Coco has to pick another time
Last Modified: Mar 28, 2011 05:14PM
Q. I own a large (86-pound) Rottweiler mix who we may have oversocialized a bit. The problem starts when we go to the dog park in our apartment complex with its small collection of “regulars.”
My dog (Coco Chanel) seems to get along with pretty much every dog she has ever met. But some dogs do not get along with her, and Coco can’t read their signs.
There is a female German shepherd dog that is also a “regular,” but she seems to hate my dog. When a fight would start, the other owners would blame my dog even if my dog had been showing no aggressive signs until the other dog went after her. The German shepherd also has gone after other dogs.
We always remove Coco after a fight starts, but I have never seen the other owners do the same.
What is a nice way to tell these owners to not come in the dog park when Coco and I are there? Is there a nice way to tell someone their dog is outright aggressive?
A. You can’t tell anybody else not to come to the dog park. Steer your dog away if you see people or dogs unfavorable to Coco Chanel.
Sure, you have as much a right to be there as anybody else, but you should choose times to be at the dog park when Coco can socialize freely.
Q. I always read your column, and I have learned a lot from you and enjoy your sense of humor. I am responding to your column on cancer-sniffing dogs.
I know dogs must be trained to do this, but I have heard anecdotal accounts of untrained dogs being able to detect skin cancer and responding by repeatedly “worrying” at the lesion, sniffing and licking it.
I have personally witnessed this. We had a black Labrador retriever mix we rescued that just would not leave my husband’s right outer ear alone. He would sniff and lick at it all the time until it drove Steve crazy.
I had just seen a TV show about the “sniffer woofs.” I took a look at his ear and there was a lesion there. I made an appointment with a dermatologist the next day. It turned out he had a basal cell carcinoma.
After extensive surgery, it was completely excised and Wiley never bothered with that ear again.
A. Dogs are amazing animals. Readers can take their own lessons from this story.
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