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Monday, September 08, 2003
I took Bailey and Jackson to the dog run today. At first, I was very nervous. Actually, I was nervous the entire time there. I was having trouble keeping an eye on both of them. This was only their third time at the dog run, and it was the first time they were there with only one of us watching them.
After about an hour, I was starting to relax. Bailey was my biggest concern. She's always been quick to push away dogs who challenged here, and she usually didn't stop once she started charging. Overall, though, she's not an aggressive dog. She had, for the first hour at this park this day, done fine with every dog there (and there were plenty).
Then, from out of nowhere, a fight starts with about three dogs going after this one small one. Bailey, of course, didn't let up. She was just pushing the dog around, no biting. She never bites, thank God. I got them separated (the owner of the small dog was useless), and the other dog's owner asks me if this was my dog. I said yes, and I think he said something like: "Get her out of the park."
I walked over to him and asked him if his dog was okay, but the truth is, I needed to make sure that this guy was as obnoxious as I thought he was. I wasn't sure of what he had said, maybe he told me to take Bailey out of the park, maybe not. He said his dog was fine, and then said, rather casually, that I should put a muzzle on my dog because she was vicious.
It was his casual attitude that really bothered me. The way he matter of factly felt my dog was the problem. I got upset at this point and told him my dog had been in here for an hour and not had any problem with another dog. He started cursing at me, so I cursed back and walked away.
He made the most ridiculous kicking gesture at me. He must have known he couldn't kick me sitting on a bench while I was 10 feet away. Still, he did it rather aggressively, and I turned around and started yelling at him some more. I have to admit, I was ready to break a joint on this guy. He was sitting on the bench, and if he had started to get up, I probably would have given him an open palm strike right to the face to sit him back down. I kept yelling at him, and he finally said that he was just telling me to move my dog to the other end of the park, as if he didn't understand what all the fuss was about. All the while, Bailey was walking up trying to sniff his dog, who was in his arms, and this dog was trying to go after Bailey again. Somehow, I don't think that this snapping mutt, who simultaneously got into a fight with 3 dogs who had been doing fine at the dog run just five minutes before, was an innocent victim in all this.
The mood in the dog run changed after that. Everyone seemed a little tense. I felt really bad I put everyone in this kind of mood. The other guy left soon afterwards, and I had to bite my tongue not to say anything to him as he left. After about a half hour or so, I left too.
I still feel really bad that I made the atmosphere so tense at the dog run, but I am not sorry I tore into this guy. I hate to admit there is a small part of me that wished he had kept trying to kick me. I need to work on my temper, and try not to be so unwilling to loose face in these kinds of situations.
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