Grrrr, Stoopid People

I thought I'd have a thicker skin by now and usually I do. It's almost amusing watching certain young men drop all pretense of cool to run shrieking like little girls. Poor Callie, you can see the puzzled look on his face sometimes. He's just walking along sniffing the flowers with his stump wagging...he's just a dog...really...nothing more.

I went to pick up my daughter this evening at the playground. A group of kids were playing with her in one of the courts and Callie and I walked up to call for her. Her friends started towards Callie to say hello. Their mother gave us the ugliest look and screamed at the kids to come to her NOW. I almost said it out loud " It's really okay, he doesn't eat children!". Oh well, it's just ignorance.

This has happened to me with Nigredo, too. So sad, the children's faces is the worst thing. I don't have kids and admittedly, I am not fond of them... but it's sad to see their disappointed faces when their mother won't let them get near or pet the dog.

I know Nigredo is big and worse, he is black... but I mean you see the other children petting him and he's the most friendly thing on Earth, so why be so funny about it? I would not call it ignorance, more like over protectiveness.

If you see all the other kids playing with him and your child is happy to join in, why isolate them and shout at them for only wanting to do what the other kids are doing? Oh, well.

One lady who had a group of elementary school kids not only didn't let them get near him, she grouped them all together to yell at them and tell them they may NEVER touch anybodies dog.

She also said they BETTER avoid the poison ivy because if they got it, she was "not trying to hear" any crying and she didn't have any cream for them because she had already told them "20 billion times". Mind you these kids are like 5...

I was like, WHY are you a teacher? Clearly you don't even like children...

EDIT:
I also might mention one lady who had a Boston Terrier who attacked my Nigredo for no reason when I took him to the dog park a week or so ago, and then went around telling everyone that my dog was not friendly. He didn't even fight back, he just looked at the little thing like HUH?

I followed her and I told her off something proper. Don't go lying about my dog because he scared your dog into attacking. She should have taken her dog into the small dog area, not my fault my big Nigredo came to say HI!! and spooked your little dog into attacking. Only issue I had that day, and from a small dog owner who wanted their dog to hang with the big dogs.

Next time when they yell for there kids, just yell back "don't worry, he only eats stupid adults".
You will always have people who believe every stupid myth about bully breeds.


mjfromga, I avoid dog parks. It's either small dogs in the large dog area/ people with zero control over there dogs/ or my favorite, my friend has a friend who has a 300lb dog.

Was actually told by a complete stranger today how there friends mastiffs mom was 320lbs.
Did the normal "That's Cool", and walked on. Stopped even replying along time ago.
Just wasn't worth it to say neat, that would be the largest female dog ever, and the largest male or female living, also only 23lbs less than Zorba.

The people who make you grin for the day are the ones who understand. At the same park a few weeks ago I sat down on a park bench. There was a slightly fragile looking gray haired woman on the other side.

I thought I should at least be polite and I said "Excuse me do you like dogs?". This dear soul smiled in the prettiest way and said "I don't like dogs, I LOVE THEM". Callie walked into her arms and she hugged him and kissed him and oh what a handsome man he is...he was wagging his stump for all he was worth.

I think we made her day and I know she made ours. There are people who go out of their way to say hello, even stop their cars to say what a great dog. We're still blessed by the neighbors down the street.

The first day Callie came home he got loose and down the block. You can imagine how happy the police were to hear there's a male pit lost. Just then we got a call. The neighbors lured him into their house with salami and read his tags. I couldn't thank them enough.

Don't be too hard on these mum's they have all read the stories and been told that all bulls and even staffs are trouble. Of course we know it is down to the owners and how the dogs are reared but they do not know. There is a most beautiful bully that walks local and you can see the fun in his eyes and how much he would love to play with Amber and her ball but his owner is very pleasant and says yes he would love to play but he in return never trusts other dogs that may upset his pet. So they have never yet played together he keeps him strictly on the lead. But he is certainly a beautiful dog.

I know they have their downsides, but wouldn't it be great to have partitioned dog parks over here? Lately, some friends have been discussing lately how, although our dogs were kept indoors when we were young, we rarely saw dog to dog aggression amongst the many dogs were allowed to roam freely. It seems they learned to communicate with each other better, and bones or bitches in season were the only things that seemed to cause any serious trouble.

I heard on the news only yesterday that the latest cohort of children have socialisation problems - they say caused by the time spent alone using games machines and pc's. Dogs and kids are not really so different are they?

LMost, I usually avoid dog parks, too... but my Nigredo needed the extra exercise and I thought it might be good for him. This was a nice place and the only issue came from some silly woman who brought a Boston Terrier into the big dog area and he was scared.

Nigredo is NOT a bully breed, but he is big, and BLACK and admittedly, he is very friendly and will walk right up to people and dogs in the dog park. He is well over 80 lbs, but he will not bite anybody.

He doesn't make a SOUND and she went saying my guy was not friendly... I was so mad at her, normally I'd let these people walk but I had to get in her face about that. Small dogs need to be in the small dog AREA.

Sometimes I've taken Callie into the big dog park. But very cautiously. I feel safer if there are only a few dogs and even then ones I'm familiar with. Callie isn't hyper playful like some pups.

He just likes quietly wander and sniff. There are some people we've gotten to know with young bullies. In that case I let Callie wrestle around a bit with them. If they have matching personalities it can look like battle of the dinosaurs but you see the wagging tails too.

You do have to be watchful though. It must be something understood in dog language too. Sometimes bigger dogs will play bow to Callie and when they see he can in fact run despite his build they'll hide behind their owners.

You can socialize bullies, it's just more complicated than other dogs sometimes.

I have no idea how they work in the US nor how we could make them work here but a safe, enclosed space where dogs could run and socialise with others would surely be a good thing?
At some of the shows we go to with Pops there are fenced areas to let your dogs do just that and it is generally a most rewarding experience.

I don't know how it is in other states but New Jersey seems to be blessed with any number of state maintained dog parks. At the shore there are even public beaches that have set times that dogs and owners are free to wade together.

By us there a big area in one of the nature preserves. They put up cyclone fencing around two large areas. The big dog side has benches and a rock and tree decorated area with a field to the side. In warm weather a steel washtub makes a big dog sized pool with a water tap nearby.

Across from that they have a small dog side for 20lbs and under although elderly and shy large dogs are permitted as well. The small dogs have a whole little forest to run through and a summer wading pool. There are posted regulations but the only monitoring is really the parks department and state troopers who come in if there's a serious disturbance.

In some towns they have dog parks that require membership and proof of shot records. Safer for some dogs I'm sure but a bit too exclusive for us.