Dogs

Some time last week I was thinking that there must be some type of law in Germany, that when you buy a dog, you have to take it to obedience training, because more than 1/2 the dogs aren't on leashes, but just stay by their masters and don't bark or lunge or anything. But- right after I thought this, probably 5 days ago or so, it seems every dog comes over to me. Right after I thought it, there was a lady with two dogs in the forest, and the smaller one, a Jack Russell or some type of similar terrier, started running up to me- but not in a mean way. The other dog, a retriever, stayed back until the small one made it all the way to me and kinda of was hopping around me. Then both dogs were up by me, and the little one was hopping up, but not jumping on me. Their owner kept saying, "Nicht springen, nicht springen (no jumping)" to them, and eventaully got them to go back to her when she threw a stick for them. Just yesterday or so, another dog in the forest followed me around. I was taking more pictures, and heard a jingling behind me. There was a big dog about halfway between me and his 'parents', quite a ways down the path. He stayed between us, and I was expecting his parents to call him back. He was a little scary looking- he was like a Doberman, but not so skinny and sleek, and like a Rottweiler, but not so husky; so he may have been a German Shepard with dark markings. When I'd stop to look at him, he'd kind of run up to me, but always circle around before getting right up to me. When I went and sat down for a minute on a big log, I heard him jingling toward me again. He looked all happy, but again stopped before getting too close to me. His parents eventually caught up and told him to come with them. The woman picked up a stick which got his attention, but then I thought he was going to bring it back to me. As his parents walked on, he stayed behind, about halfway between me and them again, and he kept looking back at me. The couple turned down a side path, and the dog, whose name may have been Alfi, followed them down it. And- on the way back some type of little poodle walked right up to me, and let me pet it. Last week, there was a little Scotty dog thing that started to speed up its walk toward me, but his owner reached down and held his collar so he couldn't leave. And- once they were just past me, the dog didn't even look back or turn around- I can't believe all these dogs and not even one has ever been mean.

The only dog that even sounded a little mean was a German Shepard behind a fence- but it couldn't see me, I think it just barked because it heard people walking near his house. The other one in the yard was looking though the little area of fence not boarded up, and just looked at me. He watched me both times I walked past, and looked friendly. They were both real pretty, with different markings than Arly. They had black in the same areas, but where Arly has tan, they were much more red.