Today was a socialization day, two and a half hours at a heavily trafficed outdoor mall, followed by a couple of hours at the dog park where large quantities of dogs are free to mingle and socialize, though fighting is not tolerated.
The mall part went beautifully, with hundreds of shoppers performing the laying on of hands. T was tolerant of all, even the children that he normally feels need a little bit of disciplining, i.e. a quick nip to set them straight. He sat quietly at our feet while we ate, entered a couple of stores without sliming the merchandise and generally was a model citizen. We couldn't have been more proud! I even think that Robyn found it more stressful than Tovarish did.
At the park he was on good behaviour, coming when called, even from the other side of the park, and most remarkably, even away from the inviting mud puddle! We met a young couple with a Bichon Frise that was out for its first dog park trip. T walked right over and introduced himself, promptly scaring the little thing out of its skin! After a few more minutes they were friends and everything was cool.
T walked off to meet other four-footers and the little BF was promptly set upon by two other dogs. They began to chase little Spanky who took off running and screaming bloody murder. Tovarish whirled around and came running at a lovely pace and did a perfect cattle dog cut, issueing a not very veiled threat to the dog in third place who left without further ado. The dog in second place looked over its shoulder and saw T bearing down on him. He thought better of the whole idea and went looking for easier pickings.
While this is not the first time T has shown himself to be the champion of the downtrodden, it was certainly the fastest he'd ever made the decision that another dog warranted protection.
Shortly afterwards T took off at a dead run from where he had been playing with another dog. He was headed right for wolf hybrid that had just entered the park. The wolf looked at him and retraced her steps as fast as she could, eventually making herself into the smallest, most submissive dog in the world, pinned to the chain link at the entrance to the park. T sniffed her from head to toe, (not in that order), and then let her go, unharmed.
I know that chasing wolves off is his job, but he has never been this focussed before. He has met plenty of Mals and Huskys without a reaction anything like this. Could he really have known from a distance of more than a hundred feet that THIS dog was the enemy? He's never had a reaction like this to any dog. The hybrid was, according to its owner, 75% wolf, but to this wolf-lovers eye it could easily have been mistaken for full, if temperment were not factored in.
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Benjamin G. Levy, ben-levy@westworld.com
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