I began my Sunday with a lovely walk through Balboa Park with Brody, my friend Star, and two of her gorgeous birds: a macaw and an African gray parrot. Brody was his usual “OH HI WOW I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE THE WORLD AND MEET YOU ALL” self, even at 8 in the morning, so Star suggested Brody take a jog around the dog park area before the walk to get out some of his exuberance.
We headed down there and found the dog area surprisingly busy for 8 am, but the crowd was fairly sedate. I did say, “was”.
Brody takes off at warp 3 for a zoom around the lot, barreling through dogs and people alike as if he were attempting to Chuck Norris his way through a stack of wood planks. Soon enough, the thoroughly instigated dogs were zooming around with him, a whirling dervish of fur picking up momentum as it spun dizzily around the perimeter.
Brody stopped for a moment to greet a petite woman on her phone, and by “greet” I mean “jump on her from behind while she was attempting to talk on her cell phone.” Twice.
The hapless victim was fortunately very gracious about my breathless apology, delivered a few seconds after grabbing Brody on a run-by and re-attaching his leash*. He was panting by now, our cue to take off before the mood of the crowd turned from benevolent to pitchfork. Brody surveyed the swirling masses of dogdom left in his wake with a satisfied grin. His work was done.
(This is why we rarely go to dog park. Every time I think we’ve made progress on his atrocious jumping on people manners, he does something like this. Fine with dogs, crazy with new people.)
Star had observed all of this from the entryway, her birds remaining calm and dignified through this display. “I think we’re that dog no one is happy to see,” I lamented as we departed. Coming in as we were going out was a compact, fluffy ball of teeth who was snarling and snapping at Brody as we passed, dragging her owner behind her.
“Oh no,” said Star as the dog lunged at us. “THAT’S the one no one happy to see.”
And I felt slightly better.
*Technical note: I was trying out a no-pull harness to assess how I liked it versus the Gentle Leader. It worked very well for its purpose of reducing pull, and as such is probably what I would choose for a walk by ourselves. But in a situation where I need to be able to control his greeting behavior, the Gentle Leader offers better head control (obviously) so would still be my choice for walking in crowds.
My first choice would be for him to greet nicely so it wouldn’t matter, but it looks like I need to call my trainer and work on him some more before that’s going to happen.
I’m going to be honest and say good for Brody for jumping on the stupid lady on her cell phone. The dog park is not the place to be yakking away on your cell phone paying no attention to your dog or the other dogs around you. This is one of my major beefs with dog parks: people who come there and let their dog run around doing whatever it wants to while paying no attention to anything but their own little cell phone world. I’m always happy to see those folks barreled into. If they were paying more attention they might have been able to avoid it.
Glad to know someone as experienced as you are has the same difficulties! For some reason Shiva will run all the way across an open field if there happens to be a strange person. She won’t bark at them, any more, but must run up to them. As soon as she is close, she will respond to my recall, but not until she is withing three feet of the poor person. I don’t get it.
OH, I had to laugh at this, as we have had the same type of embarrassing “adventures” with our Lab, Butters, who is now nearly 4 years old, but still quite exuberant. 😉 He has improved greatly in ways–not nearly as zany and energy-filled as he once was–but he still LOVES to do a little jumping/licking/nibbling action when it comes to greeting… Sigh. I have actually lost sleep over how to “cure” him of his Lab-ness! 😉
when i go to the dog park i am more than happy to be jumped on, licked, attacked with muddy paws, etc. – it is part of the fun of going to a dog park – having fun with dogs! that said, it makes me crazy to see people coming to the park in their sunday best and then getting agitated when dogs jump up on them and get them dirty. um, helllooooo! dog park!
and i second the first poster’s issue with people on cell phones at the dog park. even worse when they are too busy having a conversation to notice their dog pooped or is interacting in a way they shouldn’t.
Ha Ha! Been there, Cassie is a jumper… so embarrassing at the beach, especially when she is soaking wet from swimming! Doh! We’re working on Leave It when we see her break into a run at somebody, and 75% of the time, she turns back to us… but some people are just too inviting!
Let me know if you figure out a way to cure the jumping — Oscar LOVES “meeting and greeting” new people (and old friends) enthusiastically and on his back paws. Not such a big deal except when he “stands up” he’s as tall as me (5′ 5″)! He just doesn’t understand why everyone in the world might not be quite as happy to see him as he is to see them.
I would agree with the others that if Brody’s going to jump on someone, the dog park is the place to do it. At least people understand (or should)!
pretty accurate point about the gentle leader vs. no pull harness. I was a big fan of the GL until my Rottie injured her neck pulling against it…you’re not the only one with a dog that needs to revisit Polite Walking 101.
We use a no pull harness…doesn’t work particularly well! We’ve also tried the cannie collar which seems to work a lot better.
I would also like to say, there are a lot of vets in kent where I live, and I have tried a few, but there is one in Bekesbourne which is by far the best. In case anyone is reading this I highly recommend them!