The Good,The Bad, The Ugly.

The Good, Dog Parks... we love them. The dogs all go running, jumping, getting all slobbered up by one another all in good old fashion dog loving fun. It gives us a chance to meet some new people. The last time there we met a couple with a yellow lab that was about 9 months old and was new to the whole dog park thing. We told them the about the first time Ditka got hurt. and shared stories like he was our kid. We think if we continue to see them there we could become close friends with them. Also taking your dog to these open fields and letting them run for 2 hours really tires them out and anyone who has ever had a lab knows how nice it is to have a worn out dog at home who doesn't to play every second of every day

The Bad, We do not run into a lot of bad things at the dog park. Most of the time it comes down to people not picking up after their dogs or just letting them get away with everything such as jumping up on everyone, humping (people and other dogs), and you have the dogs getting up on the few picnic tables there are, oh and there are the dogs that tip over the water bowls... why they do this I have no idea... but if they don't have water at the parks dogs could overheat and get hurt.

THE UGLY, There hasn't been a lot of run-ins with the Ugly. Actually today was only the second time for our Ditters to have this unfortunate thing happen. What am I talking about?...Our helpless dog got attacked... yes attacked by a wolf of a dog that came tearing out of left field and into a big group of dogs. It just so happens he singles out Ditka.. why? Maybe because he was the biggest dog in the group... maybe it was the first dog that he was face to face with... but before we knew it our 100 pound dog was laying on his back tail tucked between his legs and the attack dog we will call him "WD" (WOLFDOG) was on top of him biting, and shaking his head viciously. Don't get me wrong... he plays on his back with a lot of dogs such as; pit bulls, Shepards, and all kinds of puppies. He is kind of a wuss, when playing with these dogs they will often nibble on each other. This time was different!!! He was on his back and the other dog was not backing off and was biting and shaking his head as if he was trying to kill him. Ditka felt it and was yelping loud and more then once WD was not letting up so I had to step in and pull the dog off..... If you aren't familiar with dog parks there are signs posted everywhere that prohibit aggressive dogs. Amy and I are pissed... Amy storms off in the direction of WD's owners as I am separating and making sure our dog is not hurt... thankfully he was not. So Amy starts asking if that was their dog knowing that it was because we were talking to everyone else. They say "yes" and Amy tells them to "put their dog on a leash and get it out of here", the guy tells her that she knows nothing about dogs and that if our dog was trying to be dominant their dog would put it in its place (So they were admitting that they had an aggressive dog)...regardless... our dog was on his back (being as submissive as a dog can get!) We tell them that and say that since their dog can't handle being off-leash then they need to leash it up and get it out of the park. Everyone else had their dogs at there hips and would not let the dogs go far until they got their WD out of the park and that is just what they did.

Amy returned to us and the group of people were shocked and pleased that we stuck up for our dog that way. Apparently there is another dog owner who has a 2 yr. old pit bull who she is trying to "socialize" and refuses to leave even when her dor terrorizes other dogs. She will only leave if her dog starts an actual fight! They said they wished we would have been there to take care of her as well. As fate would have it...about an hour after Ditka's traumatic incident...the pit bull owner shows up with her agressive dog. The girls wanted us to stay and handle that situation as well as we had handled the WD situation. But Ditty had his fill of attacks for the day and we didn't want him to have to deal with another one. Everyone gathered their dogs and left instantly. We left the park feeling like badasses who were still shaking from the adrenaline of the first attack.