If you've walked a sidewalk in this city recently, you already know. Dogs lunging at passersby. Off-leash dogs barreling toward yours with no owner in sight. On-leash "greetings" that turn into snarling matches in half a second. And then, inevitably, the owner's bewildered refrain: "Oh wow, he's never done that before!"

Sure he hasn't.

Here's the thing — dogs are animals. Great ones, mostly, but animals nonetheless. They have bad days, they get stressed, they react. That's not controversial. What's controversial is the growing number of SF dog owners who treat "friendly" as a permanent personality trait rather than a momentary state, and who seem genuinely shocked when their untrained, unsocialized pet acts like... a dog.

As one SF resident put it: "I can't stand when another dog walker sees me go out of my way to avoid them and then walks in my direction so their dog can say hello. I'm trying to get away from you to avoid any potential stress — read the room."

That's the core issue. Personal responsibility. It's not just a fiscal principle — it applies to public spaces too. Your dog, your problem. If you can't recall your off-leash dog, leash it. If your dog is reactive, manage it. If another owner warns you their dog isn't friendly, listen. As another local bluntly noted: "99% of the time, it's not bad dog behavior — it's bad owner behavior."

San Francisco already has leash laws on the books. We just don't enforce them, because enforcement is apparently something this city only does selectively and usually in the wrong places. Meanwhile, Animal Care & Control is perpetually underfunded, and incidents keep piling up.

Nobody's asking for a crackdown on golden retrievers. But if you're going to own a dog in one of the most densely populated cities on the West Coast, the bare minimum is controlling your animal in public. That's not authoritarian — that's just being an adult.

Train your dog. Leash your dog. And for the love of all that is holy, stop saying "he's friendly" as your 80-pound lab drags you across the sidewalk toward a stranger.