I should start out with, in case you didn’t know, that I got a dog. His name is Max. He is part labrador (a word spell check thinks is wrong…) retriever and part border collie as far as I know. He is fairly intelligent and has learned things like how to put the couch cushions down after I leave and have put them up so he won’t get on the couch. I’ve since given up that venture because he sleeps in my bed too, so why not the couches. Anyway, moving on.
Today I thought was going to be a good day, and it may still prove to be a good day, but as of now it has been one of mediocrity or worse. The plan was to take the dog to the dog park, have him hang it with his new friends, I’d hang out and do some small talk with the other owners, and it would be fun for all. Then I was going to go to church, maybe hit one of the islands, drink some beer when I get home, relax, and go to sleep.
The first planned item of the day turned out to be utterly weird and somewhat scary. I was one of the first three people at the park today since we got up earlier than usual. One of the regulars, Dacia–a lovely pitbull mix, was there, and another dog I wasn’t familiar with was there. Soon after I arrived about ten more people and their dogs showed up. It was most of the same people that came early during the week. Some of these dogs have taken a liking to Max, and vice versa. They all get along well and play around with each other, chasing each other, and sometimes getting rough and tumble. Nothing out of the ordinary.
About a half-hour goes by and a small Asian woman shows up with a very well built Rottweiler, and he was beautiful. She also had a similarly sized mutt of an unknown mix. The unknown mix dog was very friendly with Max and myself. The Rottweiler was not. Almost immediately as I was standing behind the crowd watching Max, here comes the Rotty and he starts getting aggressive and was barking at me. At first I thought “alright he wants to play,” but he quickly made it apparent he wasn’t playing by jumping at me and trying to snap at me. At first I was startled and backed off a step or two, but he only got worse at that because as Cesar Milan says, when you back off they take that as a sign of submission and will only continue or get worse. So once I got my wherewithal I started turning to my side and putting my strong leg into him. He barked some more, but he got the message and backed off. He walked away and started trotting around, and I also walked away with Max at my side so we could enjoy the park with the other dogs.
I found a stick and started playing with Max, Dacia, and Brutus (a larger lab mix of unknown breeds). They get along quite well and were running around with the stick in all three of their mouths. It was adorable. Brutus would take the stick and Max would go after him, then Dacia would follow suit. It was really fun for us all. Soon we came back into the larger crowd to mingle and sure enough doesn’t the Rotty decide he’s Mr. Bigshot and starts coming at me yet again. The same showdown transpires, so I won’t labor on about specific details. The lady that owns him thinks this is wonderful she says because I’m the only one that’s ever stood up to him and got him to back down. She also says this might help the others see him as a big baby. I’m thinking she’s out of her fucking mind. This dog has shown to be extremely aggressive to me twice now in ten minutes, and he also went after another older guy in between the two events.
Honestly after the second time I should have asked her to leave. Her other dog was very helpful in the event because he was actively snapping at the Rotty’s hind legs and jumping on him trying to drag him off of me. This helped, but it clearly wasn’t enough. The lady takes her two dogs down to the end of the park (it’s a nice size park) away from everyone where her two dogs continue to go at it pretty violently. We could hear them quite well from some distance away. So I guess they got tired eventually and she starts walking back towards the crowd. By this time we were all starting to talk bad about her lack of control over her dogs. She was clearly not in control.
Now for the third time the Rotty comes after me, but this time he was a bit more serious, and Max was getting nervous. He did bark at the other dog a lot, and he may have snapped at him a few times, but he was half the dog’s size. The Rotty definitely tried to bite me this time and I got extremely pissed off and started aggressively stepping into him. I was border line on beating the shit out of him and fighting him. He is a big dog, yes, and it would be stupid to do that, yes, but I was starting to see red and was getting very angry at this point because this is the first time I have had a dog in my adult life come at me this way. Most dogs love me and love my attention. I am three times this dog’s size and I am not in the mood for this shit anymore. He backed off finally, but Max was so freaked out he started taking after the Rotty and jumped at me and snapped at my left hand several times. I quickly knocked him to the ground to get him to stop, and he did. The mood was very strange at the dog park. You could feel it in the air. Everyone’s adrenaline was going at this point and the dogs could sense it as well. They were all going crazy by this time chasing each other, snapping at each other more than usual and in a less friendly way.
Unfortunately this Asian woman still didn’t get the message and thought it was okay to stick around. Definitely shame on me for not having the heart to tell her to leave because in my mind it wasn’t my place, and I’m very new to dog park etiquette. I wasn’t about to leave on her account though and make my dog miss out on his fun time.
Her Rotty decided he was going after the dogs now since people weren’t working in his favor. This set us all off because he picked one of the sweetest dogs in the group. He wasn’t a small dog, bigger than Max, but he is typically a nice dog and gets along with everyone. The victim dog absolutely went berserk on this Rottweiler though. It was insane. They went to full on battle mode and all of the other dogs got involved as well as the people. Every single dog in that park went after the Rottweiler, but that Rotty was not small and is very powerful. None of them could break him off. The owner of the victim dog stepped in and tried to get her dog to back off, but the Rottweiler bit her, but since she wasn’t the target he didn’t go full force and only bruised her hand. By this time we all demanded that this woman needs to leave and to never bring that dog back to the dog park because no one likes him and no one can get along with him.
I then find out that this Rottweiler has a history of severe aggression towards men, has mauled one man’s hand/arm at the park already, and has bitten several other people, including women who were probably trying to protect their dogs. If I had known all of that beforehand I would have called the police the first time he tried coming at me. That dog has no business being around people and the woman needed to know that. Unfortunately we all concluded that since this isn’t the first time she will probably come back some other time thinking the air has settled. There is little doubt in my mind that he will bite someone a lot more seriously and will have to be put down because she does not know how to handle dogs. It’s not that he’s a Rottweiler by any means. Being a Rotty just means he’s a little more enabled on a physical level to seriously injure and possibly kill someone. She’s a bad owner and has zero dominance over her dog. The dog was oblivious to her commands every time he came at me, another man, the other dog, and the other dog’s owner.
So that’s how my Sunday morning has been going so far. Hopefully it’s not a sign for the rest of the day.