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fear and defense.

mstreet
 

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For any one that knows me, they know that I have a large German Shepherd female dog, that I take out for a long walks early in the morning. We got her when she was six years old, and were assured that she was a gentle dog.
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The first day we had her, I took her over to an off leash park, and she got into three separate fights with other female dogs. I tried taking her back to the farm where we had bought her, but they would not take her back. From my understanding she had been used as a breeding dog, and in her last litter, she had eleven pups. And then they had her spayed.
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So we kept the dog, and have had many forgiveness lessons with her. First of all she was not used to the city, and she seemed to think that she was invincible when it came to cars. She had absolutely no fear of them, and would run in front of a moving bus or car, so I tried to keep her safe by taking her, to an out of the way natural park. Which I came to like as well.
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The road to this place, however was a well traveled road, with cars often speeding along almost bumper to bumper. However I quickly ushered her into the wooded paths and away from all traffic. The only thing I did not seem to having control over however, were coyotes or squirrels, and my dogs instinctive nature to chase them.
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This happened one day, as my dog, actually chased a coyote back to the main road, and across, in the midst of rush hour traffic. She got safely across, and then just as quickly came running back. And I watched in horror as I saw her bouncing off of a car. Actually it kind of stopped all traffic, but to everyone's amazement, she got up and came running back over to me.
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The driver of the car, drove back into the park where I was, and quickly began comforting me, as I was crying by now, and also checking to make sure my dog was all right. When I assured him that we were fine and then I apologized to him, he then said: "I am just wondering about my car though?" And then I noticed the whole side of his car was dented in. And he added, that he was not insured for being hit by animals. I was so relieved that my dog was still alive, and I gave him my drivers license and phone numbers, and assured him it would all be taken care of, while again, apologizing to him.
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A few days later I was contacted by his insurance company, and told the damage was over two thousand dollars, and that kind of blew me away. And then they said, perhaps my homer insurance would pay it, but it was not their responsibility. I gave him my home owners insurance number, little expecting them to pay for a dog, that was not any where near its home when it happened. But surprisingly they paid for it. And our insurance rates did not even go up.
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Lately, in our morning walks, I have noticed two huge Rotweillers (s?) with their owner, walking in the park, and I have tried to stay clear of them, as I thought I heard the man call the biggest one, by a female name. And knowing of my dogs history with other female dogs, did not want to have to deal with any dog fights.?
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Yesterday morning however we bumped right into them, without any forewarning. Immediately I began shooing away this one dog, who I thought was a female, and looked to be about a hundred and fifty pounds, and then its companion quickly came to its defense. And then all the dogs were baring their teeth at one another. And me, trying to control the whole situation. (lol) I can laugh now in retrospect. The other owner called his dogs off, and then it was all over.?
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This morning as I walked the paths, I was wondering what I should do, if I happened to meet up with them again? Then it suddenly dawned on me, that these dogs had never attacked before. But it seemed as though they had all sensed my fear, and they immediately became defensive and non trusting.
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So I decided to give a little bit of trust. Realizing that I don't really have control over this situation, and my fear, did not help at all. In fact, it only made matters worse.
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It almost seemed as though I knew we would meet them again, and sure enough we did. This time however, I just allowed the dogs to meet and sniff one another. And the owner told me then, that biggest dog was actually a male, and they were both friendly. And their was no baring of teeth. They got along just fine. I even laughingly admitted to the man, that my fear, seemed to be the biggest problem. He too, joined in the friendly laughter, and then, we both watched as our dogs got along as friendly as could be.
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I don't know what anything means, but this seemed like another lesson for me. To not think that I need to control things.
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Peace Martha :-)
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