Very interesting walk today. It seems that every dog we met were labs. The first one was a Chocolate lab as friendly and as rambunctious as Sparky. Owner said he never really got to calm him down with other people, but he was never aggressive. Just jumpy. Then we decided to walk to the park. As we get there I see someone with a dog off leash, and I'm like oh no I'll have to go fend off a dog. The owner sees me and recalls her dog and leashes her. She calls out to me and asked me if my dog is friendly and I said of course he's friendly... too friendly. So I bring Sparky over and turns out its a smaller female black lab, named Bailey. She asked me if I was comfortable letting my dog off leash and let them play. I said not yet, so I made my line longer (its a convertible 10 ft lead), and let them chase each other around. Finally I figured he's too occupied with this dog to run away, so I let him off lead. Boy did they have fun. I didn't want to push my recall while they were playing, but when I saw he was finally getting tired, I said Come, and Sparky came! Turns out Bailey is a therapy dog, and she gets alot of flack from patients because shes black. The combination of her color and her larger size relative to other therapy dogs invoke these patients to cry and scream in fear of the dog. But she is perfectly calm and friendly with people and other dogs. Owner said hopefully not too many people complain about that and get her dog kicked out of the program. On our second walk on the way home, we bump into another larger black labrador. Big big lab, gotta be 100 lbs. She is blind and deaf and is 14 years old. She is also a therapy dog. Sparky had some good ninja sniffs. Didn't want Sparky jumping on her too much since she couldn't see him and didn't want her biting out of fear. I guess my neighborhood is more than just full of shih tzus.
Yes it is sad, all the labradors we have met have turned out to be pleasant wonderful dogs. They have all been black or chocolates too. We are still yet to meet any yellows, but I know they are around town.
We have two chocolates in our neighbourhood and I think they are hunting dogs and not well socialized. They snarl and pull and bark to come towards us. The owner always crosses the street and says 'oh they just want to play" I'm tempted to ask if they can just meet but they seem pretty eager to get far away from us so I just leave it alone
Yep - and imagine what happens when you have a dog that is black and tan. My first Rottie passed his therapy dog training but was not allowed in our local program because the powers that be felt people would be afraid of him despite his teddy bear temperament. And of course while most people were very nice with Brogan, we did have pretty much daily challenges due to what was essentially public phobia of a colour combo. I used to joke about spray-painting him all black. But very cool that Sparky is getting to meet such great local dogs and lovely to hear your encounter with a 14 year old. I have such a soft spot for the older pups. It's very nice of you to understand not to let him jump on her. Oldsters can be easily knocked over by the young mavericks!
There was something about her that was very mysterious. Her eyes were shrouded in white like human cataracts. She reminded me of old shamans or old wise mens from movies etc.
As much as the chocolates/black labs have it bad. I can imagine it much worse for pit or bully type owners. I would cross the street if I see a menacing looking pit/bully coming my way. However, if I see a lab I would bring my puppy over. The one owner said that people just see the size of the dog and become fearful regardless really of its color. I, knowing a little about how friendly (maybe too much) labs are, won't hesitate to meet other labs. But yes, people need to be mindful of their dog and other dogs. If they cross the street when they see me coming, its for a reason and I would rather leave that alone.
