No stranger to yelling matches in dog parks with people with untrained dogs that impinge upon my (read, Ruby's) space, this morning's episode produced at least the entertainment of hearing the single stupidest thing I've heard about dog behaviour and training -- see aren't I always looking for the positive? :)
So, Ruby is at heel, beautifully I might add, as we approach the open meadow where we play ball and is so because we're running late so there are lots of dogs about and I'm utterly disinterested in ever letting Ruby be part of the dog-park pack syndrome. (She gets tons of dog play with dogs we know and like, not that it's a requirement that dogs get to play with other dogs -- damn, my brother the dog trainer is rubbing off on me). I see two nearby great danes running, not in a playful way, toward us so I stop, which as she's trained to do makes Ruby sit down at heel.
The danes keep coming and I get in between one of them and Ruby but the other gets her, flips her over and then the two are on her, growling nastily and snapping at her (and biting her at least once). I realize my fist is clenched and I'm about to punch the larger of the danes in the head when the owner steps in, and doesn't control the danes, but chases one away and hauls the second off by the collar, ignoring, I noted, his only real tool, a pinch collar. In the shouting (mine) match that ensues I was told the "just a little bit of dog interaction in an off leash park" was Ruby's fault 'cause she acted submissively (she's not at all submission btw, although is totally without aggression) by sitting down when the danes ran toward her.
It got highly entertaining though when I told the guy to let the dane he was holding go and he did and then asked him to recall the dog. Of course he couldn't, didn't even try, and I kept repeating, coldly, "call your dog back and make him sit next to you" no matter what he said to me. HA! It made him so mad. It helped that Ruby did her part by sitting next to me where I'd asked her to stay. I apparently used swear words and was told not to curse (HA!) -- free of irony that he'd called me an asshole; I agreed saying I AM an asshole when it comes to confronting people who don't train their dogs -- so Ruby and I parted with the words, "Fucking dick wad."
At least I knew I was safe 'cause the guy couldn't sick his dogs (all combined 300 pounds of 'em) on me given they don't listen to him :)
This is not the first episode with theses danes (which are beautiful, btw) and next time, although it'll get me bitten almost certainly, I'll harness my anger so I'm putting my steel toed hiking boots to both of them if they so much as sniff Ruby's ass.
