The Dog Park

This is a venting session for me. So read on if you want to hear about idiots at the dog park



So today the boyfriend and I take the dog to the local doggie park. We do it ALL the time because it is a HUGE nice fenced in area with a lot of other dogs, and the dog LOVES to play. She is just over a year, still a puppy, and likes to play. PLAY!!! But I am honestly thinking about not going back to the dog park for a while. There are a lot of nice people that go there, and a LOT of nice dogs that our dog really likes. But then there are the idiots......

I'll start with yesterday. The boyfriend, the dog, and I have been at the doggie park for a good 30 minutes. Then large hairy black lab came in. Said lab then tried to hump a dog our dog made friends with. Our dog DOES NOT TOLERATE HUMPING! I think I need to give her a sign. She doesn't hump, she doesn't try to be dominate over other dogs, but when a boy dog tries to hump her, SHE DOESN'T LIKE IT! And yeah... if the idiots would read the RULES when they walk into the doggie park they would see that "Do not allow your dog to mount another dog, as this behavior is very likely to lead to a fight. Even if your dog means no harm, the other dog is very likely to take offense." My dog takes offense! Usually it is no big deal at all. The dog snaps and moves to get the offending dog off, and it is all over. So when the lab humped our dogs friend, our dog snapped at the lab. The lab went BESERK! CRAZY!!!! I haven't seen the dog be that aggressive EVER, and there was NO WAY I was pulling her out of it. If dogs are in a real fight, rule numero uno is don't get in the fight with them! You will be injured! (ok I mean I'm not guaranteeing it, but there is a good chance you'll get hurt). Even the boyfriend (uber laid back, nothing is a big deal) gets up because he knows this is a real fight. He grabs some old rope toy laying around and keeps hitting (not too hard) our dog to grab her attention to something other than KILL BLACK LAB. It works, she runs over to us, snarls once when the lab tries to come over too, and then it was done. The lab owner didn't even get up ONCE, call his stupid dog, or do ANYTHING. And our dog ended up with two puncture wounds and a scratch, all on the back of her neck. This dog is like my child, and I was so upset. Dogs can do real damage!!! Just because the dog is big she isn't evil! She is a good dog! But yeah, I was upset, the guy was lazy and stupid and I hope his dog doesn't come back. Ever.

And then today. Our dog is big. She's almost 100 pounds. And she is about 95% puppy. So like I said, she likes to play. Well our dog tried to play with another dog that didn't want to play. She wanted to yelp without being touched, run away very fast, and pretty much act just like the dog our dog is used to playing with. (which is an annoying dog that yelps and barks, and does stupid stuff, but entertains our dog. And they love each other. They are sad when they are apart, so I'm sure when they make all the noise they are playing). Anyway, our dog was playing too hard with the other dog (a boxer) and we knew it, and were trying to gently get them apart. But dogs also run FAST! The boxer owner told us it was ok, she wasn't mad, we got them apart, and boy did they play the rest of the time!! BFF ok!!!! But right as the boyfriend was pulling the dog away from the skittish boxer, this JERK HEAD POO BRAIN in a stupid white polo with stupid aviator glasses trying to make himself look cool even though he was a NERD ALERT comes up and YELLS AT ME that my dog is TERRORIZING the boxer and can't I see that the boxer is absolutely TERRIFIED by my dog. GAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Here it is America, the real face of a terrorist (at least a terrorist dog)

She could sit on you and love you to death. Watch out. So the rest of the time I was just really upset that that jerk came up to me like I wasn't doing anything and that our dog was actually trying to hurt the boxer. Again, dogs are fast and hard to catch when they are running. Sorry I didn't jump on top of both of the dogs to break it up. Plus they weren't even fighting!!!!!!!!! We pulled our dog over to the side and everyone in the area asked me if that guy was seriously yelling at me. And of course they all said, "didn't they just see she was trying to play? Doesn't he know anything about dogs? Your dog is really nice." So I felt a little better, but just seeing that jerkface go off to his other elitist dog friends to talk about how horrible and terrifying our dog is made me really mad and upset.

So along with the "Do Not Hump Me" sign I'd like the dog to wear, I'd like her to wear a "I'm sorry I'm big but I like to play and I'm actually quite gentle. My owners adopted me about 2 months ago because my owners gave me up so give them a break because THEY ARE JUST TRYING TO BE GOOD PUPPY PARENTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I strangely feel better having written this all out. The boyfriend, in his amazing ability to tune out anything he wants, didn't even notice the guy, so he wasn't much help for validation. I know I'm biased and I love our doggie more than anyone, and I don't want to be making excuses for her behavior, but I am because she's a DOG and she isn't exactly easy to reason with. You know, "Doggie, please don't be so upset when those boy dogs want to hump you. Also, if you could please not be so excited because sometimes your size intimidates other dogs, so if you could just calmly walk up to them and do the doggie sniff crotch ritual, it would really make things easier for everyone." <-- HAHAHAHAHAH yeah right. I'll get right on that. Have you ever tried to reason with a two year old? Or an infant? Dear 6 month old, please stop crying because can't you understand that the food and diaper change are on their way and by crying you are disturbing the sleep of others around you. Yeah it just doesn't work. Plus dogs don't exactly speak English. She is a smart doggie, but her vocab is pretty limited to "Leave it" "Sit" "Lay down" "No!" "Spin" "Go get it!" and every once in a while "come here!" Oh yeah, she also knows "good girl!" because she is an emotionally sensitive dog and will pretty much always choose praise and a good rub to food. Seriously. That made training to get in the car and in the crate difficult. It sure is hard to explain that she'll get lots of love if she just gets in the kennel! (again, the reasoning). Our doggie is also a police doggie because if any dogs get in a fight she jumps RIGHT in the middle to try to break it up and work it out. Unfortunately, some idiots think this looks like she is trying to fight. She's not. She likes to love. But if a dog is acting out of line and bullying other dogs she'll try to stop it. Because she has a good doggie soul.

Ok so to wrap it up, I don't want to make excuses for everything she does. She isn't perfect, but she's also a dog. And a young one that probably wasn't properly socialized as a puppy. We're working on it. She has a lot of love, and is good at heart, even though if she would also defend her family to the end (hey... great danes were bred to kill boars!). So if you're ever in my local doggie park, don't be an idiot. And don't discriminate against big dogs. Especially gentle breeds, they all just want to love and play too. And if you are an idiot, I hope my sweet sweet dog kicks your snooty dogs butt should the need for a butt kicking arise.
Thank you and have a nice day.