all in kennels and secure individual runs, my GSDs are inside a six foot fence and my postmen and delivery drivers put all my deliveries in our woodstore/coal shed and so never have to enter the garden at all. I live up a track about half a mile long from a private road and am considering putting a large postbox at the end of the track so the postie doesn't even have to come up near the cottage.
 
CorvusCorax said:
Just out of interest, how many people's dogs come into direct contact with delivery persons?
It's an alien concept for me to be honest.
Click to expand...

mine do not-I have a long drive so the post is delivered to the parcel box at the end of that. If the dogs are outside loose they are either in the dog proofed back garden or out front in the lunge pen. They've been trained to not bark/jump up at anyone and if we have workmen etc in the house they are in their beds (they have big whelping type pens as opposed to crates).
 
We have our post delivered to a box at the end of the drive but deliveries requiring a signature will bring drivers to our gated courtyard. Stanley (and our previous dogs) like to sunbathe in the courtyard, he goes out there to toilet too. I keep treats by the back door and if a driver is happy to come into the courtyard to say hello to Stan, they can give him a treat. Stan looks forward to deliveries and would be a completely useless guard dog. He is not allowed to jump up though (work in progress!)
 
Had a close call a while ago with the postman, who was on a quest to find my neighbour's back door and decided to let himself into my garden to try and chuck the parcel over the fence. He'd had to cross a long walled driveway, go up a set of steps and through a closed 6ft gate, passing 'private - no entry' and 'do not enter - do not open gate - loose dogs' signs on the way.

Thankfully (and surprisingly!) my bellow stopped both dogs and postie in their tracks, my dogs are unlikely to eat anyone and I'm always out there with them, but I don't want them coming into contact with randoms.

The spaniels and other staff dogs at work sometimes do but at least a delivery driver entering a veterinary surgery cannot be too surprised that dogs are present.
 
Drivers and JRT are separated by a padlocked pair of 4' tall wooden entrance gates. Our post box and illuminated doorbell are set out on the roadside fence, so no need for any driver/dog interaction. The JRT always bustles round to woof importantly at any delivery, but there is no need for any contact. Doesn't stop some folk from reaching right over the gates to try and stroke him, though, which tbh isn't the greatest idea to do with any strange dog.
 
Link not working for me but have to say owner at fault here (based on what I've read on this thread). I picked up my (5kg) dog when a very odd chap came to read the meter the other day. He said he had a shih tzu himself and my own dog is nearly as small and entirely friendly/not really paying the guy much attention anyway. But the man was scared and so I removed the dog from the situation. My dog and our regular postman know each other and so if I answer the door the dog may come with me and get patted. But for other people it is a case by case basis and the dog is never unsupervised unless with someone I know well.

It really bothers me when people don't have (especially medium/large, that could actually do some damage in seconds) dogs under control near strangers. People can have rational and irrational fears, allergies, panic attacks and religious or hygiene qualms... you just never know.
 
GirlFriday said:
It really bothers me when people don't have (especially medium/large, that could actually do some damage in seconds) dogs under control near strangers. People can have rational and irrational fears, allergies, panic attacks and religious or hygiene qualms... you just never know.
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me too-my stepdaughter wears leg braces and is not as steady on her feet as most, she's also autistic. both her and her brother are quite nervous of strange dogs due to being frightened by one in a park when much younger (a dog bowled her over).
They are used to my dogs-introduced slowly or from puppies etc and interactions with them are very controlled until I know the dogs will follow certain commands and that the dogs are also happy with the situation.
My old yard partner had collies that would run and jump up-either at the horse's noses over the stable door (annoying enough) or would rush at my step daughter. They werent ever going to hurt her but it was enough to trigger a melt down-this woman never got it though, just would say that my husband and family 'weren't dog people'. This place was also our home so it caused some friction. She finally stopped letting the collies jump at the horses when my horse grabbed hold of one of them but she still thought my stepdaughter should just 'get over it'.

My old supervisor is an avid hill walker-he's a big guy but he's afraid of dogs. he gets heartily sick of dogs jumping all over him when he's out for a stroll-even though rationally he knows they aren't trying to hurt him he has a fear that they will. He should be able to go and enjoy a walk without this happening.
 
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If I called to the home of a tarantula enthusiast and said tarantulas ran out to greet me, the householder shouting 'it's ok, they're friendly', or 'don't be silly, there's nothing to be scared of' wouldn't help.
Like someone saying 'don't be sad' doesn't stop people feeling sad, etc etc etc.
 
CorvusCorax said:
Just out of interest, how many people's dogs come into direct contact with delivery persons?
It's an alien concept for me to be honest.
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Mine quite regularly meet the several delivery men as my OH is currently running his business from home so gets a lot of packages delivered which need signing for. They are both malamutes so I understand might be intimidating to some people. Ash always comes to the door with me but he won't cross the threshold unless invited so I don't worry about him but if the driver didn't like him then he is told to go to bed which he does straight away, the 2nd dog is a bit more "in your face" so doesn't come to the door until we know if the visitor is ok with dogs. I've only had 1 driver so far who didn't think they were awesome and want to pet them and that was fine I just put them away behind a door, no need for any dramas....
 
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