Pegleg Starfish

Calm and assertive is the mantra of my beloved Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan.  I have been a fan of Cesar’s since I first knew he existed.  I’ve read his books and try to practice what he preaches with my own dog, Hurley.

Aww….

Walkin the Dog

Hurley is such a happy-go-lucky guy.  I credit his happiness and well-balanced personality to the work that I have put in with him since the minute I picked him up at the shelter.  He’s not the perfect, most well-behaved dog in the world, but he’s a pretty good boy.  We’re even going to be joining a local agility dog club in August.  Yes, I’m a super nerd, but what ev. 

Cesar’s key to a well balanced dog is exercise.  A dog has to have a way to get rid of their energy in a positive way.  A dog cannot sit in an apartment all day and be expected to act civil without first working off some energy.  One way that I help Hurley work off some energy is by taking him to the local dog park.  The dog park is a wonderful place where dogs can run off-leash and romp and play and swim and just be dogs.  Hurley and I usually go there two or three times a week.  And he is dog-tired (hehe) when he gets home.  For the most part, the dogs at the dog park seem pretty balanced.  There’s an occasional scuffle but I’ve never seen anything too bad.  There is a risk using the dog park.  There are a lot of irresponsible dog owners out there who think it’s OK to bring their aggressive/obnoxious/timid dog to a dog park.  That’s just dangerous.  A dog has to be very well balanced to behave at a dog park that is most likely full of unbalanced dogs.  Hurley has never had an fight or altercation with another dog.  We do run into a few dogs who like to ‘pick’ on him once in a while because of his size, but he can usually hold his ground.  But I’m pretty laid back, and don’t freak out when a dog is playing rough with him or mouthing him or whatever.  He’s a dog, that’s just what they do.  Some people freak out when another dog plays with their baby too rougly.  They probably shouldn’t be at a dog park. 

Now, you’re probably wondering what this has to do with the run in with the police that I mentioned in yesterday’s post.  Well, I called the police while I was at the dog park because of this lady who had aggressive dogs.  Hurley wasn’t bitten or injured in any way, but her dogs were aggressive towards him so I called the cops on her skinny-middle aged ass.  This lady is always at the dog park when I’m there and I’ve never really had an issue with her or her dogs before.  Although one of her huskies did nip Hurley a long time ago, giving him the only injury he’s ever sustained from another dog.  But it wasn’t a big deal and I didn’t think much of it.  Her dogs are just dominant and aggressive.  Exactly how she wishes her blow up husband would act. 

Although I normally don’t converse with people at the dog park besides a ‘hi’ I can tell a lot about someone by the way they interact with their dogs.  I’m good at judging people without knowing them.  Kidding.  But this lady is just the type of lady that I would hate no matter how her dogs behaved.  She’s probably 52 years old, skinny, short, frizzy, blonde hair piled on top of her head.  She wears pink flip-flops and matching tank and shorts.  She also brings her lawn chair and sits in it at the dog park while her dogs are off misbehaving.  And she brings in 4 dogs!  Which is 2 over the 2 dogs per person limit.  Skank. 

It went down like this…Hurley and I were making our rounds.  I usually power walk around the park while he follows close by.  Our path takes us by the bone-shaped swimming pools.  I grabbed a tennis ball and was throwing it in the water for him to retrieve.  All the sudden when H was on his way back to shore this ladies dogs surrounded him and were barking and nipping at him.  He was backed into the water and had no where to go.  The lady made a feeble attempt at calling her dogs away and threw in a few, “Oh leave him alone-he’s just a baby.”  Because apparently her obnoxious dogs can speak English.  Finally she attempted to pull them out of the water, by their tails.  Duh.  I was standing calmly off to the side, waiting for her to get her dogs away from Hurley so he could get out of the water.  And then she says to me, “Could you get your dog and help me!”  As if my dog was the reason for her dogs aggressive behavior.  Finally I reached in between her dogs and grabbed Hurley.  That was stupid and I probably shouldn’t have done that.  When I reached for Hurley, one of the two Huskies growled.  So I carried Hurley away and her dogs kept following me.  She finally came over and grabbed them by their collars so I could get away.  And like I said before, Hurley wasn’t injured, but it still pissed me off.  I probably wouldn’t have been so pissed off if she would have said something like, “I’m sorry.”  But she didn’t.  “I realize that my dogs are too aggressive to be here-I won’t come back again,” would have worked too.  

After the tiff, I put Hurley on his leash and walked around the trail a couple more times.  I didn’t want to let him off the leash because I didn’t want to have a run in with her stupid dogs again.  After that it was time to leave.  And time to call the Precinct Police.  There’s a big sign as you walk in the gate that says Report any aggressive dogs immediately.  Call Precinct 5 at this number…  So I did.  I called and reported that there was an old, skinny lady at the dog park with four aggressive dogs.  They took my name and phone number and stated that they would be sending an officer out.  I was ready to head home, but thought that I would stick around to see what went down.  I sat in the car and noticed that skinny ass looked like she was getting ready to leave!  No-the cop wasn’t there yet!  So I got all covert and parked my car so that I could see the exit of the park in my rear view mirror.  I wanted to be sure that she did in fact have 4 dogs with her before I went telling the cops on her.  When she first walked out she only had one of the huskies, but he was filthy and needed a bath.  She waited in line at the doggy wash station looking impatient the entire time.  When she finally got to the hose, there was a little boy playing and spraying water (his rents had just gotten done washing their boxer), she ripped the hose out of the boys hand!  I saw the boys parents exchange words with the lady and then leave.  She loaded up the husky into her piece of crap car and then went back into the park and brought out the other three dogs.  Me, being the covert spy that I am, thought it would be good to have her license plate number to give to the cops.  I drove my car and parked near the exit so I could get a good look at her car when she left.  And I did. 

660-TTY (Teal Honda Civic-Piece of Crap)

And I think she had the feeling that someone had reported her becuase she flew out of the parking lot at about 90 miles an hour.  I’m guessing it’s not the first time she’s had a run in with the po-po.  

Just as she peeled out of the drive way, the officer pulls in.  So I pulled up to his car and chatted with him about the crazy lady.  He took all the details about her and her dogs.  He of course wasn’t able to do anything without her there, but told me that if I see her there again to call and they will send an officer out to give her a citation for not only have aggressive dogs, but having too many dogs.  Nice.  I will return to the dog park and I will call the police if she’s there. 

I mean, can you really imagine 4-100+ pound dogs in your shitty Honda Civic?  Not me.  She probably lives in a tiny one bedroom apartment and feeds her dog food out of her own mouth.  And then ends her evening by putting peanut butter on her bits and…sorry…got a little carried away. 

So just be cautious when you take your pooch to the dog park.  Use your common sense.  And report people with aggressive dogs.  But you’re all smart people and would do that anyway.  I mean, come on-you’re an obvious fan of the most intellectually stimulating blog on the net.  Right?!  RIGHT!!!!!???? 

I’ll keep you updated on the crazy dog lady.

:)  Happy Monday.  May you’re week go by quickly and painlessly.

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