More fun with unleashed dogs

The following is from th blog, "Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn":

Friday, August 10, 2007
TROUBLE AT THE FIFTH AVENUE DOG RUN

An OTBKB reader sent in this story of her "nightmare at the Fifth Avenue Dog Run."

I had a terrible experience today at the Fifth Avenue dog run. An aggressive truck of a woman with a shepherd mix and an abundance of leisure time stopped me and my dog from entering the park, and by "stopped" I mean physically blocked the entrance, called me a "bitch", and said that my dog and I would enter "over her dead body."

I wish that I were joking about this.

It was like walking into an episode of COPS.

Now I've dealt with my share of crazy dog people before but this lady was a whole new level of lunatic. She calIed me Dorothy and accused me of being from Kansas. KANSAS!

This would not stand. Rather than face a physical confrontation with this stool sample I called the cops on her after she quite elegantly volunteered to "kick my ass." The police were nice enough to stop by and let her know that she was neither the boss of the dog park, nor the President of Armenia.

I had unfortunately previously encountered this beastly woman. I warn you Park Slopers to tread carefully because the wicked witch may come for you and your little dogs next.

A few months back our dogs were in the park together with a few others. This woman...let's just call her Ava Braun was waving a stick in the air to throw. My dog (being a dog) jumped up to get the stick. She was less than a year old at the time and still mastering the command "Down".

Ava yelled out "You had better get your dog off of me. I have a head injury." Now in hindsight this should have been abundantly clear. However at the time I apologized and pulled my dog back. Then at some point during the course of play our two dogs got into a tussle. Nothing too vicious mind you, no blood or anything, just your average carried away dog scuffle. So Ava pretty much lost her shit on me all while warning me that she may indeed lose said shit. "Get your fucking aggressive dog out of here before I lose it!"

I am sure I asked her not to swear at me and assured her that my dog was not aggressive but had just gotten overly excited as her dog had seemingly also done. This just seemed to make Ava angrier and apparently "we would no like Ava when she angry". So the pooch and I decided to abandon the park for the time being and pray for a return to a Democratic regime.

That was the last time we had the misfortune of running into Ava until today's sorry incident. I pray that this will be the last I see of her but I seriously doubt it. Ava has a lot of free time but only so many more summer afternoons left to ruin. The boyfriend will be coming with me to the park from now on just in case she wants to get frisky with me again.

Incidentally my dog came home from the day's events and viciously licked my feet for a while, ferociously attacked an ice cube, and passed out while I was rubbing her belly. Clearly we are both a menace to society.


PETUNIA ON DOG RUN ETIQUETTE

This just in from OTBKB commenter, Petunia:

Your OTBKB reader's nemesis is "clearly" in the wrong and sounds like a miserable person to encounter w/ dogs or without, but that said, if your dog is in a public dog run and has been allowed to get overexcited to the point of "tussling," don't let yourself off the hook so fast either.

I personally avoid the Fifth Avenue dog run for these very reasons - there's no getting away from an overexcited dog, and a dog coming into a dog run in that state can quickly cross the line from "play" to aggression.

Often in those cases the owner isn't paying attention to the warning signs and then takes a "dogs will be dogs" attitude, which can be a bit infuriating. Just because there's no blood doesn't mean it's ok for the other dogs and owners to have to put up with it.

[The OTBKB reader] said the other dog was out-of-control excited as well, which would make a problem pretty inevitable. Just think about the playground, same basic considerations apply - if one kid pushes another kid in "excitement", then that kid's parent needs to take charge, not make excuses, whether or not anyone was hurt.

It doesn't mean you have a monster dog or anything, it's not really the dogs' fault - I just wish people would exercise their dogs a little before coming into the dog run, to take the edge off so problems like this can be avoided. There's an excellent Dog Whisperer episode about dog park etiquette I wish all dog owners would watch.

So take your pooch for a good long walk before letting her loose in the run, keep a closer eye out for signs of play getting too rough for one dog or the other, and hopefully you won't have to worry again about some crazy dog person getting all crazy on you.

August 10, 2007 | Permalink