Another day at the park.
April 15, 2008 By Jesse Doerr @ 10:15 pm
Cody got attacked and I got yelled at. Just another day at the dog park I guess. Apparently it’s impolite for your dog to defend himself and win the fight, of all things.
Our mutt needs regular exercise. Lots and lots or regular exercise. What that means for us is the choice of taking up running or going to the dog park a lot. Personally, I prefer the dog park.
It has become our daily, or twice daily, routine now to go and take a couple laps around the park. I enjoy it. It’s a nice point in my day to get some fresh air and chat with some new people. Though it’s getting to the point that these aren’t new people anymore, but actually familiar people that we know in the community.
Most of the time I’m quite impressed with how much attention these owners pay to their dogs. More than just feeding, walking, and playing with them, they also seem to understand their behaviors and moods. Generally this also includes an understanding of normal behaviors at the park, and fights from time to time.
Unfortunately, today I met one of the owners that doesn’t fall into this category.
First off, Cody isn’t an angel that can do no harm. For the most part, he’s a pretty good dog, but his play can get fast and rough at times. An added concern to this is that he doesn’t always take breaks from the play, as other dogs do, to let the tension drain. So, if we’re not watching, the play at times can escalate into a fight.
This leads to today. A woman arrived at the park with two dogs. Cody started playing with one of the dogs and it was getting a bit rough. I was watching, but I wasn’t really concerned at this point. Both of the dogs were taking breaks from the play and then coming back to it together.
The woman’s second dog apparently didn’t approve and started being aggressive towards Cody. He would run up and hit Cody with his body, cutting in between the two playing. The first couple times this happened Cody just ignored him and the two dogs went back to playing. But the new dog wouldn’t let it be and eventually pushed Cody to the point that he turned around, put his hackles up, and gave the dog a good snarl and bark.
Here’s where the other dog really started in on Cody, ultimately to his detriment. It was a quick fight, and no one got hurt, but Cody was pretty obviously the winner.
To this point I had just let it all be. From my point of view, Cody was being picked on by a bully and had stood up for himself. Apparently the other owner didn’t see it that way and started screaming at me to control my dog, without actually doing anything herself to end the fight.
I put my hand on Cody’s collar and walked him away. A few moments later, once the other dog had been walked away a bit, it was back to play as usual.
Sigh… another day at the park.