Was out walking the dogs this morning when I ran into one of our neighbors. Well, not literally. He was standing on his front porch, while his dogs were in the front yard.
Let’s step back in time a few years. I was walking Major Tom at the time. He had a run in with my neighbor’s dog. Major always thinks he’s Alpha Male no matter where he goes. Well, my neighbor had a Golden Retriever who was not quite twice the size of Major Tom. I had Major on a leash while my neighbor’s dog was running free. Cooper, the dog, came over to say hello and Major decide to go all Alpha on him. Major started snarling and snapping at Cooper, who was being his friendly Golden self. Cooper wasn’t going to tolerate that so he snapped back. I was going to try to pick up Major before things could escalate (not the wisest of moves to get between two dogs involved in a fight) but Major was trying to get away and wrapped the leash around my legs. With no place to go the two snapped at each other. While my neighbor came over to get his dog, Major slipped out of his collar and ran to our house, squealing like a little girl.
So, coming back to this morning – my neighbor has a new Goldendoodle, also named Cooper. It turns out the first Cooper passed away. His other dog, a schnauzer, came barking at Major but I put myself between the two of them. The schnauzer barks a lot but doesn’t (usually) bite. Cooper sat about eight feet away, just barking. Major remembered the last time he tussled with the neighbor’s dogs and stayed behind me.
My neighbor got his schnauzer to retreat to the house. Cooper just stood there, barking. I couldn’t get him to come to me. If Major Tom hadn’t been there I might have been able to make friends with Cooper. My neighbor called Cooper inside as well. We finished our walk, and I got the other two dogs out. Neither of the other dogs had to deal with the neighbor’s dogs but they both spent time sniffing the yard where the altercation had been. Guess they wanted to verify whatever story Major Tom was telling them.
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