Lessons at the Dog Park

I took Ichi to the dog park this weekend and she had a blast. Her playmate, however, did not fair as well. That's Ichi and her favorite dog park buddy, Moniko, pictured on the right. I'll tell you before I dive into the story that Moniko is okay, just a few stitches, pain pills, and no playing for a while.

Taking your dog to the dog park is a treat for both you and your furry friend, but it's not someplace you can just let your best friend run wild. A dog park is like a playground, kids of different sizes and dispositions running around, playing and fighting like any other park. The key difference is that they can't understand you when you tell them no, and usually, other people's dogs won't listen to you anyway. You also have to be a lot more aware of the situation, watching for the signs that something bad is going to happen. Most owners don't understand their dogs, or how the interact with others. They separate innocent playing in fear of it being a real fight, they shelter and comfort the scared, driving those instincts further. This is something particularly dangerous, as it makes an animal more vulnerable to attack, like Moniko was. People also tend to overreact or get very hyped up and emotional when it comes to "emergency" or "scary" situations, which doesn't help our pets, who sense and pick up those emotions. I'm not a dog expert, but I can tell you my hypothesis as to what really happened at the park on Saturday, based on my classes at PetSmart and the few episodes of the Dog Whisperer that I've seen.

Ichi and Moniko are watching two pit bulls in that picture, waiting to see if they'd be coming in the park or not. The pits arrived at the park leash-less with two men trailing behind them and were extremely excited(1). Moniko's owner had told me earlier in the afternoon that she'd been attacked by a pit a couple of weeks ago and was telling me as I took the picture that one of the pits at the gate was the one that attacked her. Ichi and Moniko were in the large dog pin, something that's fairly common when the dogs in the large pin are particularly calm and easy-going. We decided when the pits showed up that we would move our small pups to the small pin, picking them up and walking to the back gate(2). This is when one of the men let the pits into the pin(3).

The pit that had previously attacked Moniko immediately ran to her and her owner, jumping on the man and grabbing at her exposed back side(4). The man was trying to knee the dog away and was panicking, the other dogs coming to crowd around him and jump at him as well. The pit got his teeth into Moniko and pulled her out of her owner's arms, tossing her to the ground. At this point the other owners were running to Moniko's aid, pulling dogs aside and yelling. I dropped Ichi into the small pin at this point and turned to step in(5) when I saw Moniko go flying about four feet from the ground. Her owner had picked her up again and the pit had grabbed her once again, shaking her and tossing her through the air. Someone had managed to grab the pit and was using all her strength (the dog could have easily weighed more then her) to hold him back as Moniko raced toward the exit(6), where she was snatched up and dropped into the small pin by another owner. A young man then grabbed the two pits and dragged them to the small enclosure between the pins, where he was quickly screamed at by various enraged women.

Moniko lost a decent bit of blood, considering she'd only 8 pounds to start. She had some deep puncture wounds in her thigh, but her owner seemed much more relaxed about the situation when he left a message on my phone a couple of hours later. Anyone that knows me in emergency situations knows that I tend to run unnervingly calm, and this one was no exception. I talked to the young man and got his information and then asked him to go put the attacker in his vehicle while I called animal services(7), assuring him that I'd watch the other pit. He didn't have any leashes for the dogs and had to literally drag the beast away, a feat that would have been impossible if he had to drag both of the large males. The young man had to walk the pit all the way home, as it turns out the dogs got out of the house and made their way down to the park without his (or the "owners") permission(8). While waiting for the man's return, I talked with animal services to explain the situation and get a better understanding of the steps we should be taking. The owner was still rather shaken and somewhat stunned, but I was luckily able to convince him that I would handle things there and he could take Moniko to the vet.

The rest of the story is rather boring.. filled with me waiting with the other pit, idly playing with him while Ichi had the time of her life being adored by two teenagers and their puppy. I gave a witness statement to the animal services officer, talked to her about what was going on, assured the young man I wasn't going to have him arrested, and tried my best to contain the other owner's fears of the remaining pit bull(9). The young man gave the officer his information and promised to pay for any vet bills, obviously distraught by the events. He claimed that the dogs weren't his but a friend's, and they had gotten out when he went over to see if his friend was home (he wasn't, and we're still not sure if this friend "exists" at all). It was commented a few times by the officer and other owners that I should consider getting a job at Animal Services, something I laughed off with knowing glance at the officer. The situation could have been a lot worse then it was and we were lucky that Moniko survived and the pit didn't attack anyone human. I don't mind taking the lead in emergency situations, but it's not something I want to do daily. Animal Services officers have one of the toughest jobs, in my opinion. They have to see and deal with a lot of very painful things for animal lovers and happy endings are extremely rare. The fact that the young man stuck around instead of disappearing was almost unheard of, and still amazes me. Their job is not one I take lightly, or envy.

So I know this post is getting huge, but I wanted to go ahead and highlight a few points.

(1) Cesar Millan will tell you that this is a bad thing, right off the bat. Excited dogs entering a dog park is extremely dangerous. They're more likely to attack or be attacked because they disrupt the playfully calm environment of the park. This is the thing that made me really wary of the pits, even before Moniko's owner told me that one had attacked her before.

(2) Picking up your dog is something that you typically shouldn't do. It teaches them things about when you pick them up, like it's okay to be afraid or to seek shelter in your arms. In this case, both Ichi and Moniko were still excited and were more annoyed that we paused playtime than they were "afraid". I carried Ichi like I do when I pick her up to play, not holding her to my chest or as defensively as Moniko's owner. I think this is one of the reasons the pit went after Moniko instead of Ichi, even though he had to run past Ichi and I to get to her. I radiated calm, Moniko's owner radiated fear and nervousness.

(3) The man that let the pits into the pin wasn't their owner. He was a neighbor to the dogs and knew them well, but he still shouldn't have let them in. They were off leash and extremely excited. He should have waited and looked for their owner, at the least.

(4) This one's very much my opinion, but the way he was carrying her made it rather easy to grab her. It's unfortunate, but none the less true. I walked close to the fence, ready to drop Ichi into the other pin if necessary. He walked about ten feet from the fence, unable to do anything but try and fight off a very eager pit bull.

(5) This was stupid, I know, but I felt obligated. Most of the owners at the park don't really understand how to act in this kinds of situations so my minor knowledge from classes at PetSmart and watching the Dog Whisperer (poor excuse, I know) is only better then theirs. I don't recommend stepping into a scenario like this willingly unless you're sure you know what to do.

(6) I just want to say that the woman that held the pit back was extremely lucky that he didn't turn on her. There's nothing else I can say to that, just that we were all lucky.

(7) Animal Services technically doesn't have jurisdiction in dog parks. The unusual fact that the owner wasn't around is the only thing that let them get involved. Dog parks have rules that clearly state that you're responsible for your own animals and any incidents that occur are a civil matter that must be settled between the owners, not with Animal Services. The fact that the owner of the pits wasn't there and that he'd attacked Moniko outside of the park before made it possible for Animal Services to get involved.

(8) We're still not sure if the young man was the owner or not. He seemed to have trouble remembering the owner's name when asked.

(9) Pit bulls have a bad rep, and it's incidents like this that create that. They're strong animals, both physically and willfully, and owners that don't know how to handle them are more to blame then the dog. The pit that remained at the park was a sweetie, completely submissive and calm, no threat unless provoked. I felt completely comfortable entering the pin with him and petting him. The other owners at the park were shocked and yelled in concern, something I can't really blame them for after seeing what the other pit had done. It's a shame that these dogs get profiled like they do and it's a trend that will continue if people treat them like the other owners did. The attacking pit bull is an exception in the world of pit bulls, not the standard. This doesn't mean you should go up and pet any passing pit bull, not in the slightest. You still need to be wary of them and give them the respect such a powerful breed demands, just don't expect them to be monsters, otherwise they'll become one.

Alright, that's taken all morning to write. Time to actually work. Oh, as a side note, I think Abby was trying to make it extra clear that a cat's life is the best when we got home.


Love, Peace, and Safe Dog-Parking,
Tar