Dana's return to home seems to have coincided with the arrival of a new postman. She is extremely friendly. He is extremely nervous. She tends to greet postpersons as bearers of dog-treats – thanks to one postman who actually used his official allowance for dog biscuits. I find it strange that anyone can find a dog who is wagging its tail and smiling in anticipation a threat. But I am prepared to accept it is possible that this particular postman may have had a fright in the past. However, he doesn't take readily to smiles from me either. And it does not help that he tends to shout Get Away, get away! as if she is a large yellow wasp. I have explained that a simple and firm command of Down… will give the required results. So instead he has started throwing the mail at her.
Mind you – half the time it is somebody else's mail, but that is another story.
Not sure about this website whether it's serious or not, but I'm a Postman and I love dogs. I have learnt how to assess dogs quite well, I approach them slowly, cautiosly let them sniff my hand.. some go to bite me but I'm too quick and move away, most sniff and accept me but don't always want to be stroked, some lick you to death and then you know you're safe. A wagging tail means nothing as most of the viscious dogs will wag their tails and happily bite you the next second. As for throwing the mail at the dog, some people have asked me to do this, personaly I neve would as the mail is likely to get lost or damaged. Royal Mail's rules in this instance are simply to not deliver the mail and return it to sender endorsed with “dog loose”. Last week I was attacked by a particularly viscious Alsation that had suddenly learnt to jump the fence it was kept behind. I was fortunate enough to deliver a well aimed kicked at it's head before it bit me. When it couldn't get back over the fence it attacked me a second time whereupon I kicked it in the head a second time, the middle age female owner saw the second kick I delivered to her dog and opened the gate so her dog could get away. She, the owner, then said.. “HOW DARE YOU KICK MY DOG!!!!”. I told her I would kick it again if it attacked me again, she said.. “IT WAS IN MY GARDEN!!”. When I pointed out it had clearly jumped the fence She then said, “IF YOU KICK MY DOG AGAIN AGAIN I'LL KICK YOU!!!!”. At this point I told her that I would not only report her dog to the police but her as well. I promptly did report it to the police and to Royal Mail management. Not surprisingly she reported me to to my Manager (which I'd invited her to do). My Manager backs me to the hilt and has told me to not deliver any mail in future the her if the dog is anywhere in sight. It wasn't in sight the day it attacked me. If it attacks me again I will actually let it bite me then kick it to death if need be, then ask for the dog to be destroyed and I will sue the owner. Put yourself in the Postmans position, what would you do?? Just stand there and potentially let yourself be killed by an out of control mad dog?
When we refuse to deliver your mail due to a dangerous dog, there is only one way to get your mail…. collect it from the sorting office, and you have to PAY for this service as it requires special handling.
PS I love dogs and spend many minutes a day of my own time fussing over my customers dogs. I also buy treats for them (there is no official allowance). When a dog is nice it's very very nice, when it's horrid it should be warned.