Rennie's Play Date: Failed
So, as planned, Rennie and I met up with a coworker of mine and his fiancee on Sunday morning at the dog park. Ren and I have been to this dog park before, and Rennie has been to other dog parks and has been around some other dogs - even if not a huge number at once. But none of this history prepared me for what actually happened once we arrived and the following day.
So we arrived at the appointed hour, went into the fenced area and Rennie was promptly swarmed by roughly 4 bazillion Large Dogs. Dogs so large, in fact, that they appeared to be small horses by comparison. In reality, they were all somewhere on the order of 60-85 lb dogs; not huge, not small... your standard lab-sized dog. Rennie responded to all this attention by sitting down. And when that didn't appear to solve the problem (which was, from her perspective, at least 6 large, wet canine noses in places she wasn't exactly thrilled to have them), she did what few self-respecting Yorkies would do in such a situation: she hid behind my legs and cowered.
This was somewhat surprising to me, considering that she does, in fact, know how to bare her teeth and snarl. And the reason I know that she knows how to do this is because I have frequently been on the receiving end of such tooth-baring and snarling. (You'll remember the broccoli incident?) She has also put her sister Gracie (my mom's Yorkie) in her place on a number of separate occasions.
Anyway, my point is, I expected her to take down the over-eager chocolate Lab puppy (CLP) with the enormous paws and the friendly set of boxer twins and the nearly-full-grown great dane puppy. I expected at least that she would show some teeth, but instead she backed around my legs trying to get away. If climbing had been an option I have no doubt I would still have claw marks on my legs.
So I picked her up and carried her over to where my friends were sitting with their Yorkie, Diva, who was also cowering a bit on her mom's lap.
Diva, however, lives with a boxer called Bo and so is quite experienced in bossing larger dogs around. She had the "get away from me" snarl down and the chocolate Lab puppy's constant visits were welcomed with an enthusiastic growl. CLP was undeterred, unfortunately, and my friend - who had an iced coffee with her - ended up with iced coffee+slobber in her plastic cup thanks to the various dogs swarming around us.
So we sat and talked for about an hour while trying to fend off the larger dogs. Rennie didn't move from my lap once while we were sitting down and once we got up to leave I couldn't get her even to walk on her own as long as any of the larger dogs were nearby. So we ended up going for a quick walk outside the confines of the dog park and then headed home.
On Monday, the weather was as clear and sunny and beautiful as it had been the day before so I decided Rennie and I would give the dog park another try; the rationale being that she just needed more socialization! Then she would play with ALL the dogs! Of course!
So after work I threw on some running clothes (Miss Sporty Spice, that's me!) and we headed over there. There were fewer dogs inside the pooch area than there had been the day before and the overall energy level was much lower. Most of the dogs were just lazing around in the shade, though there were a couple running after balls thrown by their owners.
So Rennie and I went in and headed down the pathway for a walk. And all was going fine... she stopped to do some "serious business," which I promptly picked up with my handy-dandy plastic bags and we went on our way. Unlike the day before, none of the dogs appeared interested in Rennie in the least: I have no idea what the difference was but since there was no playing to be had we left the dog area and headed into the more forested trails for our walk. About halfway through our walk I picked Rennie up to give her a little rest (her legs are short, after all, and also it was hot out!) and discovered that she had not, um, been completely clean in her serious business earlier. She had poo stuck to the hair under her tail which, of course, ended up on my shirt.
And this, people, is what made me decide that the dog park is a sad, sad, evil place. Either that, or we're just not cut out for socialization with other people or canines. I'm not sure. At any rate, we ended the two day experience having played with zero other dogs and a pooed-on shirt. This is not a success as far as I'm concerned! This is, if you can believe it, only slightly less fun than when Rennie decided to pee on my very pretty but very expensive and very silk Pottery Barn duvet cover that I had just paid $29 to have professionally cleaned TWO WEEKS prior, thank you very much!
Anyway... so that's how things went. Thankfully I didn't bring the camera so I don't have pictures of either fiasco. But heck, at least I can say we tried... right? (Maybe we'll just head back to obedience class: she seemed to get along splendidly there!!)
Comments
aren't there any dog parks around there that have separate small dog areas? bringing small dogs to "regular" dog parks rarely works out well. even a lot of full-sized dogs can't deal with the "lord of the flies" type atmosphere there. neither my previous golden retriever or the blind foxhound i now have (both 50-60 pound dogs) could deal with dog parks.
Posted by: jen | September 13, 2007 06:32 AM
Well at least she didn't get bitten, that would have been WAY worse & the vet bill costs would have been more than cleaning a bit of poo of your shirt . . . see if you look long enough there is always a silver lining to every situtation :) xx
Posted by: Sara | September 13, 2007 07:53 AM
Have you seen this:
http://www.sethprandini.com/sweater
My dog doesn't like dog parks. He gets way too anxious and barks incessantly. He's fine with individual dogs, though.
Posted by: Yogamum | September 13, 2007 09:00 AM
OK, this is a classic grass-is-always-greener situation, but I would SO love to have a small dog that cowered in the face of other dogs, rather than two medium-small ones that make ever attempt in the world to EAT other dogs of any size! Trade?
Posted by: Scott | September 13, 2007 04:07 PM