He's Friendly!
True fairness means checking with the other dog before your friendliness becomes his problem.
Read the Room Before the Leash Drops
Your dog is friendly. This has always been true and will remain true. But the scales this card holds don't ask whether your dog is friendly — they ask whether the dog approaching, the one whose body language you're actually reading right now, wants what your dog is offering. Justice here means pausing half a second before the leash comes off, weighing a consent that isn't yours alone to give.
This is fairness in its most practical form: not a grand principle, just the discipline of checking before you assume your goodwill is universally welcome. Today, extend that same read-the-room care beyond the dog park — to people, too, who might not want what you're offering, however kindly meant.
what may cross your path
- You clock a stiff tail or a tucked ear before your dog even notices it.
- You hold the leash a beat longer than instinct wants, just to be sure.
- Someone thanks you, specifically, for asking first.
- You recalibrate an approach mid-stride because the read changed.
My good intentions don't override someone else's boundary.
The Yellow Vest Isn't Asking For This
"He's friendly!" you call out, already too late, already halfway across the field, while the dog in the yellow vest — the universal, agreed-upon signal for give me space — backs against his owner's legs. Your dog's friendliness was never actually the question. The question was whether anyone asked, and the answer, visibly, painfully, is no.
Justice reversed is good intentions that skipped the actual fairness part — the checking, the asking, the reading. It happens fast and it's fixable fast too: call him back, apologize, do better in thirty seconds. The imbalance doesn't have to become a pattern.
what may cross your path
- You notice the vest, the sign, the body language a beat too late.
- Someone else's boundary gets steamrolled by your good-natured momentum.
- You apologize for something that felt harmless from your side and wasn't from theirs.
- You resolve, out loud, to actually read the signals next time instead of assuming.
Good intentions still have to check in with the other dog.