Bailey! Quit Being a Jackass!

That’s me about 100 times a day at the dog park.  Oh, give me strength!

For the last week or two we have been trying to socialize our dogs by taking them to a nearby enclosed dog park.  Bailey has become quite anti-social over the years, especially with other male dogs.  He snarls and lunges and gives me a heart attack.

I know Cesar Milan would tell me to be calm, but how can I be calm when my little dog is trying to get himself eaten by a Bouvier!!  After he was attacked by a Rottweiler I’ve been incredibly frightened when it comes to other dogs.

I am extremely uncomfortable having our dogs off their leads, even in an enclosed dog park. Especially when there are other dogs unleashed as well.  Xander, as well as all the other dog owners, try to get me to relax and reassure me that Bailey will improve the more we let them loose with other dogs.

In my mind?  We’re not helping him get better, we are playing with fire and begging for our dog to be torn to bits.

When you have the smaller dog with the attitude, you can’t trust that the bigger dogs are always going to put up with him, what happens the time the wrong dog with the wrong owner shows up?  The dog that is ready for a fight and isn’t going to listen to his owner when the time comes?

Seriously, it shreds my nerves.  I absolutely refuse to go without Xander because I don’t want to try to have to control the situations on my own, and also because in situations like that quick communication is a must and that’s not something I have at the moment.

Don’t get me wrong, it is fun and Bailey isn’t on the attack every minute… but he does act like a total jackass at times and will snarl and lunge at other male dogs. Much BIGGER male dogs.   I wish I could just snap my fingers and fix him.

This is one dog that he managed to be around without any serious drama.  Mostly because I think this dog didn’t take him at all seriously and just let him act like a dick without giving him much thought.  I mean, what point is there in fighting with a dog that can’t even reach to sniff your balls?

Pixel, on the other hand, is an entirely different story.

Whenever a dog gets near her, regardless of its size, she does this…

STOP DROP AND ROLL!!!

Yes, even though she pwns Bailey hardcore at home and is totally the dominant dog, when we are out among other dogs, she is about as submissive as they get.

If another dog comes along, she flops over on her back, spreads and is all “Here, smell my lady bits!”

This is about as close as she’ll get voluntarily.  She’s curious but the minute they return that curiosity she turns and hightails it for the nearest human, to cower at their feet.

I think in order to get the full grasp of Pixel’s complete disinterest and fear of other dogs, you have to see her in action.  At one point while we were there a lady came along with a giant Bouvier, which she was not able to take off the lead because Bailey kept trying to pick a fight with him.  Shortly after, her neighbour arrived…

It was so bizarre. This lady arrives at the dog park in a pink robe and six or seven Shih Tzu in tow.  The lady was quite content to hang around the park in her bathrobe chatting away.  She was very friendly and had some good tips on how to get the dogs a little more social.

I assume they were good tips, I mean… with that many dogs she must know what she is doing.

Her dogs loved Pixel.  The feeling was soooo not mutual.

You can see in the end of the video, the lady came around with the Bouvier again and Bailey was quick to make a move.  I had to stop filming then because I was busy panicking.

I KNOW, I need to remain calm.  I don’t do calm very well…

So yeah, I’m not sure how I feel about this dog park thing.  On the one hand I agree that it’s in their best interest to try to socialize them, but I can’t help but feel like one day Bailey is going to pick a fight with the wrong dog and is going to get hurt.  I don’t think I could forgive myself if that were to happen.

Does anyone have any experience with dogs and aggression?  He is only REALLY aggressive with other male dogs, especially if they are dominant as well.  It scares me and I’m really not sure that this is the best way to deal with it.  Help!

 

P.S. Flickr appears to be having problems so if the photos aren’t showing up, that is why. Hopefully it will be sorted soon!