SolaMio
December 22nd, 2007, 09:51 AM
A bit of background:
I was enjoying my very first day of holiday vacation :thumbs up doing one of my favorite things, taking Sola to the park. The park I usually take her to is a provincial historic park. Dogs are allowed, as long as you have them on a leash, and you pick up after them. There are signs posted at the entrance of the trail. The vast majority of park users who bring their doggie friends are very conscientious and understand/follow these rules. A group in my community is working very hard to start a dog park, complete with pick-up bag dispensers and lots of space for dogs to run and have a great time. Hopefully it will be ready by the spring/summer of 2008 (this will be my New Year's wish, seriously). Sola will be almost a year old this summer; she is almost four months old now, half malamute and half black lab, weighs about 30-35lbs.
At any rate, for now the provincial park is great, really beautiful and near where I live. I was walking Sola (on leash) near the middle of our walk, when out of nowhere a very large golden started barrelling up a hill towards us. Sola freaked out, being only a pup of course and yelped, ran around to try and get away, etc. The golden was growling/barking and nipping at Sola (but showed no aggression towards me). I placed myself in front of Sola and yelled "go home" at the other dog, because in the spur of the moment I just wanted the bigger dog to get away from my pup. There was no owner in sight, no one yelling for their dog who had obviously taken off running after something. Then a dude on snowshoes comes sauntering up the hill and gathers the dog who did eventually go toward him when he came into view. He doesn't even say anything about his dog nearly attacking Sola, which he may not have seen but he definitely heard me yelling, just said "hello" and keeps on shoeing. I was not impressed. I noticed then that the dog had some kind of muzzle-ish thing around his nose (kind of just a strap)... But it certainly didn't stop him from being aggressive...
Am I just a cranky pants or should people follow the rules in place? :frustrated: I mean Sola could have been a toddler, or a REALLY young pup who could have had an even worse scare. Bah humbug.
I was enjoying my very first day of holiday vacation :thumbs up doing one of my favorite things, taking Sola to the park. The park I usually take her to is a provincial historic park. Dogs are allowed, as long as you have them on a leash, and you pick up after them. There are signs posted at the entrance of the trail. The vast majority of park users who bring their doggie friends are very conscientious and understand/follow these rules. A group in my community is working very hard to start a dog park, complete with pick-up bag dispensers and lots of space for dogs to run and have a great time. Hopefully it will be ready by the spring/summer of 2008 (this will be my New Year's wish, seriously). Sola will be almost a year old this summer; she is almost four months old now, half malamute and half black lab, weighs about 30-35lbs.
At any rate, for now the provincial park is great, really beautiful and near where I live. I was walking Sola (on leash) near the middle of our walk, when out of nowhere a very large golden started barrelling up a hill towards us. Sola freaked out, being only a pup of course and yelped, ran around to try and get away, etc. The golden was growling/barking and nipping at Sola (but showed no aggression towards me). I placed myself in front of Sola and yelled "go home" at the other dog, because in the spur of the moment I just wanted the bigger dog to get away from my pup. There was no owner in sight, no one yelling for their dog who had obviously taken off running after something. Then a dude on snowshoes comes sauntering up the hill and gathers the dog who did eventually go toward him when he came into view. He doesn't even say anything about his dog nearly attacking Sola, which he may not have seen but he definitely heard me yelling, just said "hello" and keeps on shoeing. I was not impressed. I noticed then that the dog had some kind of muzzle-ish thing around his nose (kind of just a strap)... But it certainly didn't stop him from being aggressive...
Am I just a cranky pants or should people follow the rules in place? :frustrated: I mean Sola could have been a toddler, or a REALLY young pup who could have had an even worse scare. Bah humbug.