Dogs biting

[ARWadsworth]

possibly off topic but many of you must visit houses where there are dogs.

Has anyone alse been bitten by a customers dog?

I have been bitten twice.

[Phil L]

Was bitten while entering a customer's garden while carrying triple extension ladders, I kicked it in the head and the owner said, ' you can pack that in'....I still don't know whether he was talking to me or the dog. Only that once in 25 years of working at people's houses - most normal folk who have uncontrollable mutts keep them locked up when you are there - it takes a combination of idiot dog *and* owner for an attack to take place.

[John]

Microchips are all well and good provided you can catch the damn dog in the first place. Why not compulsory muzzles when outside the home, regardles of size or breed? Job done.

[dennis]

That's not always true.. my mom had a recue poodle.. it was well behaved with everyone.. well everyone until my brother visited for the first time.. as soon as the dog saw him it went barking mad and does so every time he went there. It never did that with anyone else.

[Owain]

Dogs I don't mind.

It's being bitten by customers I seriously object to.

Owain

[Alan]

In message , ARWadsworth wrote

workers have been bitten whilst walking in the street. I suspect that if they are bitten/attacked it will when delivering to a property

[ARWadsworth]

And if the customer is a bit of a dog?

[Owain]

Time to check the inoculations are up to date.

Owain

[ARWadsworth]

Mine or hers?

[F Murtz]

The main advantage of compulsory microchipping is to identify the owner for the various fines the powers that be can think up

[Mark]

I worked as a postie for a very short time. Some dogs used to try and bite my hands when I was pushing the letters through the letterbox. I made sure those letters were heavily chewed.

[Hugo Nebula]

I always get the owner to put the dog into another room, or outside, or somewhere I'm not.

From times when I delivered papers or leaflets, I quickly learned to NEVER put my hands through the letterbox.

[Nick Odell]

During earlier times, delivering leaflets, I developed the "Odell Baton." Roll leaflet into a tube, such that it will spring open on the doormat, right-side up for the occupier to see; push the "baton" through the letterbox, forcing past the brush draught excluder or inner sprung flap; finish the job off with a pencil - not a finger!

Nick

[damduck-egg]

About twice ,neither much more than a nip in over thirty years. The vast majority of premises I worked at were pubs and most had a Dog. Some were ok with people and as would be expected in a pub used to strangers,others you made sure they were shut away. In between there was quite range,some were ok after introduction which may have been on each visit or with some just once and you were ok for the future. Others were fine in parts of the building and protective of other parts which is often why they were there. Of the two that nipped me one was a bad tempered small mongrel thing that should been drowned for looking ugly ,the other was an Ex Police Alsatian that had retired with his owner. He actually looked quite menacing but knew me and was usually fine. One morning on a visit he came up and got given the regular pat on the head at which point he nipped me on the arm just the owner shouted " Don't touch the Dog !". Turned out that hours before the pub had suffered a break in and knowing the Dog was there the perpetuators coshed him ,it was to the Dogs credit that he moderated his bite after an instictive response to my patting the sore spot. Most trouble with dogs was cheeky ones knicking tools or daft ones attempting to eat small washers and other bits. OTOH many of the same dogs made a colleague feel very uncomfortable ,they just didn't seem to like him for no apparent reason. G.Harman

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , ARWadsworth escribió:

Tetanus injection and HIV test.

[The Other Mike]

Given that you only have a right to deliver letters and not enter the house you should have obeyed the guidelines laid down by Royal Mail and kept your fingers on the outside of the door.

[Frank Erskine]

I've sometimes thought it'd be useful to have a sort of speculum, perhaps a rectangular tube section of plastic some 6" x 1", which could be pushed into the letterbox to open up any brushes and/or a possible internal flap, so that the desired missive(s), as well as takeaway menus, charity bags etc. can be simply dropped straight through the speculum.

[Mark]

I was not aware of the guidelines but I did try and keep my fingers outside the door. It's not always possible with small letters and many dogs mouths are small enough to poke outside a large letterbox.

[The Other Mike]

I'm only quoting what my postie says when I moan about his holiday cover replacement not putting the post completely through the letter box. The normal postie says he deliberately breaks these rules because post gets wet and an open letterbox lets the weather in. Don't think he bothers if the house has a dog though :)