We went to PetSmart in Secaucus to pick up some supplies including a 40-pound bag of dog food. We got Hawk the Kong-brand "Zoom Groom" brush because it seemed to pick up a lot more hair than the other brush we have. He enjoyed PetSmart as usual, but I had to watch him carefully to make sure he didn't pee on anything because he was sniffing around like he was going to. PetSmart has cute Oops cleanup stations though, so I guess they aren't strangers to messes.
We then we over to the great dog run in Lyndhurst. He really ran around a lot, did a lot of chasing, and got into some fiesty dog play-"fights". The other owners at the dog run were especially friendly and curious about greyhounds. One weimaraner owner was happy that there was finally a dog fast enough to keep up with Natasha. Rachel wasn't happy with Hawk's aggressiveness, and she wanted me to break up the dog fights. I don't know if she was concerned with Hawk getting injured again (his hair is slowly growing back over his windmill slicing, and his nose finally looks all black again after he got bit), or just wasn't comfortable with the physical way that dogs play. I expressed my disagreement with her, and told her that I thought it was natural for dogs to play roughly. I would be prepared to break up a fight when the tails stopped wagging and they started barking or biting to injure.
Later in the apartment, Hawk jumped up on Rachel and scratched her leg. Rachel thinks that if we hadn't let Hawk play so roughly at the park, he wouldn't be so physical, and thus he wouldn't have jumped up on her and scratched her. I disagreed, saying that if we don't want him to jump and be so physical in the apartment, we shouldn't get him all riled up right before we take him out for a walk. If you don't know, yes, he gets a little crazy before we take him out for a walk, crouching down, then pouncing up, running back and forth and twirling around. It is quite fun to watch him have so much energy, because he is so mellow 95% of the time. As soon as we get out of the apartment into the hallway, he immediately calms down which is good because we don't want to take a hyper dog out for a walk. If he was hyper, other dogs might be scared of him and hurt him.
1 comment:
Hi Ben,
Remember Cesar.....calm before going out the door. Shouldn't be jumping all over Rachel it shows no respect. Fighting in the dog parks are accidents waiting to happen unless all the owners are in tune with the dogs and can spot trouble BEFORE it happens. Which not many of them can. Another thing you might want to consider. Greyhounds have thinner skin than other dogs do and a nail from another dog could put a tear in him. It dosen't take much.
Not budding in but it's coming from experience.
Joanne (foster Mom to Hawk)
Post a Comment