You want a good way to seriously get on my bad side and turn me into mega bitch? Insult my animals. Charlotte was attacked by a chocolate lab today at the dog park. Even though nothing to this extent has ever happened before, I normally go with Ian just incase. However today we got busy in the morning and by the time I was able to go, Ian had to be at work. I decided to have Ian drop us off, and took Charlotte in by myself. When we arrived there were three dogs there. Two labs and some Shepherd puppy mix. These dogs were owned by three different people, but all seemed to be friends.

Charlotte came in and checked out the other dogs, and went on her way to go sniff about and mingle. After she went about marking the place, she began tumbling around with the shepered puppy for a while. One of the labs there was just fine with her and ignored her, but the other one, a dominant female...you could tell this dog felt a bit threatened by the alpha female vibe Charlotte was putting out.

When I go to the dog parks, I watch Charlotte like a hawk for this reason, to make sure she herself is being nice and to make sure other dogs are being nice to her. I KNOW her body language and I can tell when tension is there. Charlotte was just hanging out in the clearing, about 10 feet away from me when the chocolate lab walked up beside her and the two made eye contact. I knew at that second something was going to happen but before I had the chance to react, the lab threw herself onto Charlotte, and started mauling her. We're talking a 100 pound lab on 35 pound Charlotte that WANTED to hurt her.

Charlotte won... I'm sure as hell not bragging nor am I proud, but Charlotte some how turned the tables VERY quickly on this dog and kicked it's ass. The only way I can figure this is the breed mixes in her. She has the "never back down" attitude, athletic build, and bite of a pitbull, as well as the tenacious speed, energy, and aggression of the cattle dog. Combine those things with the fact that she was a street dog for Lord knows how long and was probably very use to defending herself against other dogs... Yeah, I'm sure the fat, aggressive but inexperienced lab didn't have much of a chance.

The fight lasted for about 1 minute, in which the dogs carried on with each other from one end of the park to the other, smashing into trees and picnic tables. Halfway through the fight, Charlotte was on top of this dog, with her jaws attached to it's face. I reached out several times to grab at Charlotte's back legs to pull her back but she was so fucking fast I couldn't get a hold of her. The fight finally ended when Charlotte was on top of this dog with her jaws clenched down hard on the other dogs face, the lab SCREAMING in pain and the owner of the lab was able to swoop down and grab Charlotte. We had to pry her off this dog with her still growling. The guy handed her to me, and I took her a few feet away to check her over. She was fine. The lab however had a gash on the side of her face from where Charlotte bit her and wouldn't let go. The owner sat there petting his dog and calming her down when all of a sudden the lab turned around and attacked ANOTHER dog that was standing a few feet away! WHAT THE FUCK. Charlotte, who was on high alert and full of adrenaline, I decided to take home at that point.

I originally didn't have any hard feelings towards the owner or his dog. Shit happens. They're dogs. No one was severely hurt. As I leashed up Charlotte and got ready to leave however, I over heard the guy say to his dog/friends "It's okay, no one is going to hurt you. Yes, I know. Some dogs are really mean, but you're not" and turned and glared at me. Fucking fire went up in my eyes and every hair on my body stood on end. The NERVE of this guy!! I'm sure there's far more mature ways I could have handled this, but I was rip shit and just couldn't hold my tongue. The following was the conversation that that happened.

Me: You DO realize that MY dog was not the one that started that, right?

Owner: Excuse me?

Me: MY dog didn't start that fight. YOUR dog attacked HER. Don't go telling people my dog is mean when this was far from her fault!

Owner: Well sorry, but your dog was the one that had my dog by the face, and it was my dog that was crying!

Me: ....She was DEFENDING herself! You get yourself knocked over full force by an aggressive 100 pound Labrador that's OBVIOUSLY out to hurt you, and you'd be fighting for your life too! If you had been WATCHING your animal rather then chit chatting with friends, you would have saw that! Sorry your dog was hurt, but this is NOT Charlotte's fault!

The owner muttered something hateful under his breath to his friends, and I walked out of the park with Charlotte, before things got worse. It's about a 20 minute walk back to the house, and Charlotte was big time on edge. And other dogs that walked by on the path could sense that... I didn't need a second dog fight breaking out, so I quickly got her home as fast as I could and had her go lay down in the bedroom to cool off for a while. She's sleeping now.

I on the other hand am all kinds of wound up. Charlotte has NEVER gotten into a fight like that before. Ever. If it's one gripe I have against dog parks, it's not so much the dogs that come in, but the people. I'm sure I'll go back again sometime, but I'm a little put off for the time being.