Call it what you want

Dogs are a good judge of character.

They say dogs are a good judge of character. But you must know the character of the dog first before you can know what to judge.

I have come across a bloody lot of dogs on my time. Good dogs know good people and bad dogs don't know the difference.
Because they have only been around one type of person and they have been conditioned to one environment. Sometimes that environment is the one that they feel they need to continually protect.

dogs that have been mistreated or don't know kindness and act accordingly. In a fearful way.
Let's look at military dogs, absolutely they know what love it, but they have been trained in such a manner that if they felt threatened in the everyday life they will attack.
Very different to a trained military person.
Humans have the logic and mental capacity to process information.

There are stray dogs everywhere that roam the streets without a care in the word is may seen but go to approach them and 9 times out of 10 you wont be able to get near them. Again because they don't know love and trust.
Then there are those dogs that get out and would go to anyone. Because they know love and think everyone has love to give, other dogs included. They usually get hurt and attacked by other dogs, because we live in a kill or be killed world. That is nature.
That is animal instincts.
So don't be offended by a dog barking at you. It animal instinct to kill or be killed.
It's animal instincts to protect your area.
It's animal instincts to stand your ground.
It's animal instincts to feel threatened and be threatening.
It's human nature to understand this and do things differently.
It's human nature to be able to process this information.
We need to start acting like humans and not being like animals.
It's up to us to live together in harmony.
I write this chapter because it's my way of understanding why the dogs on this station behave so differently to other station dogs I have been around.

I have just come back from a beautiful walk with my dogs. Only to me greeted at the gate with a pack of dogs - sitting - waiting!
They start to bark, so then more dogs come, I yell at them because it scares me.
Two of my dogs run into the bush to get home the long way so they don't have to face the pack.
Two of my dogs have been attacked by these dogs in the last three weeks.
My old dog being the last one to cop it.
Luckily I was there close when it happened and I scared them away.
I didn't notice until yesterday that one of my other dogs had been bitten until I noticed one of the dogs licking at the others side.
On closer inspection there were dog bite wounds.
So yes I made a scene and the other people including the owner didn't care or call the dogs off. It didn't worry them because they didn't feel threatened.
They knew that dogs were just being dogs. But they don't understand the big picture.
They aren't able to see things from my point of view. They can only hear a person yelling. Then they hear dogs barking. So to them they probably think I'm the problem, I'm the one making a scene and that I'm the one making the dogs bark. But what they didn't see if my dogs instinctively run away. Yes that's good. Yes I could have done the same. But I'm not going to walk through thick grass and trees to fucking hide from dogs. I'm a human, not a dog, I'm going to act like a fucking human.
I had two dogs come closer to me, I yelled at them to get away and they barked and that sent more of them coming towards me. Then that made some of them go around to my side.
I started to feel scared because they were ganging up on me. There were more dogs than I could have handled so I had to act in fight or flight mode. If I ran, the dogs would have run after me. So I had to make myself look and act big and scary. And yea act fucking crazy.
This is not the first time I have lost my shit because of dogs and acted like a crazy person.
Time and time again I have felt like I have to fight for my survival. To protect myself anyway I know how, regardless of how I look to others.
So I am now using this time to stop - think - process the situation I was just faced with and work out how I can change that situation next time.
How can I act like a human in response to animal instincts.

My dogs are no different really.
My dogs are station dogs too. They bark at things, but they don't usually bark at people. Initially yes, but once they know them they are ok.

The above mentioned pack of dogs constantly bark at me. I have tried to show them kindness, I have tried to ignore them, I have tried yelling at them.
So far nothing has made any difference.
They bark at me when I'm alone and they bark at me when I'm with my dogs.

So it comes down to what they know.

They don't know any difference. They have an owner that is very controlling.

I'm doing my own work on how to deal with the owner.

So far I just steer clear of her and that's the best way for me to deal with it. So I guess I just made up the decision about the pack of dogs. Avoid them at all costs and do what you have to do to keep yourself safe.
Because at the end of the day it's only you that matter.
So now I'm also have to make the choice to stop written and feeding this story because I have other jobs to do.

Because I can't blame the dogs for being dogs!
They are just doing the only thing they know.
To protect themselves at all costs. So that's what I'm going to continue to do also!! 

I'm sure I will come back and edit this at some stage after a few days of processing this information.

It comes down to the owner.
This owner is different to any other person I have come across.
So that leads me to my next chapter
Never judge a book by its cover ...