*downunder *wheels

Adding video to channels (Downunder, Wheels) - requested by eric3579.

Guys got his route and mailboxes sorted.

He's the Postie with the Mostie! How can you not admire his swagger?

Postmen in Australia can drive across the grass? Home owners in the U.S. would go bat-shit crazy if that happened here.

Postmen in Australia can drive? All by foot here in UK

No junk mail in Australia? I average 5-10 pieces a day. Such a waist of trees.

I get angry when people just try to hand my dog a treat. For one, my dog is on a grain free diet for skin issues, and nearly all treats are made from grains. Some people's dogs have other issues. It's just like rolling up and giving someone's child a piece of candy, inappropriate.
Now, since he knew each dog by name, perhaps he had gotten permission to feed every dog. I'll just hope so, but if not he should.

Do you live where people feed your dog treats so often, that this is really a problem?

If someone is nice enough to treat an unknown pet, seems like they would surely be easy to talk to and understand if a dog has a certain diet.

Unless you come running out of your house, yelling "Don't feed my fucking dog". In that case, it's more an issue with you, than some kind person just trying to be friendly to animals.

That depends on your definition of 'often'. Maybe about once a week on average.
It seems you're missing the point. Sometimes that person may interact with my dog without me being present (like in this video), offering no possibility to instruct them about my dogs diet requirements. When I am present, they almost always ask first, and I ask them about the treat. If it's grain free, she gets a free treat. If not, I usually offer the person a grain free treat of my own to give to my dog (person still gets to interact with dog, dog gets treat, every one's happy). I do not rush out screaming at people over mistakes, but I do tell delivery people about her diet and ask them to please not give her the wrong treats, or she'll suffer for it later. They have all complied, but some have needed reminding.
Then there are random people on the street/in the park with boundary issues that just come up from behind and interact with random dogs on leashes without asking, or reach through a partially open car window to pet and feed a dog waiting inside, I find that rude and inappropriate, treat or not. Maybe that's my problem and not theirs, but someone needs to explain why if I'm to understand.
I do it for my dog, not my sense of control. It's not easy, cheap, or fun for me to keep her grain free. She breaks out in hives if she eats too much grain product. It's like someone offering a random non-speaking child some reses...not knowing if child might have a deadly peanut allergy. I understand it's intended as friendly, but that's why you should ask first, it might be harmful or deadly.

Totally understandable. It's a shame that a sign that said "No feed the animals" would be looked at as being funny, and not something you were serious about, or even worse, people purposely feeding your dog because of the sign.

I've learned that going up to dogs you don't know treat or otherwise is not a good idea, as some dogs react differently to strangers. Where if the dog see's you talking with the owner first, they can settle down to you.

I guess it would more or less just be a struggle that you have to deal with. Other than keeping your dog inside sometimes, or a caged backyard that is less accessible to passer byes that can just hand something threw the bars.

I never knew or thought about a dogs diet, and how it could affect the dog. But now that I know, I probably would be more cautious before feeding a dog without first asking the owner.

That being said, I doubt most people have that thought cross them before offering a unknown dog a treat.

I guess at the very least, you could use it to educate other dog lovers. Not that that makes it any easier to monitor your dogs diet.

I don't generally mind the delivery guys giving my dog a snack, usually small milk bones, but I do get newtboy's point. My Lab broke part of his upper rear pre-molar (the big looking ones with double-points near the back) and I didn't want it pulled so about $3000 and a root canal later, he has a cool metal cap. Unfortunately, if he gets something really hard and/or the wrong shape, there is a chance it can pop off; it's happened two times already and that means extra trips to the vets to be put under and have the cap re-glued. That's $$$ and lots of stress for my dog.

So far everyone has asked before feeding him so it's all good but yeah I get it. My problem isn't so much food as having to tell everyone not to play tug with him (plastic Frisbees, nylon ropes, etc.)

I think the guy in this video has probably gotten permission to feed the dogs; though with some of the more aggressive ones he probably just does it to try and establish a rapport with the them.

It's council property between the letterbox and the road, this is just an underdeveloped area without footpaths, otherwise he'd be on the footpath... instead he's riding where the footpath would be.

*backup=[...snipped...]

Added alternate embed code for this video - backup requested by oritteropo.

@newtboy
If you have any issues with people feeding your dog, consider the core (and controllable) problem, your dog is eating without your instruction.

We had a dog when I was a kid, & there were dog fighting rings in the area that the cops couldn't prove (or shutdown) and the asshole dog-fight trainers would steal "new competitors" by dropping tranquilized meat in their yard.

Well, my dog starved himself for 3 days while at a dog kennel when we were on holidays because my dad forgot to tell the couple looking after our dog that "he won't eat unless you say munchies". The couple spent $100's on dog foods ranging from basic to premium, steaks sold for humans, even tried force feeding him, until they eventually called us in tears and heartbreak about how the dog would not eat.

Quote dad: Oh shit, say munchies
Quote lady: (dogs name), munchies
Result: he hooked in like a starving dog would, who had been well trained to deal with people who would affect our dog for their own agenda.

"Your" dog's behaviour is YOUR responsibility, not a strangers.
One can be controlled, the other cannot. Pick your battles and fight what you can win.

The dog we had prior to the one in the above story, got stolen twice, we got him back once. Losing 1 dog due to our naivety was enough.

PS: i agree people "should" leave your pets/kids etc alone. However, this is reality and special conditions need to be accounted for.

Postie Answers some Questions regarding video

Well, I don't disagree, but it's not as easy as that. She's a rescue, and was not trained at all when we got her. I've gotten her to sit, down, stay, close the door, etc. but stopping her from being friendly isn't something I want, and having her be friendly while not accepting food, that's higher level training than I'm qualified for. ;-)
Fortunately it's not a constant issue, and is one that I solve by paying attention when we're out together, and parking my 45 year old bronco in the bushes on one side so people have no access to the window. At home, it's really not an issue now that I have informed the UPS guy (Fed Ex doesn't open my gate) and I have a good fence back from the street, and we live in the boondocks on a dead end dirt road, so there's hardly traffic. My neighbors know, so it's taken care of well enough with no break outs in well over a year now.
Your concern is appreciated however.

P.S. And I don't have to worry she'll starve to death because I forgot to tell her dogsitter the code word. ;-)

I agree to a certain extent but I'd say you're certainly making assumptions about newtboy and his dog, as his follow up post shows. It also smacks a bit of victim blaming.

Surely the best course of action is to acknowledge that both side of the equation could do with some work. It's great that your dog is well trained, but it wouldn't be an issue if people understood that it's not always OK to do what you want with someone else's pet.

I always ask the owner before interacting with a dog at all. If there's any issue then the owner should tell you first but some people just don't give them a chance or the owners are too timid to say something. My kids will definitely know that dogs are great but to ask first before saying hello. Yes, the dog should be well trained enough that they can cope with any interaction at any time, but I'm taking the sensible route of assuming that not everyone with a dog is an expert dog trainer...

My wife would disagree, but I love it when my dog (a rescue as well) gets bent when a stranger approaches the house (good dog IMHO).

That there is some EIA, let alone rude...

@newtboy
Granted the advice isn't applicable to all situations, take the details of Digitalfiend's case for example, hence I didn't comment on that case (I had no advice, and I did consider it for a while. "Teach your dog not to play" wasn't a notion I was willing to back).
In light of the new info provided I state a disclaimer, the preparation you can do is limited by your circumstances.
Seems you've done well enough, and the occurrences for concern have locational limitations with positively influential perpetrators.
If I had had that, I wouldn't have gotten my 2nd awesome happy dog.

We weren't experienced trainers, however we did have an advantage and took the opportunity to start the training the day we got him as a pup, oppose to having got him later in his life.

As for the level of training, he came when called if he wanted, he stopped barking when he wanted, and he tried eating my cat, because he wanted.
With exception to my teasing kitty, he didn't eat without a command and he was incredibly road smart, as these 2 things were necessary for his survival and the maintenance of his high quality of life.

@robbersdog49
Yes there's assumptions, as I don't know newtboy or the respective living conditions and hardships (but my knowledge has marginally increased today).
Any assumptions of normalcy brought forth from a lack of advised uncommon details, is merely reviewing the situation as it has been described. Would you argue that I should have imagined some unstated details and responded to those?

We all make upwards of 100,000's of assumptions a day. The seat your sitting in, did you check it for poisonous spiders before sitting? why not? Is it because there wasn't any last time and you had no reason to suspect otherwise?
Our brains are smarter than we commonly realise and they use cheat sheets (commonly manifested as assumptions) to get us through every moment of our lives.
Holding humans to their likelihood driven assumptions is a frail thing as it's often met with "oh, i didn't know".

Victim blaming? No, not quite.
Fact: you have a greater chance of controlling your pets, then you do strangers.
The point is little more than to focus on the area's that you can more greatly and reliably influence. To simplify it, it's to aim for the greatest reward with minimal resource (in this case, effort).

The rest of your comment is idealistic. You get no argument from me as I agree, and no realistically debatable point has been made. We don't live in a utopia and those whom acknowledge this while aiming for something, stand a better chance of gaining a modicum of their interests.

"it would be good if people were good". Yes. Would. If. One day

Now I'm stuck watching all his video's. Appreciated.