My Enlightenment

I had someone open my eyes today regarding my dogs and the dog park. I was volunteering at the Doggie and Kitty Carnival (an adoption event) and I had a chance to speak to the trainer who helps Second Chance for Homeless Pets. I told her about Kitna and how he was dominant aggressive and she asked me a few questions.

"Who makes the first move?" . . . "Kitna"

"What is he like at home?" . . . "Scared of just about everything."

She helped me understand that what I was seeing wasn't dominance aggression, but fear aggression. She said that dogs that are dominance aggressive won't need to take action against other dogs because they exude their dominance to where all other dogs can see it and other dogs will submit to it. Since Kitna was making the first move and would snap at dogs that try to stare him down, it was fear aggression. He decided to do something first before the other dog had a chance to.

I also found out something interesting about the event that I described in my last blog post, the one where the smaller dog bared her teeth at Kitna and he rolled her, and that information has made me see that I really do need to retract my statement about Kitna being good with other dogs. And honestly, if I had thought logically about it, I would have seen it because it doesn't make sense the way I described it. When the smaller dog bared her teeth at Kitna, it wasn't a challenge, it was a gesture that said, "Get away. I don't like you being so close." But Kitna saw that the smaller dog was uncomfortable and he took advantage and rolled her.

Kitna was being a bully.

So now I have to figure out what to do. I want my dogs to be well adjusted and I want them to be happy. I want Kitna to be more confident because he is a big 'ol chicken and I realize now that if we continue to bring him to the dog park, it is only a matter of time before he draws blood. (I also need to apologize to Connie at Healing Hearts. She was right to be concerned that Kitna may bite her and I'm sorry I didn't see it sooner.)

I am looking into possibly attending a public playgroup on Saturday's that is supervised by trainers, but I need to find out more about their methods before I decide to do it.

Now I just have to figure out how to explain this to my husband because he thinks Kitna does awesome at the dog park and he is not very good at believing me when I tell him something that conflicts with what he thinks.