We’ve been working on the new house again this weekend. Since we were throwing stuff into the garbage container all day and feeling sore again after just a few hours, we decided we would order some Chinese delivery from the next town over. This was our first time ordering from them but last weekend we went to pick up food from them and were satisfied enough to continue to order…but now we might be stuck having to go pick up the food from now on.
I guess I’ll start by saying that there is a sign on the front gate of our new house which says “Achtung: Bissiger Hund.” This essentially means “Beware of Biting Dog.” We’ve talked about taking down the sign because, well obviously, there are very few times when Newfs could be classified as biting dogs (and Ayla really only seems to like to chew on us rather than anyone else)…but since we have a dog and want people to be aware of that fact, we figured we’d leave it up until we get a new sign.
So we hear the doorbell & buzz the delivery guy into the front gate. We open the door to pay the guy & take the food & Ayla darts out the door (yeah, we’re still working on that whole wait by the door thing when we answer it). We probably should have had her on a leash already but she had been sleeping prior to this and is usually rather good about the door…but this was the first time for all of us in this house so things were slightly chaotic I guess.
By now, the delivery guy was approaching the steps but when he saw the dog, he started to back away….quickly. Of course the dog followed and since we couldn’t get him to stand still, she kept following him because he’s new & he had yummy smelling food in his hands. So hubby is telling the guy to just stay calm and not move…and the guy is practically in full panic mode. By now, Ayla has descended the stairs and is continuing to approach him. I really don’t even think she tried to jump on him which is rather amazing…but the guy just kept backing up…until he hit the wall. You might expect that he just stood frozen then…but instead he took the food bag & tried to put it on the dog’s head. I suppose he was thinking the bag would prevent her from coming closer or something…and when that didn’t seem to have any impact aside from her trying to figure out what this fun new game was & why the bag was so warm, the guy actually threw the food on the ground and ran out the front gate.
My first reaction was of course, “Dude, he just threw our food on the ground. Not cool.” (Yes, I probably actually did think “dude” to myself.) Then I started to wonder if the guy would be having a heart attack outside or had just left in general. But on closer inspection, hubby found the guy breathing heavy outside the door, waiting to be paid and to get his warming bag back. Meanwhile I put Ayla on her leash and opened the gate again so the guy could see the dog. Whether he was able to take his eyes off the ground, I don’t know.
All this commotion probably freaked hubby & I out more than anyone. This guy panicking practically had us doing the same and we just couldn’t figure out what the problem was. It took us at least 30 minutes to remember the sign on the door (and we still have no clue if the guy was scared because of the sign or just has a general fear) but we still had never seen anyone react like that to a dog…especially one that wasn’t barking, snarling, showing teeth, growling or anything else which seemed remotely like she would attack. Irrational fear of dogs is something we’ve never come into contact with before and never expected it from an adult, especially about Ayla. But needless to say we have to be much more careful when opening the door in the future…and hopefully there will be future deliveries to our house from this place.
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