Doggie Park Melodrama

We have been enjoying going to the new-found and well-utilized dog park just a couple miles from our house... and we are pretty confident that the dogs enjoy it even more.

But there always seems like there is someone to put a damper on things.  If people are this over-protective of their dogs, I hate to see what they would be like with human children... though I am not sure it many people make a distinction between the two.  Okay, I admit they are "our kids"... but they are also just dogs, too!

A little while back I wrote about this one woman dumping a bottle of water all over Rocky when it was viewed that he got into a bit of a scramble with another dog.  Now I know Rocky is quite persistent and his, or even our, definition of what constitutes "playing" might differ from others... but c'mon he's a frickin' Boston Terrier.  And considering his love and attraction to water, we still laugh that he likely considered the water dousing a treat/reward.

Last week, I was at the dog park by myself and occasionally Toby will be on one end of the park and Rocky will be at the other... so I was kinda keeping to the middle.  I see Rocky begin his playful jabbing with another dog, who is not quite getting what he's doing... so I approach, knowing now that this is the kind of stuff that starts to flip people out.  Nothing ever "bad" happens, but as I get near the huddle I hear this one woman say... "It's always the little ones!"

And not in a nice/ha-ha way... a cross between the snarl of the Wicked Witch ("I'll get you my pretty... and your little dog too!") and the tongue-clucking of Bree Van De Camp Hodge.  I didn't say anything, but I was like give me a break... maybe your dogs should get more socialized or grow some balls back!?!

Then this past weekend, Rocky was extremely attracted to this 7-month old Boxer, who seemed not to sure what to think of little Rocky.   So, at one point, Rocky is chasing down a Boxer (got that visual!???!), this woman near Todd plaintively cry out... "Oh, she's just a puppy!"... accusing our newly 1-year old Boston Terrier of "frightening" the 7-month old Boxer (and 3x bigger than Rocky).

Thankfully the owners of the boxer, a young couple, were pretty amused by it and didn't give us any grief... even later when the two were growling (again playfully) with each other, they were cool with it.

So while we all enjoy going to the dog park... it always seems like we waiting to see how long it will take before we get in trouble with somebody.  We realize Rocky is a handful and has enough energy to power a small community... he is learning the ropes and I think eventually knows when to back off...

Dogs seem to effectively communicate with each other... it's easy to see that any time you go to thedog park... so people just need to chill out a bit.