The Biggest Challenge Facing Postal Carriers

You should take some dog skills for postal jobs as a carrier

Dogs … at least they are better than cats since they are loyal, friendly and they hug their owners. But if you are a postal carrier, well, you will come to learn that dogs have a different side to them too, and one of them is that they do not recognize mail men. Not at all. It is not quite worrying when you hear reports of dogs attacking postal carriers as they execute their duties.

It sure is a good job working for the USPS, but there are challenges and one of them is the dog. The postal clerks are not safe, because at one point or another, they will have to go to a client’s home to deliver mail.

Post office jobs are about delivering services directly to the client. Hence, it is common to hear stories of postal carriers being attacked by dogs as they try to enter the homes of clients. You see, dogs are loyal, and they will try to defend their space and that of their owners if they feel that it is being invaded. And that is what a mail delivery man does, he invades personal space, somehow.

For instance, it was reported in San Francisco in 2011 of a dog scuffle with a postal carrier. The scuffle is said to have ended in a draw, in which, the dog bit the postal carrier who pepper sprayed the dog and fled for his dear life. With reports having been made by the carrier, the police investigated the issue and were able to get the dog and its owner.

Another example of such an instance was reported in Canada, where the Canadian post reported an increase in attacks against its postal carriers by the clients’ dogs. For instance, it was reported that one mail carrier had part of his left arm bruised by a dog that attacked him, and had a scuffle with the dog until the babysitter came to settle it down. Another incidence resulted in a female carrier losing her thumb to the jaws of an 80 pound bull mastiff.

In addition to all these happening in Canada, in 2004 a mail carrier is reportedly said to have lost her ear to an attack by two pit bulls. It is estimated that dogs attack mail carriers at least 500 times in a year in Canada. Numbers don’t lie, but that does not make them any less nastier.

Postal carriers are trained on how to defend themselves from such dogs. For instance, they can use a satchel or a package of mail they usually have, or, as a last resort, a dog repellent spray. However, in as much as postal jobs are rewarding, it is discouraging to postal carriers to carry out their duties when they are being terrorized by their client’s dogs.

The defense that might be adduced in favor of the dogs might be the fact that sometimes, especially during festive seasons or summer, the postal office jobs are switched up, the result being that different postal carriers are given the job. As such, the dogs find themselves in a defensive position against a stranger.