Dogs and delivery men: part 2

One day I'm at a small business in a residential neighborhood unloading packages from the truck when I heard a dog yelping and come running like something was chasing it. Not a minute later, a mailman drives up and asked if I saw the dog running down the street. He triumphantly tells me that he sprayed the dog because he was running alongside his truck. Takes a lot more than that to piss me off over a dog, and his reaction seemed like an overreaction. My opinion of this mailman was cautious whenever I was around him at lunch.

Being a cover driver my first five years at UPS and constantly being different routes, I was continuously warned about various, aggressive dogs. Surprisingly, I'd go to these same houses and never encounter these "mean dogs" everyone always talked about. One or two might watch me closely, but I didn't have any problems. And that's just the thing with dogs, they are keen to body language, fear, nervousness, apprehension: they sense it quickly. I always walked up to a house as if I owned it. I would usually give the dog commands that the owner might use, such as "Come here!" patting my chest; "Where's your food?" all while maintaining eye contact with it.

Some dogs are coy and sneaky. They won't be aggressive, but when you're not watching, they'll come up behind and nip you. Calihoula dogs are real bad about this, and you know what I mean if you've been around them. One of the best ways to tell the difference between aggression and excitement is to notice what their tails are doing. If the dog isn't snarling its teeth or jumping at you, then the tail tells all. A sideways tail wag is a good sign, meaning the dog is only bluffing and not in kill mode. However, if the dog begins to tuck the tail, then beware, it's wanting to pounce.