Need for acceptance at the Dog Park

We take Tucker to the dog park a lot more frequently now that he has had his testicles chopped off.

The dog park is an amazing place. The dogs all have interesting personalities and play together in groups akin to a high school cafeteria.

Last week, I took Tucker there on one of the days that muh honey was on a business trip. It was an amazing night -- about 70 degrees without any humidity. There was a slight breeze and the sun was setting in the distance.

When we arrived, there was only one other dog there -- Rusty -- one of the park's regular dogs and a favorite of Tucker. They like to play tug of war or just wrestle with each other.

Tucker is an extremely friendly dog. It doesn't matter if the other dogs are big or small or mean or nice, he runs up to them and sniffs and licks and plays with them. Other dogs aren't as friendly.

The dog park has an interesting dynamic. As a regular-ish now, I am able to see how the dogs interact with each other and with new dogs. There are some patterns of behavior -- For example, a particular border collie focusses on the exact same dog each time and "herds" her. The poor "herded" dog can't really run anywhere as the border collie keeps it in one place all the time.

In the beginning, the dogs weren't as friendly with Tucker as we would have liked. They basically ignored him. They would run off leaving him behind to try and make a friend with another dog. It was sad watching him run from dog to dog looking for someone to play with and constantly being rejected.

In the grand scheme of things, this was the better route as the regular dogs will initiate new dogs in one of two ways -- ignoring them or surrounding and barking at them loudly until the new dog cowers in fear.

Tucker worked his way through that and is now a member of the pack. He runs with them and the regular dogs roll around and play with him directly now. It made muh wife and I very happy as we really wanted him to be liked. We are excited that he is now.

He is so well liked that in one instance a new dog entered the park and chose Tucker to pick on. Four of the dogs led by a collie immediately jumped in between the new dog and Tucker and drove the new dog away. They continued to do so whenever the new dog would even think of getting close to Tucker.

Acceptance was so important to us. We aren't sure why... but we are glad that our nutless Tucker has friends...and a lot of them.