I had a very different post planned for our usual Mirth Watch Thursday, but today (Wednesday as I am writing this), I had the worst walk I've ever had with my dog.
Not even sure where to start.
As you know, my friend and I walk with our dogs (Rita, and Rita's best friend, Dakota the boxer) at Fiesta Island (FI) at least 3 days/week. On the weekdays we usually know almost everyone down there. There are a couple of dogs that our dogs don't like, or that don't like our dogs, and we steer clear. Sometimes there's a bit of noise and a skirmish, but no one ever gets bit and it's always fine.
Well, now that school's out and it's summer, there are a lot more people down there. I'm constantly checking out the other dogs and assessing Rita's body language, etc.
We were just about finished up with our walk and had run into another friend who comes to FI pretty much every day with her 4 huskies. At the same time two men (big, older men with big walking sticks) and 3 dogs were coming the other direction. They had a timid puppy with them, and Dakota ran at it showing teeth. Dakota is very good about listening to her mom, but before my friend could even yell "Sit, Stay", the one man raised his walking stick and hit Dakota across the back with it, breaking the stick. (Luckily, he had the smaller of the 2 sticks. The other stick was thicker and could have inflicted some serious damage.)