Dogs and delivery men: part 1

Everyone has come across a mean dog that made them want to retreat out of fear of being mauled. Over fifteen years as UPS driver has given me several encounters with dogs worth sharing. Postal workers suffer more than anyone else from dog attacks, and if your dog attacks a postal carrier, new rules allow them never to deliver to your home again, forcing you to come to the post office to pick up your mail, even after you get rid of the dog.

I ate lunch regularly with a group of eight guys, two of whom were postal carriers, and they always had a new story about some dog. Few know that the majority of postal carriers never leave home without mace (or pepper spray) while on the job — no to ward off people attacks, but to spray dogs they perceived as aggressive. More likely, the dogs were barking to announce their presence to the visitor, but to hear postal carriers tell their stories, every dog became an attack dog. This was totally strange to me since I rarely had problems even with the meanest dogs.