If You Can't Run With The Big Dogs...

Well, of course Labor Day weekend was too nice for us to let it go by without a trip to the dog park.  Since we had the girls out hiking Saturday and Sunday, and Blueberry didn't get to go with us Sunday, we decided to take it easy and visit the dog park Monday afternoon.  We got there and were happy to see a nice group of dogs exploring the park.

One of the dogs was the biggest Sibe I have ever seen.  I even asked his people and they confirmed that he is a Siberian, and that they hadn't expected him to get so big, either.  He was appropriately named Bear and Morgan just loved him.  Actually, all the dogs in the park seemed to really like the gentle giant and all the dogs were getting along quite well.

Of course, things had to take a turn for the interesting after we'd been there for a few minutes.  A couple of young men came in, and I saw that one had a pair of pugs and the other had some sort of small terrier, one who gives the nickname terriorist its meaning.  There is a nice area for small dogs at the park, but it's not as big as the large dog section.  It's not unusual for people with smaller dogs to sometimes ask to come over with the big dogs.  We are honest with people when they ask and tell them that we have not had Morgan long enough to be sure that she won't get too rough with little dogs and that the Greyhounds could run over them.  That is a moot point, however, since they didn't ask anyone if it was okay for them to join our side, they just brought them in, already unleashed.

For the most part, I don't think my dogs would ever have a problem with a little dog, but I do know that running loose in a large area changes things, as does pack dynamics.  Our dogs weren't near the gate when they came in, so their entrance seemed like it would be somewhat uneventful.  The pugs were actually very sweet little dogs who were very well-mannered and socialized.  They didn't seem to have any trouble entering the pack and getting along. 

The terrier, on the other hand, I'm not sure should have been let loose near anything.  Charlie, as all were soon to learn his name, went after every large dog that even looked his way.  Of course, Charlie's owner thought it was all very funny that Charlie thought he was a big dog.  I don't really care how big Charlie thinks he is.  What I care about is that he didn't belong around other dogs in the state that he was in, and size didn't matter.  After he made a snarl and nip at Bunny, who was perfectly capable of handling things herself, Morgan stepped in and decided that nobody was messing with her packmates on her watch.  I informed Charlie's owner that while he might think Charlie was cute, nobody else was enjoying his company and that my dogs were more than capable of cleaning his clock.  I don't doubt that the labs, pit bull puppy or Siberian could have handled him, either.

Then, in true big dog fashion, the big dogs all wandered off and ignored him, no doubt confident that they didn't have anything to fear from him.  His owner lead him off to play away from the others for a bit and then left.  I'm sure the glares from the other owners had something to do with their rather short visit.  It certainly didn't spoil our trip to the dog park.  After Morgan's show of solidarity, Bunny relented a bit and invited her to a round of chase. 

It was great to see all three of them run together.  I wish I'd gotten the beginning of their romp on the video, too, but I'm happy I at least caught the end.  Bringing home three tired and happy dogs before we went off to our holiday cookout was worth the price of admission.  They were all so tired that none of them even acted like they wanted to go with us!