Ralphie and I go to our local dog park almost every day of the week. Ralphie made a lot of 'regular' friends there. It seems like the same group of us meet at the dog park each evening before dark to give our pups the last run for the evening. Yesterday was a typical day. There were about 8 dogs there. They all played so well. It was a good evening until two girls arrived with their pit bull dogs. Ralphie greeted them in a very friendly way at the gate entrance and had a great run with one of them. For some reason Ralphie lost interest in the pit. So he came strolling by me sitting on the bench. I was sitting with the owners of the pit bulls just watching the other dogs play. Then suddenly one of the pits aggressively went after cute 10 month old Bailey, an Australian mix. The pit pinned Bailey down in a mean way with his growl and teeth. The owner of both dogs were able to separate the two. I really didn't think much about that 'little' attack. I just thought the pit was exerting his energy. With Ralphie still sitting next to me, we were just relaxing, continuing to watch the other dogs. Then it happened...the two pit bulls got in a brawl with three other dogs...yep...a big dog fight! Luckily a couple of owners were able to break it up. However the pit owners continue to sit on the bench and watch. I overheard one girl say to the other, 'it's the others' fault; it's not our dogs'. I just couldn't help myself and I had to say something! So I said, "well the dogs were playing nice until your dogs came in". OMG...these two nasty girls blew up and started swearing, calling me every name in the book. I comeback in a normal way and just said, "there weren't any problems before". Again they blew up at me. Gosh, I thought they were going to attack me! LOL Needless to say I left and everyone else was leaving as well. I found out the dog owners can be as vicious as their dogs!!
The one thing that amazed me was no one supported me, they all just watched this nasty spat between the pit owners and me. People are very strange ... no one wants to get involved, even if it's involving their dog. This incident really makes me think twice about dog parks...how safe are they? I felt attacked as much as those dogs. But I like it because Ralphie can socialize and run as much as he wants. I guess I'll continue to go and if those girls with their pits show up, I'll just leave.
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| Ralphie at our local dog park. King of the mountain!! |
Taking sides is a hard thing to do unless you know the whole story of if there is violence involved. I was there - there was no imminent threat of violence so the rest of us stayed our distance and let the incident work itself out - which it did peacefully.
ReplyDeleteIt peacefully ended because most left the dog park after the incident or went to the other side. I ran into another dog owner at a store recently and she was telling me about a similar incident that happened on the 'small' dog side. We discovered it was the same dog and same nasty owner that screamed at her as well. To sum it up...there is no need for hostile swearing...the dog is a product of the owner...sad to say.
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