More bad driving by dogs

We've seen dogs going for parking lot joyrides, crashing into storefronts, and when they're not driving cars irresponsibly, trying to eat them.

I can't decide: Do these stories not count as news anymore, or has it become such a tradition that I should keep reporting on them? But this one's got an extra twist that may call to mind the reports of dogs shooting their owners. From the St Petersburg Times:

Searching for oil leaks underneath his pickup truck, Christopher Bishop placed his Ford F-150 in neutral and left the driver's door open.

Unwittingly, Bishop also left himself vulnerable to his rambunctious bulldog, Tassey.

According to a Hernando County Sheriff's Office report, Tassey hopped into the truck and jumped around in the front seat, knocking it into gear and causing it to roll over the left side of Bishop's body.

Bishop, 43, was transported to Pasco Regional Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

It's hard to know, of course, whether this dog had murderous intent or was just a terrible driver, since even cursory research reveals that bad driving by dogs is rampant. Along with the stories we've blogged about, our friends at Dogster dug up another handful going back to 2001, and I'm sure in-depth reporting would reveal many more.

But either way, perhaps it's time to start addressing this problem with some canine education: Maybe dog owners need to make sure their pets have not just a dog license but a driver's license too.



(Yes, I've used that photo before. But really, you can't see that one too often.)

Dog explores new horizons in barf and bad behavior

If you have a dog, a barfing canine is not news. And if you read this blog you know that it's nothing unusual for a dog driver to cause a car accident.

But I'm begrudgingly impressed by the creativity of one dog in Minnesota who managed to put the two together:

A Lewiston, Minn., man told Winona police he lost control of his car and crashed it into a power line pole because his dog puked on him, police said.

Officers found the car unattended about 10:25 a.m. Thursday in the 1250 block of Lakeview Avenue, Deputy Police Chief Tom Williams said... Witnesses reported the driver was last seen leaving the area while walking a beagle.

Michael Allen Butler, 18, called police about 2:25 p.m. Thursday and said he was the person driving the car.

Butler told police he was driving on Lakeview Avenue when a dog in the car began “throwing up all over him,” causing him to lose control and crash. His story was corroborated when police found vomit in the car.

Speaking of dogs and car accidents, despite the hard work we do here to inform the public, apparently many are still ignorant of the wide range of common bad animal behavior. In Wisconsin, when a dog that was left in a parked car went for a joyride and caused an accident, the police, who obviously don't read this blog, said it was the first time they'd seen a car collision with a canine driver.

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Unclear expectations down under

If there's one thing that's important in training dogs (or any other animal), it's consistency. Maybe it's not their fault that dogs in New Zealand are going off the deep end if these two stories are any indication of how they enforce the laws around there.

One dog was given a parking ticket for being tied up outside a shop, an activity that even we here at this blog think is not much of a threat to the general peace.

But elsewhere, another dog drove a car into a store:

Wilco's owner had stopped his ute to buy beer, leaving the motor running. The dog jumped up on the column gear stick.

"Once Wilco had knocked it from park into drive, it would have been just a slow walking pace up to the front door," says (police constable) Chambers.

In the liquor store the beer had just gone on the counter.

"A lady...ran through the doors and said 'did you know that your dog's just driven through the cafe doors'. So yeah, we popped out there and it was definitely right, it was sitting in the driver's seat," says Terry Fox, store manager.

This dog was let off with only a warning! Is it any wonder animals have no idea how to behave? Sometimes, people, we have no one to blame but ourselves.