About Dog Parks - Again

Since I blogged about our challenges at our local dogpark, we since have had several successful visits to dogparks - both the local one and another up in San Francisco. Zuko met his half sisfur, Suki, in SF and had a good time. We've gone to the local park and had no issues several times.

And then today....

Obligatory Cute Photo of Zuko

Zuko and I headed over just before 5pm. I usually prefer not to go when it might be busy, but today it just was one of those things. As it turned out, the park wasn't really busy. However, there was one woman there who I've seen there once before. All her dogs seem lethargic and very ill. Last time I saw her, one dog kept vomiting and eating it's vomit (and then vomiting again) and she couldn't be bothered to get off the park bench and do something about it.

So today, everything was going well - lots of proper sniffing and good things. Then I noticed one of her dogs insisting on face-sniffing Zuko for very long periods of time. I was surprised how well he tolerated it, but I could see the lip start to curl. So I distracted Zuko with a ball (which he then ignored). Then out of the blue the same dog starts circling Zuko and barking at him. Zuko stood still and growled. The other dog kept barking and circling. Zuko started to snarl, but still didn't move. I stepped in and tried to get rid of the other dog and she just kept at it. I finally said "Who's dog is this???" and another lady (not the owner) comes and gets the dog.

Seriously?

As soon as the other dog left off, Zuko was fine. Raced off to play and pee on things. Meanwhile, the same woman has another dog who now is attacking another dog right by the bench. What does this woman do? Nothing. The other owner took her sheep dog and left.

Zuko was across the park and he and I stayed over there playing ball....and then comes the rude barky dog again, this time dragging a leash. She comes for Zuko and he again responds by being still and sending some serious messages to not f*ck with him. I pick up the leash and drag the barky dog back to the owner.

Again - seriously?

Out of sheer stubbornness, I stuck it out a bit longer at the park. Zuko was fine, the other dog was being held on leash and the second dog that attacked the sheep dog was too lazy to get far from the park bench. Finally, Zuko was tired and we leashed up and headed out. We had to pass the barky dog to get to the gate and she lunged for Zuko and started barking. Sigh.

My point of all this: all it takes is one bad owner. This woman had two dogs who irritated/aggravated/attacked two different dogs within the space of 30 minutes. There is clearly an issue here and this woman just didn't give a sh*t about it one bit.

Note to self: If I see her there, we are not going in the park. Period.

- Posted by Zuko's mom