[Tom Hannon]

Originally Posted by CFrance

I am sorry you had this experience, but I have a couple of thoughts. First, I would blame the irresponsible owner, not the dogs. They aren't trained, obviously, and the owner must not care to take the time to do that.

Second, since this was a construction area, I wonder if those dogs even come from The Villages. Perhaps they are from outside TV and the owner brings them there to run loose because it's a construction area. Which is not right.

Third, I hope you won't condemn all large dogs on the basis of this incident. I go to a dog beach all summer long, with big dogs galore, and only a couple out of a hundred are aggressive. We're on our second large dog, and they both would slime you to death before they would ever think of biting you. I like a dog big enough that I can throw my arms around to hug and not worry about stepping on and hurting. Ours is happy and well exercised, and we live in a condo half the year!

There are several dog parks around TV, enough to give a dog lots of exercise. I disagree with your reasoning that we shouldn't have large dogs in TV because we have small yards.

Just my two cents. Again, I'm very sorry you bumped up against an irresponsible dog owner and had a nasty experience. That had to be scary. Hopefully someone will learn who this man is and turn him in.

Retrievers, Golden's and Collies are large dogs but gentle giants. I agree when an owner get older they should thing before they get another companion. How strong will they (the owner) be in another ten years and will they be able to control them? Which explains the reason for so many little white fluffy dogs now. For the person who is blaming the dogs for being loose, point the blame on the owners...although there is a possibility they broke away from their owners.