Yesterday Happy attacked another dog at work. The other dog had balls — actual balls. Happy does not. Happy loves to play with all the dogs at work. But apparently not this one. I’d never seen him do anything like that before. Sure, he sometimes plays rough since his sister Stella is twice his size and he has to stand his own ground at home, but never before yesterday had he full-on attacked another dog.
It was a strange scene. I was meeting Karen in the parking lot to buy my 6 boxes of Girl Scout cookies. Happy was with me on leash. The dog with balls — a small pit mix — came running over and Happy immediately went loco on him. Thinking it was because Happy was on leash, I took him off leash since there were a couple other dogs running around. Happy took off to do his own thing. The unneutered dog followed him and Happy attacked again. So I pulled him off again. The facilities guy happened to be right there and told me Happy couldn’t come to work since he was “clearly the aggressor.” After the guy left, the other dog parents were really supportive of me and told me not to worry about it. In fact, the dog-mom of the unneutered male suggested I put Happy down and let them try to work it out. I did. They didn’t. The dog-mom said that it was because her dog is unneutered. I agreed.
It was strange and stressful. But not a typical day at the dog-office for Happy. He’ll come to work with me again today. We’ll stick to our usual routine. And avoid the dog who apparently incites rage with other dogs around the office, too.
There is no doubt a beastspeak at work among dogs that we humans cannot hear or begin to understand. As John said at last night’s all-you-can-eat dinner at Goat Hill Pizza, “How can humans say which dog was the aggressor?” I think he’s absolutely right.
