Vicious Dogfight

So this happened a week and a half ago, but still worth sharing...

Two weekends ago it was pretty decent weather outside so Kristen and I decided to take Jake to the dog park to get in some cardio.... for Jake, not us (or so we thought). It was a little overcast and drizzled a little when we got there, but the landscape is made primarily of pea gravel, so we weren't too worried about. In all, it was a pretty good morning to take a stroll and let the pup stretch his legs.

When we arrived, Jake performed his usual rituals of crying when we pulled up, getting antsy as I get out of the car to let him out, barrel-assing out of the door once I open it with his leash attached securely to my hand at one end and his face at the other, and then finally all culminating at the front gate to the dog park with his tail wagging profusely with anxiety and excitement building up to unsafe levels.

We let him in and he was off. Luckily, before you get in they have a sort of "doggy vestibule" which is basically a lock "room" where you through the first outer gate into this chamber, lock the gate behind you, then open the second gate to allow your pet access to the grounds - a veritable Doggy Oz. So he goes in and does his usual sniffing around - he likes to do some investigative reconnaissance before playing to his full potential. When we arrived there was already a family in there letting two of their dogs play. I don't remember what breed their youngest was, but their older dog was a golden retriever - a typically friendly breed. This older dog immediately approached Jake when he walked in to sniff, and Jake greeted him by lifting his leg and pissing on the fence along the perimeter, giving no regard to whether or not his urine stream was being interrupted by this dog's snout. The owner's of this dog realize this and tell their dog to get away - he complies, although it's quite obvious that he is the alpha in that household.

Just a minute or so later Jake and I are playing fetch - which consists of me throwing the tennis ball, him running after it, then not retrieving it.... well maybe retrieving, but definitely not dropping it. So while we're in the middle of our "game", this dog all of a sudden runs up to Jake and starts sniffing him, which Jake meets with an unfriendly snarl... an uncommon reaction from Jake. It's not until the golden puts his paw and snout on the back of Jake's neck that the real concern arises - when Jake gnashes at the dog (not making contact or connecting with a bite, but scary nonetheless), also an uncommon reaction... unless he is really pissed off. This all happens after of course the first episode regarding Jake's urination, then a few more unwanted, unwarranted encounters from the golden - so Jake was somewhat justified, although we frown upon such behavior.

It's at this point that I yell, "Hey" and go grab Jake by the collar and drag him out of the dog park into the lock chamber and out completely. Lately Jake has been excellent at following commands and has been extremely loyal to my voice, especially when elevated in volume *knocks on wood*. So he calmed down immediately and did not put up a fight with me while being removed from the situation and ultimately the play area. The other dog's owners were equally reactive after their dog jumped on Jake and gnashed back, so they grabbed him and pulled towards the opposite direction. They were very apologetic and insisted that we take over the park with Jake since they had already been there and he obviously barely had any time to play. We politely refused and took Jake for a walk around the main city park in which the dog park area is located. We noticed that they had left anyway so we went ahead and went in when we came back around.

Jake got a good amount of uninhibited, unabashed playtime in and we got him to run around just long enough before the heavy rains started to fall and just short enough before he needed resuscitation from wearing himself out so quickly, as is customary when he gets into an open running environment for longer than 5 minutes. We had a good play day minus the little scare.