I love Berlin, and I love the fact that it is one of the most dog-friendly cities there is. Having my new dog, Gigi, has allowed me to meet far more people than my terrible German would otherwise have enabled. She’s from the city’s animal shelter and is a fantastic little buddy, albeit with an incredibly stubborn streak. She has met some great doggy friends here and has improved dramatically since we picked her up six weeks ago. However… our walks together have generated some very bizarre encounters, and for fellow dog-owners everywhere, here are a few of my favourites!
ONE: Bakery Man
One from narrioch. One of the first people that she met whilst walking Gigi was a respectable-enough looking man sitting outside a bakery. This man watched with great interest as the two approached, and when Gigi was secured outside the bakery he decided to impart the following gems: the best way to educate a dog is to tug constantly on its lead so that it thinks it is surrounded by strangers, and will therefore be submissive; and even better, when the ‘war’ comes, Bakery Man will be there to save all the world’s animals. He will apparently be doing this by opening a tunnel from Siberia to Spain which all the animals can ‘run through’ and he will subsequently live in paradise with all his four-legged friends. Apparently he looked quite respectable to narrioch at first, until she noticed the dirty fingernails and missing shoes.
TWO: Leads are Evil
And another from narrioch (I wonder why I don’t meet so many… characters). Two bulked-up guys walking a Chihuahua (!) stopped her as she walked Gigi along the street. One of them proceeded to tell her how wrong it was to walk a dog on a leash, and started trying to tug at the leash to encourage her to set Gigi free. He said that he was an authority on dog ownership because he had previously owned a Staffordshire Bull Terrier. What happened to the Staffy? It ran off one day whilst on a walk and never came back.
THREE: Your Dog is Rabid
One of many, many ‘unleashed dog’ stories. Whilst out in the park, we were all happily playing a game of catch (or search and destroy as Gigi plays it) and saw a huge, mouth-frothing Rottweiler mix pelting toward us at the speed of sound. Gigi wasn’t too worried, but the dog leapt all over her, slamming her onto the ground – we tried to lead her away, but the Rottie kept on coming. The owner was in view about 500 feet away, sitting on a park bench heavy-petting his girlfriend with his legs spread wide open as if he just lost his horse. Rather than getting up and trying to remove his dog, or at least asking if we minded the dog’s presence, he just sat on the bench and continually hollered his dog’s name at five second intervals for several minutes, to no avail. Eventually the dog got bored and wandered off, so we started up our game again. Rottie came galloping back, stole the ball we were throwing and took it back to Roy Rogers, who thought this was totally hilarious and threw the ball for him a few times before whistling at us and threwing the ball back towards us. Okay, it was only a tennis ball, but… words fail me.
FOUR: Your Dog is the Devil
Another unleashed dog one; a snappy, growly rat-dog leapt on Gigi as we were walking and tried to bite the bejeezus out of her. It might have been smaller than a handbag but it was a nasty bastard (not the dog’s fault, though). Did the dog’s owner intervene? No.. she stood back and watched while Gigi got attacked, narrioch got scratched legs and I grabbed the rat as soon as I could and pushed it back toward her. We asked her for an apology and told her that her dog should be on a leash, but all we got in response was that it was our fault. Not sure how she worked that one out.
Leave a comment