Woman’s Protective Dog Stops A Creepy Stranger In His Tracks, But Now Her Neighborhood Thinks They’re The Threat
by Benjamin Cottrell
When this woman moved from the city to suburbia, she expected more peace and quiet, but boy, was she wrong.
When she and her Personal Protection Dog crossed paths with a questionable stranger, her frightened post online about the incident turned the entire neighborhood against them.
Read on for the full scoop.
AITA for “threatening” my new neighbors with my dog?
I (F28) just moved from my city to my first house in a suburban neighborhood about six months ago. Just me and my dog Oaken, a Dutch Shepherd.
My dog is trained as a Personal Protection Dog (PPD).
I’m a runner and Oaken runs with me.
One night, they have an usual encounter on the trails.
We were running in our neighborhood’s park and pond area, I had my AirPods in, it was just getting dark.
I’d noticed in passing a guy on his bike on the same trails, and as we were coming around the pond he was stopped on our path.
He waved us down and said he had dropped his keys, asked if I had seen them on the path, asked if I had a light on me because he thinks he dropped them in the grass.
Immediately, the mysterious man starts barraging her with questions.
He wanted to know if I lived in the neighborhood, which house was mine, if I was nearby because he didn’t see any cars in the parking area that he didn’t recognize.
Basically anything to keep us there and keep talking.
Not scary, but annoying with a definite hint of creepy.
Trying to signal she was done with the conversation, she tried to leave…
After he forgot his initial story and said, “I’m gonna be so ticked at myself if I lost another earbud, that’s my third pair and they’re nearly 300 bucks a pop,” I moved to leave and he stood in the path and started asking about Oaken.
Oaken wasn’t doing anything aggressive at this point – no hair raised no growling or barking. He was doing exactly what he was trained to do.
Every time the guy would move to get closer to us, he would just stand between me and him.
The man continued to push boundaries.
The guy asked if he was friendly, asked to pet him, and I said I’d rather he not.
He kept saying dogs loved him, blah blah, I again said no and we started to walk around the guy to go.
That’s when he decided it would be a good idea to try to grab Oaken’s leash. (I have no idea why, your guess is as good as mine.)
So Oaken started to do exactly what he was trained to do.
Oaken backed us up, low growl, showed his teeth. Didn’t snap, didn’t bite. We left.
The encounter was strange enough I posted in the Neighborhood app.
Nothing accusing the guy of attacking us or anything over the top like that, just that my dog and I had gotten stopped by a stranger out running and a reminder not to grab at a person’s dog or dog leash without permission.
Surprisingly, someone recognized the man right away.
Apparently, Park Guy’s wife read the post and recognized her husband immediately, because since then she’s been telling every neighbor who will listen about my “aggressive attack dog.”
The woman apparently had some pull around the neighborhood.
I’ve now gotten a letter from the HOA and apparently the next homeowner’s meeting has breed specific bans on the agenda.
While I believe Oaken’s response was appropriate and controlled, I’m feeling sad and disappointed that my new community has the wrong impression.
I’m not out to terrify people.
Now she’s left wondering if she made the right decision.
AITA for posting what I posted to the Neighborhood app and apparently starting a feud with my new neighbor?
Was I wrong for calling out Park Guy publicly?
What should have been a simple evening jog snowballed into a massive misunderstanding.
What did Reddit have to say?
This commenter didn’t think the runner and her dog were in the wrong in the slightest.
Something strange is going on in this neighborhood, there’s no question about it.
It’s clear the man’s wife is only looking out for her best interests.
Someone familiar with these types of dog affirms he acted just as he should.
First she was the victim of an overbearing stranger, now she’s the victim of a neighborhood gossip chain.
Sometimes even when you do the right thing, you end up on the wrong side of the story.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who invited herself to her parents’ 40th anniversary vacation for all the wrong reasons.
Categories: STORIES
Tags: · aita, creepy, creepy neighbors, dogs, hoa, HOA neighborhood, neighbors, personal protection dog, picture, reddit, top
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