Out of the Blue

Yesterday, we had an unfortunate incident that was bound to happen.  If you have been following our adventures, you're probably well aware of the fact that we run/walk around our neighborhood a great deal.  You're probably also aware of the fact that we have had issues with other dogs in the neighborhood coming out to 'greet' us or even advance aggressively towards us.

We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but yesterday one of those random incidents turned into a very bad situation.  During our morning runs, we usually end up running up a 30-35 degree incline for the last quarter-mile.   At the end of one of these courses, two old beagle dogs live in a house on the very corner of the top of the hill.  Sometimes, the beagles are tied up on a railing in front of the house so they can 'do their business' while their owner tends to other things inside of the house.

Usually, when we pass the house with the beagles and they're outside, the dogs bark at us (and we bark back at them) as our owner pulls us past the house and towards the finish line.  Yesterday, the dogs were able to reach us as we passed and chaos ensued.  Both of us (Rocky and Desi) tusseled with the two beagles, which turned into an all-out dog fight.  Our owner, exhausted from the 5 mile run (we were literally less than 100 yards from our finishing point and were in a dead sprint when we met the beagles), was diligently struggling to separate us.  Even worse, the collars slipped off of two of the dogs (one of us and one of them), so our owner was having even more difficulty separating the two dog packs.  With nowhere to tie up either of the dogs that were leashed, the owner grabbed Rocky by the collar as he tried with one arm to pick Desi up and carry her away.  This did not work.  After about 90 seconds (it seemed like 90 minutes to our owner), a neighbor ran up and helped him.  The neighbor grabbed one dog while our owner secured Desi and put her collar back on.

At this point, the beagles' owner was outside.  After getting everyone separated, our owner checked with the beagle owner to see if her dogs were ok.  They were.  The owner then asked our owner if he was ok and if he needed the paramedics called.  He said no because besides physical exhaustion, the only damage to him were severly scraped knees and legs (from trying to separate the dogs on a sidewalk).  For the rest of the day, our owner was not happy with what had happened.  He did not yell at or punish us because we're just dogs and we were only reacting, but he was more upset with the fact that people continually leave their dogs outside with no supervision and then act surprised when incidents occur such as today (or when the little toy dog came running out after Rocky and our owner grabbed it and moved it, which caused a confrontation with the toy dog's owner).

Please, please, please make sure that if you own a dog, you always supervise the animal when it is not confined to your house where it cannot physically get outside to harm a human or another animal.  And if you know of anyone who does not supervise their dog while it's outside, please pass this message onto them.  Luckily, no dogs or people were hurt yesterday, but for a few seconds, it seemed like that was not going to be the case.  We don't want anyone ever having to break up a dog fight, let alone having to tend to a dog injured in a fight or even worse, killed in a dog fight.  Just use a little common sense and precaution with your canine friend and stuff like this will not just happen 'out of the blue.'