The Ignorance of Youth

Dog Park: Day Two

Yesterday, after a very disheartening hour at Washington park, I posted that I am strongly considering placing Tucker in a working dog program because I am not sure he is suitable for a family environment, and I asked for comments and advice.

Though he has never bitten a person intentionally, Tucker has reached a point where I am very uncomfortable when an unfamiliar person or dog approaches him. He snarls and snaps at almost every dog who gets too close to him now, unless he is distracted by a toy or I tell him no and have my hands physically on him.

I have stopped trying to pretend that he is just loud and awkward and wants to play. And the more I watch him, the more I wonder if he was bullied by his litter mates as a very young puppy or didn't get enough milk. He was the smaller of two males left in a very large litter of 4 males and 8 females - he was the same size as the females. 12 puppies?! No dog has that many nipples. His mother is not a mutant.

The thing is, I don't give up easily. Not on dogs, not on people I love, not on anything I think deserves a chance. I need to exhaust every possible option before I can let go of anything. I beat proverbial dead horses with all the hopeless romantics in the world, and I'm trying to temper that tendency with a measure of realism. But I can't just give up on him. Not now.

After thinking about this issue for a long time last night and this morning, I made a decision to invest every shred of knowledge I have about dogs and psychology into working on Tucker's problems. We're going to play together at the park, with corrections for weird reactions to other dogs (Cesar style), for an hour every day. I am a little nervous about taking him to the dog park, but this can't be dealt with at home. Luke is mostly too docile to be helpful, but Tucker defers to him anyway. They have never really fought. And aside from that... I can't think of any other options.

Today was much better than yesterday, and Tucker allowed another German Shepherd sniff him while I held his collar, but I think the best I will ever be able to do is to teach him to ignore other dogs completely when they try to play with him or dominate him. Since he is almost totally avoidant of new dogs anyway, and eager to please me, I don't imagine it will be too hard to shape the behavior, but it makes me very sad. I wanted him to play with Solomon yesterday. I want him to play with any other dog without it being scary and/or dangerous for everyone involved. If things don't get better soon, I may look into medication for him.

Doggie Xanax? Anyone?

At the Dog Park

Let's return, for a moment, to this image:

It is inaccurate to say that Tucker enjoys the thought of eating people. In public places, he is actually very receptive to human contact. However, he feels extremely threatened by other dogs and does not understand how to play with them properly. He also lashes out at other dogs without a warning growl when he finds them to be too intrusive. This has led to many scary moments, a few nasty gashes in the faces of other dogs who didn't back off, and a $400 trip to the emergency room when I tried to break up a fight between him and another dog.

Today I watched a black lab play bow to a Weimaraner just before the two began to wrestle. Tucker was lying down near where I sat and also watched this exchange. He started to get up, butt-first, as if he would bow. Then he screamed bloody murder, ran to my side, and dropped his frisbee at my feet. This is not an isolated occurrence. Watching other dogs play together actually seems to upset him, and he becomes visibly uncomfortable when another dog comes near him.

Maybe he has impaired mirror neuron function. I don't know. I definitely think he has autism.

There was another dog at the park today whose demeanor is very similar to Tucker's. His name is Solomon, and he was adopted from the Humane Society where I worked this summer. He was my favorite dog in the facility during his time there, and after I took a moment to say hello to him, I wanted very desperately for he and Tucker to play together at the park. But no. They ignored each other completely, and that was the best I could have hoped for.

I don't know how to help Tucker. I don't know if he can be helped. I am reluctant to take him to the dog park even more often in the hopes of socializing him - every time we go, people and dogs want to meet him because he is beautiful and has mad frisbee skills, and it makes me nervous. The days when I took a book to the dog park with me ended when Tucker stopped being tiny and afraid of everything and began to be gigantic and unpredictable.

I have been considering putting him in a program for working dogs all year - he is fiercely loyal, affectionate, hard-working, and intelligent. I've been thinking much harder about it since that ill-fated night when I ended up in the emergency room. If anyone has any thoughts on how I should proceed, please share them in the comments. I welcome any input on how to improve this situation. Ugh.

A Random Thought

What is it with Mountain Dew? I've heard radio commercials for the supposed new official flavor, pictured above, called "White Out," about seventy thousand times, but I have yet to see this product on sale in a store.

Where is this alabaster mystery beverage?

And why, even though it sounds scary, do I want it SO BADLY?

Our President, the Rock Star

This morning I was driving out of Chapel Hill when I noticed something strange. I turned onto Highway 54 and noticed a young woman jogging on the side of the road. She was tall, attractive, sort of trendy-looking, and appeared to be in her early to mid-twenties. And she was wearing this:

In fact, let's just pretend that it was this girl, except a little sweatier. Combined with the fact that a Google search for "Obama graphic tee" produces tons of images portraying actual t-shirts worn by actual people supporting our president, while searches for "Bush graphic tee" and "Clinton graphic tee" produce only Obama t-shirt images, the conclusion seems obvious.

Our president is a pop culture icon. Like the Beatles. And that makes me a little sad.