Is It Every Okay to Approach a Dog We Don't Know?

Is it ever okay to approach a dog that we do not know? What is a dog’s instinctive response when we approach him? How can we protect a dog that we see is playing near traffic?

A few days ago I was talking to a young man named Steve

When Steve was younger, he had seen a dog off-leash and near traffic and, worried that the dog might get hit by a car, had walked toward that dog to try to grab her by her collar to bring her home. That dog had run in exactly the opposite direction from the approaching person and had run into the street.

Sound familiar?

That dog died.  And for years after that, Steve felt badly.  Even as he was telling me about it, his voice trailed off as he seemed to contemplate the scene, saying, 'I felt badly about it."

But one thing is for sure: Dogs don't like it when people whom they do not know approach them, especially if they approach the dog suddenly and the owner is not there to tell the dog that this person is "okay".

This is the case even if the person approaches the dog in order protect him or her.

The dog's instinct is to run away from this person which, sadly and unfortunately, may mean that the dog runs right into exactly what the person is trying to protect him from: in this case, into the traffic.

Dogs perceive the person - even a good person with good intentions - as a threat, and ignore the danger of the traffic.

Steve said that the best thing to do if a person sees an off-leash dog that is about to run into traffic is to stand still and firmly say "Come" to the dog, and it's even better if you can get a bone or some treat to entice the dog to come to you.

Also, everybody else should move away from the off-leash dog, further away from traffic.  Joey would say that Steve has it right. Especially the part about offering the dog a treat.

So I guess the answer to the question is: Don't approach a dog that you don't know if the dog's owner is not there with the dog -  even if you are trying to help the dog.

Obtain Your Dog's Genealogical Chart

Where's Bolo?

Some people can trace their dog's ancestry further back than they can trace their own!

Pet Insurance: Accidents and Catastrophic Expenses

You love your dog and you want to know if you should shell out the dollars for your doggie's pet insurance.

This is Part 5 of our series, intended to help you think through this decision.

Let's talk dollars and sense, again.  Joey's first trip to the emergency animal medical center, after he was hit by the car (if you're following our story), cost us almost $4,000. 

Let's emphasize that this covered the first five days of emergency trauma care and hospitalization.

Then due to the nature of the ankle fracture, our dog required surgery one month later. That cost just under another $3,000.

Then we add in the additional visits for bandages changes, which were supposed to be weekly for umpteen weeks but our darling chocolate Lab insisted on chewing his bandages and so sometimes we ended up bringing him to the vet twice weekly and if it was an emergency visit, the price tag was even higher.  (I emphasize that in no way are we complaining about our vet or the quality of service. It was the best. I'm just laying out the dollars and cents facts.) So our total spent was somewhat above $7000 to heal Joey (not including our time!).

But I'm not complaining so let's move on:

So notice the figure from our first post about pet health insurance: 

With a premium of $62 per month, we would have paid $7400 in health insurance in those ten years.

Notice the similarity of the amounts? That means that as of the time Joey was hit by the car, the amount we would have paid into a health insurance policy for him and the amount that we actually paid for his injury would have been equal!

So we ask you the question again: Would you not be better off - in the long run - not purchasing a health insurance policy for your dog, and spending the money as needed?


Let's review: 

What happened to Joey, i.e. his getting hit by a car, was not a pre-existing condition.  It was not a result of a congenital defect (unless you want to consider his enthusiasm for life and for digging his way out as one!).  So we are clear there.

Had Joey had some condition such as hip dysplasia, we would have been paying premiums all along and then the insurance company may have told us that they wouldn't cover him due to its being a congenital defect.

We did have to have a lot of money available, at the drop of a hat, though the hospitals will accept credit cards . But remember, even with pet health insurance, you have to have money up front, as you pay first (and wait until you find out whether they will reimburse you) and they (may or may not) reimburse you.

For us, at eleven years old next month, Joey is now doing great.

He's back to minimal annual examinations and pet care: Heartworm pills, tick and flea Heartguard, food, the cost of kennels etc. when we go out of town, Omega 3 fish oils, Glucosamine/Chondroiten, etc. Routine stuff that your pet insurance isn't going to cover anyway.

But we are going to bet on Joey's continuing to be healthy, and that for a long while at least he's going to continue running.  To us, we're going to say it would be "a wash", economically, that is.  So we feel we're better off in having not purchased Joey a policy, and having done everything we could to maintain his good health!

Oh, and we're keeping a much more careful watch on our dog than we did in the past, to make sure he doesn't get out of the yard again unattended!

But if you're that college student with a new puppy and very few financial resources, and your puppy gets sick, maybe you need to consider a different path. But, like beginners luck with gambling, will you know when to walk away from the slot machine after your big win so that the house won't always win?  Or will you understand the expression, "Bad money follows good?"  Unless you're a senior with a young dog to keep you company, in most cases, I think "the house will win".

By the way, please add your comments and share your experience with pet illness and insurance.

Pet Insurance for Your Dog or Cat: Money Up Front

This is Part 2 of our series about Pet Insurance for your Dog or Cat: Is It Worth It?  (Read Part 1)

If you're looking at this post, you're probably looking also at 8 or so Google ads for pet insurance. So you need to be a smart shopper because businessmen have discovered that offering pet insurance is a good way to make money! So with that, let's continue:

Now my husband and I laid out an astonishing amount of money to have our Lab Joey just admitted to the medical center.

But would having pet insurance have had any less of a crash impact on our pocketbooks?

Truth is that most of the dog and cat insurance companies that I saw require you to pay the medical care bills first, and then submit the bill to them, and then they assess the charges and fees and reimburse you as they deem appropriate.

So you have to have the money up front, even with pet insurance.

In some animal hospitals, you can't admit your pet without having the money available; in others, you can't take your pet home without having it. 

That may be having up to $1000., which I saw for many pet owners whose dogs or cats had a diabetic attack, or, in our case, over $3000 for an animal that's been hit by a car, available on a credit card.

And keep in mind that many of these pet insurances also have deductibles that have to be met.

Our next post in this series is called "Pre-existing Conditions and Congenital Defects."

What Does a Dog Do after He's Been Hit by a Car?

The dog has gone off on his own and you don't know where he is. You might not even know that he's wandered off. You might not be aware that he has gotten hit by a car.

What did our dog Joey do after he was hit by the car? He eluded everybody who was trying to HELP him, and walked home, several blocks away. And walked back down our driveway to the gate, and sat, and waited.

He didn't cry, he didn't lay down. He just sat by the gate.  And waited. For me.

People have told me that a dog who knows he's going to die will find an isolated place and just stay there. I don't know about that. I do know that our dog was very wounded, and that he came home, and waited.

And this is why it was so difficult for me to know, on my own, what had happened to our dog.

Another dog I know of (through the blog) was hit by a truck; his owners thought he was dead and they started digging a hole for his final resting place. Suddenly, he started moving.


It was a miracle.

Just last month, ten months after Joey was hit by the car, when I was walking Joey on a rainy day, an enthusiastic City worker stopped me and said, "Is this the dog who was hit by the car?" It turns out this was Eddie, the person who had tried to follow Joey but who'd lost him in the underbrush, and who notified the City that a dog had been hit!

We can salute the spirit of dogs and wounded animals, the spirit to survive.

How Our Dog Was Hit by a Car

Hello, friends.

Let me tell you about how our dog, Joey, got hit by a car.

One sunny morning Joey found a very nice place in the back where he could dig a long hole that followed along the fence, and then dip down under it, and gradually squeeze his body under it. In between it and our neighbors’ wooden fence is just enough room, a gap of about six inches, for him to squeeze my thin body through. About 30 feet later he is free.

And that's exactly what he did.

The site Joey chose was particularly clever because there was an evergreen tree in front of it that blocked us from seeing what I was up to. There was also a non-biodegradable plank that I had so smartly had placed there to keep him from access to the fence, which he easily pushed aside, it having become dislodged during the winter snows.

Isn't it amazing how dogs just figure these things out.

But this is just my point of view.  You can read more about Joey's life and about his injury and about life after he was hit by the car from his perspective, from the dog's point of view.