You Have Got To Be Kidding Me!!!

WARNING: If you get nauseous or easily grossed out read no further! For those of you continuing to read, I apologize in advance for the content but this ACTUALLY happened to me today! This morning started out quite nicely. Joe said he could manage the dogs by himself on the off-leash park trip so I could catch up on some sleep. I heard the rain right when I woke up and was thankful I did not have to get soaked to start out the day, although I was sorry Joe had to go out in it. Joe left Colt and Tyson at home so I let them follow me around the house as I started to get ready for the day. While Tyson and I were doing our makeup in the upstairs bathroom, Colt wandered downstairs and eventually found his way back up. I thought nothing of his little trip downstairs because he sometimes checks out the house before laying down for awhile. When I finished getting ready in the bathroom I brought the boys downstairs with me to let them outside in the backyard to go potty again because a terrible smell was coming from one of them, or so I thought. As I turned around after closing the back door behind the boys, I saw it!! A giant pile of Colt's poop staring me in the face. This was the cause of the offensive smell that had caught my attention. Both Tyson and Colt are thoroughly house trained and they NEVER use the bathroom in the house, unless of course they are severely ill. Then I remembered, my Doberman Biscuit would never poop outside in the rain! Colt must have been holding it in because he didn't want to get wet!
When my Doberman Biscuit and I moved to Kirkland before Joe and I got married, Biscuit adjusted to our new home fairly well, except for the lack of a covered area in the backyard. Biscuit was not a fan of the rain, especially going potty in the rain. While living in Kirkland, she would stand with her front end in the house and her back end hanging out the back door and proceed to potty on the patio because she so strenuously objected to getting wet. One night in particular stands out in my mind because she took me to a level of anger, frustration, and finally admiration that I had not yet reached. It was a particularly stormy night and I knew right on schedule that Biscuit needed to poop at 7pm. We headed out to the backyard and it was raining, so after a half an hour standoff she refused to poop and I allowed her back in the house. We tried again each hour until bedtime. She refused to go so we went to bed and I hoped for the best. She woke me up each hour pacing and whining for the door. We would go outside in the rain and she would NOT do her business. I ended up spending the whole rest of the night outside in the rain waiting for my dog to poop without success. Finally by 5:00 am I was so cold, exhausted, and frustrated, I threw her in my truck and drove to my parent's house (they have a deck that shelters part of their backyard from the rain). I let Biscuit loose in their backyard under the deck where she IMMEDIATELY took a large poop and ran in and curled up in their living room and went to sleep. I had to admire her at this point, she knew what she wanted and got her way. I followed her example and curled up on my parent's couch and slept.
Back to today, Colt's enormous pile in the living room unfortunately is not where my story ends. After scolding him for his mistake and extensively cleaning the living room, I went about my day and was off to work. Upon returning to the house, as usual I let all three dogs out in the backyard to go potty and burn off a little energy running around together. The rain really started coming down so I let the dogs back in the house to play. I started doing some chores when a disgusting smell crept into the kitchen. It was the same smell that caught my attention in the morning. Colt did it AGAIN! I was mildly irritated at this point, we did not spend so much time house training him while he was young to have some new issue crop up. I started to disinfect the living room for the second time when I looked in the kitchen and saw Whiskey pooping in there! I went from irritated to a little mad at this point because all of the dogs had just been outside where the poop should have taken place! I corrected both dogs, finished cleaning, and started to cook dinner. I thought I was going to die of shock when that familiar smell crept back in to the kitchen, this time it was Tyson! He had pooped all over the living room that I just finished cleaning! I had to laugh, what are the odds that all three dogs would have accidents on the same day in a relatively short period of time? None of the dogs are sick, I can only attribute all of the pooping in the house to a collective aversion to wanting to go in the rain. I had to put cooking on hold to clean the living room for the third time today. I corrected Tyson and played with the dogs until their bedtime. The house was finally quiet and I returned to the kitchen to finish cooking. When I entered the kitchen I promptly slipped in a puddle of pee Whiskey sneakily left for me and I hit the floor. So now, not only did I have to clean the kitchen for a second time but I, myself required cleaning!

Pomeraniac!

Joe and I arrived at Robinswood Park nice and early one morning this week. We didn't expect to see anyone hanging around the parking lot since we are usually the first people there each day. The woman holding the empty collar and leash immediately caught my attention, and I wondered why she was holding a collar without a dog attached (it was early in the morning and I was not putting two and two together very quickly). At the same time I was observing this woman, Joe was commenting on "Who in the world lets their dog run loose near such busy streets!" Then I realized he was watching the little blonde dog racing around that belonged to the sad looking woman with the empty collar standing hopelessly in the parking lot.
I got out of the car and asked if I could help her. She was quite dejected and said she had spent an hour in the off-leash area with Mickey, the blonde Pomeranian. Apparently Mickey was not ready to the leave the park and fought his way out of the collar on the way to the car a half an hour before we arrived. She said he did not respond to verbal commands like "come" so he was always a challenge to catch when he got loose. I asked if he responded well to treats or dog food, thinking we could lure him back with something tasty for the dogs Joe and I always keep in the car. She didn't think he would respond to that either. We tried coming at him from both sides to catch him but he was too quick. He seemed to be enjoying himself and making a game out of evading us. He let us get just close enough to almost touch him and then he was off like a streak of blonde lightning. Then a light bulb went off in my head, if the dog wants to stay and play at the park we should act like we are going back to the off-leash area and see if he follows. Joe got our dogs leashed up and led them to the off-leash area. Mickey did excitedly follow us to the entrance and I was able to corner him against the fence so his owner could put his collar back on. She was very appreciative, but I told her it was not a big deal I would hope someone would do the same thing for us if one of our dogs got loose and would not come back! I did recommend a harness for him since he was not trained and is just too quick to catch if he gets free of the collar.

What Is the Right Thing to Do In This Situation?

Our dog walking service is called K9 Boot Camp. We take dogs on trips to the off-leash park for an hour each day. There are several off-leash parks in our area so we rotate through them, but mainly we visit the giant off-leash area at Marymoor Park. It is fantastic with the fields, the slough, the trails, etc... It has everything a dog could want (including lots of other dogs)! We visit the park every weekday morning between 8:30am and 9:00am, depending on how many dogs we are picking up on the way, and we stay at the park for a full hour. We see lots of the same people and dogs each day, which usually is a good thing.
Unfortunately, seeing the same people each day is not so fun when one of the owners has an aggressive dog. Joe and I wondered to each other about the behavior displayed by a Dobie/ Rottweiler mix that started showing up at the park around the time we did and would often run loose with our dogs. We love strong breeds and certainly do not discriminate based on reputation or stereotype (we have two Dobies and love them to pieces), but this dog was showing definite warning signs. Maybe it was never socialized as a young dog, or maybe the off-leash environment is overstimulating for this particular dog. Regardless, the raised hackles, growling, lunging, bearing of teeth, and numerous other indicators should have tipped off the owner that the dog was not enjoying itself. Initially we tried to avoid the dog, but the owner appeared to be seeking us out so her dog could burn off energy by chasing our pack. I decided to be more proactive and approach her to discuss her dog's behavior and hopefully conclude the harassment of our dog pack. She was not at all interested in speaking with me, refused to recall her dog to discourage the behavior, and walked away. Our next idea was to avoid our regular areas in the park, or hide from her really. We were afraid the dog was going to reach a point where the growling and snarling turned to biting. Since we walk several strong breeds ourselves we could only imagine what might happen to our pack, or this antagonist for that matter, if a fight should break out. No such luck!!
One morning recently, we were "hiding" in the tall grass of one of the field off to the side in the park playing with our dog pack and having a great time. Then here comes the Dobie mix trotting over without her owner anywhere in sight, typical! She approached our dogs with her hackles raised and tail pointed in the air, already not good signs. She went after our most submissive member who is such a sweet boy and began chasing and nipping at him. Even after he flipped on his back, she tried biting his neck. That was enough for me, I was not about to allow this irresponsible behavior to continue any longer. The owner was in sight and we yelled to get her attention and for her to get her dog under control. Again, we got no response. She refused to acknowledge that her dog was now attacking ours! We broke it up and as we were walking away with our group I heard her muttering "Why get so worked up, she just likes to play." I almost lost it, that is NOT playing, that is fighting and it is so dangerous and not what the off-leash park environment is for!
Sadly, we have had to take a break from visiting Marymoor because we simply cannot risk putting the dogs in this situation. I know several of the other regular dog walkers have been disturbed by the behavior of this particular dog as well. I have petitioned to the park service for some sort of resolution, since we cannot reach a constructive resolution with the dog owner herself. But I am left wondering what really is the right thing to do in this situation, what if we didn't have other off-leash areas we could visit and were forced to continue meeting this aggressive dog each morning?