Roscoe's A-hole Nemesis

So Roscoe is a pretty peace loving dog. He's good at playing games at dog park. He likes to be chased and he has cool runningback moves like hard cuts left and right to juke other dogs or whatever. He likes jumping over stuff. That's all he really likes to do at dogpark. No ball playing. No chasing other dogs. Just being chased. And some dogs like chasing so it works out well.

And Roscoe is pretty good at letting other dogs know what he'll tolerate and what bugs him. He doesn't like being humped and will spin and show his teeth to scare off the humper. He almost never ends up on his back submission style and will get annoyed if some dog tries to flip him. He'll give off strong dog signals but rarely ever will he actually start fighting. Usually dogs can tell when he is serious about his f**k off message.

But there's one dog at dog park, a retriever mix or something, that starts fights way often. Roscoe and him have gone at it a few times. The dog just gets on other dog's nerves. I'll watch it just go around dog park being a total a-hole. Like, it will try to prevent other dogs from running around by growling after them and jumping on their backs until they stop running. Or it'll bite at a dog's back legs and run off and then run back and do it again and again. Or play too rough wrestle-style. Usually when he messes with Roscoe, Roscoe will be like, 'F**k off!!!And walk off. But the other dog can't read that signal and will keep messing with him. When it seems to be getting serious, I'll step in and separate them and just bring Roscoe somewhere else. I'll shoot the owner a look like, 'Hey! Your dog is being a jerk! You wanna like... ' But the owner is usually off oblivious smoking a cigarette and yammering on her cellphone.

Anyway, the other day after a bunch of warning f**k offs by Roscoe-- Roscoe went mental and they went at it. Growling and getting up on their backlegs all gladiator style. Blurry, growly mental. I'm not sure if they're going for a bite or whatever-- but it seemed serious. I'm never really clear on how to break up a dog fight so my move is to actually grab Roscoe and pick him up off the ground. And hold him up high. To stop the fighting. But this time the other dog didn't stop its attack. It kept growling and jumping up at Roscoe. Roscoe was in fight mode and growling in my arms. I actually got scared that this mental dog was gonna bite my nuts. I was wearing sweatpants! I looked around for the owner like WTF! (btw I was sort of proud of Roscoe for being tough and animal growly. I wonder if he could go into that mode if I was ever in trouble... I doubt it.)

Eventually, the woman lumbers over and drags off her dog off and said, 'Who started it this time?' I said, 'Your dog...' She just laughed and walked off. Who started it this time? Your dog starts it every time! It gets in fights all the time with dogs that never fight otherwise!? There's no question! Other dog park people agree! But this woman seems to be oblivious to all that. She's way too involved with her cigarette and cellphone...

Basically, an a-hole... which is sad because her dog is now one too. One day maybe I should just let Roscoe kick her dog's ass. I get the feeling he totally would if I let him...

ok bye!

tOdd