Our dog, Harley, is super-friendly with other dogs. She simply wants to play play play! Despite numerous run-ins with unfriendly, aggressive, or vicious dogs, she doesn't seem to understand why they just don't want to play with her. Her defense skills are still a work in progress, needless to say.
During our road trip from San Francisco, we stopped in San Carlos. The hotel we stayed at was "dog-friendly" ... supposedly. What this actually meant was that they allow dogs on the premises, including a pack of 5 wild/stray dogs they called their own. Before knowing this pertinent information, I let Harley out of the car and walked her to a grassy area on the premises to use el baño. In the distance, I could hear the faint barking of dogs. It seemed to get louder and louder. By the time I realized the dogs were sprinting towards us, Harley was running for her life back to the car, with my two legs trying to keep up with her four. Scary, but nothing happened. Luckily, the dogs were afraid of humans and stopped short of reaching the car. We left the next morining.
During the remainder of the road trip, we stopped through several different towns, each with their fair share of stray dogs. Typically Harley hangs her head out the window as we drive, but we soon learned this to be an invitation for the dogs to chase our car. I believe it was three different occasions when a stray dog (or two or three or four) would chase the car, as we fumbled to pull Harley inside, roll up the windows, navigate through the speed bumps and pot holes, and drive away as fast as possible.
Fortunately, we are now in Puerto Vallarta, and there are few stray dogs by comparison. Most have owners and are on leashes, but some are still very aggressive. Last week we had to save Harley from an atttempted chihuahua attack. A few days later it was someone's off-leash mut, about her same size.
What does Harley do when these dogs are chasing our car, or a chihuahua tries to attack her in the street? She just stares at them with her confused face. "Why don't you wanna play with me?" she seems to say. Poor girl needs to learn some self-defense. ASAP!
No comments:
Post a Comment