Took the dogs to the beach the other day.
As my mother used to say, dogs and children love the beach. There’s a stretch of beach at Waikanae that’s far enough away from bird life and thronging humans that dogs are allowed off their lead. And they love it. Goofy in particular runs around at high speed, leaping into the water, bouncing around on the dunes, and playing with any dogs that come her way. Unfortunately, her anxiety around people means that she’ll bark at strangers when she comes across them. In that case, she’ll always come back to me when I call her with a treat in my hand to give her for being such a good dog. Almost always, because on Sunday it was different. She ran up to a lady miles away up the beach and started barking, at which point the lady started yelling, jumping up and down, and waving her arms in the air. Of course, this was the most exciting thing Goofy had ever seen, so she kept barking, ignoring my calls for her to “come!” After a few minutes the lady came close enough for me to hear what she was shouting. Apparently she was bitten by a dog at the beach two weeks ago, and if I couldn’t control my dog then it should be on a lead. Well, I can’t really argue with that, but I must say, I wasn’t really surprised she’d been bitten. I’d have bitten her myself given half a chance. Eventually, Goofy tired of her game, came back to me, I put her on the lead and we departed, mortified.
The worst part is, I couldn’t go home and vent to my husband, because he’d be completely unsympathetic. And of course he’s right. The lady has every right to walk along the beach unmolested, even on the most heavily dog populated part of the beach.
I’ve signed for another round of dog obedience classes next month. Could Goofy finally become a Good Dog?
