Dashing is a job that that comes with many dangers. There are countless dangers that I can write about, but this article is going to focus on one danger and one danger only. What's that? Doordash customers and their dogs. Yes, our little bow-wow friends. Before I get in to this let me say that I love dogs. I own an American Bulldog, but I certainly don't have positive feelings for all dog owners.
Normally, my blog posts are intended for Doordash drivers only, but in this article, I will be directing a lot of my comments to Doordash customers. There are a lot of bad habits that Doordash customers have, and being an irresponsible pet owner is certainly one of those bad habits.
Doordash customers should not ever let their dogs jump on the Dasher
I write this due to an incident that happened to me recently. While making a drop off, I got out of my car and started walking to the customer's front door. This house did not have any fence. I was about half way up the driveway when the customer opened her front door, and all of a sudden 4 large dogs came out the door and start running toward me.
There was nowhere to run, and even if I could it probably wouldn't have been the smartest thing to do. I pretty much froze up, and even though I was a bit scared, I hid it as best I could. I didn't want the dogs to sense any fear in me and think I was easy prey. The dogs surrounded me and were barking at me in a hello kind of way. Thank God they were not aggressive. My fear gradually went away as I sensed that these dogs did not want to attack me. I was very relieved.
Two of the dogs kept playfully jumping on me, and the idiotic lady just stood at her door smiling while trying to call them back like it was cute or something. All of these dogs were easily 100 lbs to 150 lbs. As they tried to jump on me I would put my arm out so they would go back down. All while trying to make my way up the second half of the driveway with this customer's food in my hands.
The lady never thought anything of this incident. Before I walked off I told her that she should really watch her dogs a little better. She just shrugged and went in. To me she was classless trash and shouldn't be a dog owner. To be honest, if I had mace I would have shot it at these dogs out of fear. All because some idiot allowed her dogs to run out at me like that.
I ended up calling Doordash and reported the incident. They said they would forward what had happened to their escalation team and they did. The next day I received some generic email from the escalation team letting me know that they have received my report and thanking me for reporting it. That was that! Did Doordash take any real action and notify the customer? I would hope so because if I was an older or smaller person, those dogs could have easily knocked me over. I really hope Doordash terminated that person's account.
Macing a Doordash customer's dog
As I already mentioned, if I had mace on me during this incident, I would have definitely maced these dogs, and I would have had every right to do so. I feared for my life, and I would have legally had a right to use my mace. It would have been sad indeed, especially with me now knowing that these dogs were not aggressive. But how was I to know that!
Doordash customer, are your dogs non-aggressive? So you think that they will never attack or bite anybody do you? Don't forget that your dog is an animal. Sure, I understand that it is your baby and like a family member, but again, it's still an animal and can be unpredictable. If it goes out of character and gets aggressive, don't get mad when a Dasher sprays them with pepper spray or mace.
Better yet, keep your dogs indoors when a Dasher makes a delivery to you so there is zero percent chance of an incident happening. Even the most friendly and loving dogs can snap when a stranger is at their home. They are protecting their pack. If something happens, it's never the dog's fault. It's always the owner's fault!
Doordash customers should always take their dogs in the house if ordering Doordash
This is intended to the people that have a fence around their front yard. This fence is the boundary line that the dog(s) live in. If possible, do not leave your dogs outside in the yard when expecting a delivery. This is a no-brainer, and most Doordash customers do indeed take their dogs in after ordering Doordash, but every once in a while you run in to that Doordash customer that does not take their dog(s) in.
I understand that there are times when a Doordash customer cannot take a dog in the house. Usually, these customers are kids or young people that most likely can't because their parents won't let them just take the dog in the house whenever they want. Sometimes, the customer will be an adult, but he or she is just a relative staying at the house and doesn't have the authority to just take the dog(s) in the house. I know that there are always exceptions, but whenever possible, take your dog in if you're expecting a Doordash delivery.
A few months ago I had a delivery, and when I pulled up to the house, the front yard was gated. There were 2 Pit Bull dogs in the yard, and they started barking frantically at me. I got out my car, and momentarily stood in front of the gate until I noticed that this gate was kind of short. The dogs started barking more. These were not friendly barks, these dogs wanted to kill me. One of the dogs seemed to have a good hop and seemed like he was going to jump out the fence and attack me. I wisely went back in my car and called the customer.
As I was calling, the teenage female customer came out from the side of the house along with what looked like her sister. I got out the car, and I handed the food to her over the fence. As I was handing her the food one of the dogs is jumping and going for our hands. As soon as she had the food, the more aggressive dog started barking even more viciously and started hopping on two feet like he was going to jump over the gate. I asked her "He can't jump this gate?" She replied and said "Yes he can, he does it all the time." With that comment I was quickly back in my car and gone.
Don't ever expect your Doordash driver to walk into your gate
When I was a new Dasher I did it, but I quickly learned that I should never walk into anyone's closed gate. I will never take a chance of a dog being in there to chase my butt right out. Or worst, the dog might catch me and bight me, and nobody, especially me wants that to happen.
There is only one way that a Dasher should be expected to walk into a front gate. Firstly, the Doordash customer will of course need to be a responsible pet owner and take their dog(s) in the house. They then are to open up their front gate so that when the Doordash driver arrives, they will see that the front gate is open. This will tell the Dasher that there is no dog in the front yard, and that it's safe to make the delivery. These are two simple steps that responsible dog owners should normally practice.
If a customer's dog hurts the Dasher they will (and should) get sued
I've noticed that a lot of Doordash customers think it's cute for their dogs to interact with people. That's all dandy and fine, but it's just not worth the risk to allow this. If a Doordash customer's dog hurts the Dasher in any way, the Dasher will have a valid lawsuit.
When we think of a dog hurting someone we usually picture a large or tough dog biting and griping their jaws around our leg. That's not always the case though. There have been numerous times when I have delivered, and the Doordash customer lets there little tiny dogs come out and jump on my ankles. A couple of times I was startled because I didn't see them right away.
What if I had gotten scared and feel down? I would have a valid lawsuit since the dog's owner is at fault. Listen, I don't think I would ever fall in a situation like that, and I don't think most people would, but you'd have to be a fool to think that there are not people that would get scared, fall down and hurt themselves. Doordash customers really need to ask themselves if it is really worth the risk.
A frightened Dasher may hurt a Doordash customer's dog
As I have already mentioned, there have been numerous times when Doordash customers have let their little dogs come out their front door and sniff me while I am handing them their food. One time someone's dog startled me and made me jump because I did not see it until the last moment. I don't know what kind of dog it was, but it was very tiny. So small that a regular sized cat could bully it.
When I jumped, I for some reason started doing a little dance. I felt like a big elephant that was trying to stomp on a mouse. It took me a few seconds to realize it was the customer's dog. In my mind it really seemed like a big rat or something. All I know is that it scared the heck out of me, and my body went in to defense mode.
What if I had squashed that lady's dog? I could have easily killed it or hurt if badly. To me this was a very irresponsible dog owner. You know your dog is tiny. Why would you let it come outside like that? If I had killed it or hurt it, I would have felt very bad. I mean, I would have the sense to know it was not my fault, but it would have still shook me up and got me very emotional.
To sum this up, the message here to Doordash customers is to be a responsible pet owner. I'm sure most people are, but we all know that there are irresponsible dog owners out there, and for a gig delivery driver, these irresponsible people stick out like a sore thumb. A dog attack or an accident due to a dog's presence can easily be avoided with responsible behavior. A dog bite incident will not only be something the Dasher has to deal with, the responsible party will also have a lot of legal mess to deal with, and trust me when I say that it a problem nobody wants.
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