Why?

As the week concluded, both Joe and I were left puzzling over the same question but for different reasons. That question is, Why?

Joe was at Robinswood Park with Toby and Colt. Toby is a Pitbull mix and Colt is our big Dobie. Colt is anything but aggressive and Toby is extremely submissive. Toby will roll over on his back in a show of submission to any other dog we encounter at the dog park, his confidence has grown but in the past he used to pee submissively as well. Colt is not submissive, he is loud, protective of his people/toys/dog pack, but NOT aggressive. He has been bitten by aggressive dogs at the dog park and elsewhere but never offers to bite back. He is not interested in a fight. We are aware that our dogs may look intimidating to people who believe in stereotypical "dangerous" breeds, therefore if someone appears uncomfortable with our dogs playing/running/barking near theirs we always remove them immediately from the situation. Most people have overcome stereotypes and accept each dog on their own merits, but occasionally we run into one of the few who haven't. On this particular morning at the off-leash park, Joe encountered a woman who expressed an explosive reaction to both Toby and Colt.

She came into the park with a small mix of some sort. She entered the off-leash area designated for larger dogs rather than the one for smaller or shy breeds. Her dog ran over to Toby and started the usual routine of sniffing, tail wagging, chasing, etc... There was no rough play or wrestling going on, but the woman began to yell at Joe and the dogs. She was yelling "stop it... stop it... call your dogs... make them stop!" While she was getting frantic, Joe was thinking to himself, "lady you are only making the situation worse." If the dogs were fighting it would be important to stay calm, getting agitated and excited only feeds the frenzy excited dogs get into. However, they were not fighting, they were PLAYING! Of course Joe respected her wishes and called Colt and Toby away from her dog. She proceeded to yell at Joe telling him that type of behavior shouldn't take place at the dog park. He was left thinking, "wow since when isn't playing acceptable at the dog park?" and ultimately "WHY is this woman entering the large dog area if she is afraid of large dogs or coming to the dog park at all?" At least these experiences are few and far between.

The situation that left me wondering why it took place happened in our backyard. When Whiskey and I return home from work at the end of the day, we spend an hour in the yard with Colt and Tyson. During this hour, I pick up all of the dog droppings so the dogs have a clean place to play. It happened to be raining on this particular evening so our yard was a slippery, muddy mess. I was walking around with the shovel, starting on the far end of the yard and making my way back to the side with our garbage can. The garbage can happens to sit at the top of a small slope. The combination of slippery, muddy, & slope ended up being my demise. I was on a trip to the can with a nice shovel full when I arrived at the slope and began to slip. My natural reaction was to try to walk faster to regain my balance, but no such luck. My quicker steps only added to the speed at which I was going down. I hit the side of the house with my elbow, the shovel flew into the air, and I hit the ground...then the contents of the shovel hit me. To make matters worse, I realized that since I had started cleaning the far side of the yard first, I was now laying in dogs piles as well. I had to laugh, because the only thing I could think was "WHY, at the end of a long work day and 45 minutes in traffic did this have to happen?" I made sure to text message Joe so he could also have a good laugh about my disgusting situation. I have to say even though this particular fall was rather disgusting, our dogs are worth all the gross situations I have experienced and then some!