10. Do not correct someone else's animal unless you have their permission to do so.
11. In reference to #10, people should never be put in the position of having to correct your animal. If you do not believe in teaching an animal certain behaviors (leash training, not begging, not jumping up) that is your right. However, if you choose to refrain from teaching these things, please refrain from bringing your animal around other people. This applies to all pets regardless of species or size.
So, just to clarify, if a pet is jumping on a person, that person is not rude to correct, right? Because I hate being jumped on, being sniffed, and having my toes bitten, so if your pet does do that, I will have to tell him/her to stop doing that. I'll give the owner a chance, but if the pet is jumping on me, I will probably tell him to stop.
I'm not sure if these will fall in as corollaries, but here is what I thought of:
-If you antagonize an animal (like pulling its tail/hair/skin), please do not blame the owner if/when the animal reacts. It's not the animal's fault.
-On the other hand, if your animal does cause harm to another person, don't blame the person. The excuses "You ran away from Fido!", "You were giving off an odor that made pet react" and "You are pregnant. What did you expect him to do?" do not mean that your pet was justified in harming someone.
(Example: I was walking home from school when someone's Dalmatian bit me. I saw it running down the street, heard it barking, and I started to run, although I didn't make it that far before it secured its teeth into my calf. The owner said that the dog was leashed. This was false, as 3 other people could confirm, and then the owner told the police officer that it was my fault because I was "running away". The police officer looked at the owner and said, "Lady, she's 7. The dog is bigger than she is. It was chasing her down the street. What did you think she was going to do?"
Then when my Mom was pregnant with my sister and me, she was walking home from the store when the neighbor's Doberman pincher (unleashed, on public property) jumped on her and she slipped on ice while trying to get away from it. The owner said to her, "The dog probably did that because you are pregnant. You need to be careful."
)
-Please do not tell someone who has been bitten by an animal that it "didn't hurt that badly". Yes, it does hurt, particularly if it was a large animal.
(I feel like telling these people that if it doesn't hurt that badly, they should go down to the police station and volunteer to be a subject for K-9 unit training. But I don't.
)
