Charlotte loves going to the dog park. I love taking her to the dog park. The look of joy on her face as she runs around with all the other dogs is priceless. Yesterday though, I had to leave the dog park early because I wasn't comfortable there. In fact, I was a bit afraid of the number of aggressive dogs that were there.
I need to give you a little history of what happened this summer. Back in August, however, I was bitten by a dog. This did not happen at the dog park, rather it happened while I was walking Zynko around the neighborhood. He got loose from his collar and ran into the backyard of a pit bull and got into a fight. While I was breaking them up, my hand got in Zynko mouth and he bit me. The pit bull had locked onto his neck, and the owner was trying to get him to release. It turns out that single got hurt in this fight. I do not blame Cinco or the people for their actions, they were merely following their nature. My problem now, is that I am afraid of pitbulls because of witnessing firsthand the power of that job in action. I'm also leary of huskies because of experience their ferocity first hand, regardless of why he attacked. You'll probably want to judge me because of what I'm saying here. Please keep it to yourself as I've judged myself repeatedly about this incident. Also please know that both dogs came out of the ordeal just fine. In fact, Zynko has a wonderful new home in Indiana and has been renamed Atlas. You can follow his progress at www.facebook.com/groups/649064981898451/
I was afraid of becoming afraid of dogs however so I took Charlotte to the dog park the same week it happened. This was also more logistically sound because I couldn't walk her since both my hands were completely bandaged. I thought I was doing great in my mental recovery. A couple of the huskies have even let me pet them and one gave me kisses on the face.
A couple weeks ago, one of the puppies we've known since we started going got aggressive with fist a male puppy and then he went after Charlotte. Proving I haven't gotten any smarter, I jumped right into it and pulled him off her kneck. She was probably more shaken then I was at first, but in the ways of dogs, a bunch of treats and a few tosses of the frisbee and she'd moved on. I thought I had too, until yesterday.
It was busy at the dog park. A nice Friday afternoon with the threat of colder weather right around the corner. It was nice and busy, but not packed. There were however two dogs that were wrestling a bit harder than I like, so Charlotte and I walked towards the back of the property to find some dogs to play with. There was a gentleman standing near the reeds and I could hear crashing about inside.
As Charlotte began to investigate, out popped a little white dog to greet her. Her owner and I began talking, as the rustling continued in the reeds. He was telling me that he was staying on the opposite of the park from a giant dog that was making him nervous. His lab the one that was still crashing about in the reeds, is 8 years old and gets along fine with other dogs, except the younger ones that are trying to establish dominance. His concern was that if a dog like that decided to bike his dog there would be nothing he could do about it. Needless to say a lot of memories flashed back, but I tried to push them down as we continue to talk. It turned out that the dog he was talking about was one that I had met before, a nice enough young male Mastiff that is unneutered. Unneutered dogs can be a problem because they can be more aggressive. The gentleman and his dogs moved on towards another part of the park as the Mastiff came in our direction with a woman I kind of knew who has three huskies. We continued walking in the main area Charlotte wanted to play with her frisbee, so I threw it and she and the Huskies gave chase. A lot of dogs don't want the toy, just the thrill of chasing another dog, so it normally isn't a problem. I threw it again, and this time one of the Huskies got it from her. It was funny until she tried to take it back and then he snapped at her. His owner scolded him and got the frisbee back and I put it away to prevent any more problems.
This is all pretty common for the dog park. There are bound to be a few growls and snaps but usually all the dogs get along really well together. At some point I'd lost the husky owner and picked up the mastiff owner. As we came back around towards the front of the park! the two dogs that I had decided to stay away from when we first got there where is still interacting pretty roughly. Another guy with two pit bulls was just coming in to the park. Everybody rush the gate as they always do, & I went over to pull Charlotte away to give the new dogs room. The massive owner did the same thing, and after the dogs were through the gate I let Charlotte go. The one dog came in pretty high strung and gave chase to her immediately. The other dog went for the Mastiff almost immediately. There was no violence as both owners put a quick stop to it, however my anxiety was mounting very quickly. I took Charlotte away from the other dogs, back towards the back of the park, but it felt like I couldn't get far enough from the crazyness. It was probably no more crazy than other times I have been there, but it felt like there was a lot of bullying of other dogs and I decided I needed to leave after only 20 minutes of being there.
There have been times at the park when there was close to 50 dogs and I never felt nervous. But it felt like yesterday there were far more "security" breed dogs than I've seen there before. I don't know if it was the type of dog,the suggestion from the first guy I talked to, or the possibility that cold air makes dogs aggressive , but the vibe at the dog park was definitely different yesterday and it made me too concerned for Charlotte 's safety to stay. I don't like the idea that we may both lose something we love so much, so I'll try taking her out again today. It might be that I just need to stay away at high traffic times.
