Notes and rants

This is kind-of an unusual post for me, but I have a couple quick hits I’d like to post:

Note: I took Sensi to Addison Oaks County Park this weekend. They’ve got a 24-hole disc golf course and my husband and I are avid disc golfers. I skipped out on the golfing part, though, to bring Sensi along on a nice long walk. We walked with my husband and his friends as they made their way through the extra-long course. It was fantastic and a perfect fit for my aging dog because the pace was slow and we stopped often to wait on the golfers making their shots.
The park is absolutely gorgeous and Sensi just loved being out there. The 24-hole course takes you heavily wooded areas, lightly wooded areas, thick, swampy areas and a variety of mowed meadows and long-grassed fields.
Dogs must be kept on a leash at the park and I certainly had Sensi on one the whole time. Even so, it was an enjoyable experience as he got to climb on rocks, meander down trails and have some good rolls in the grass.

Rant: Walking into work today, I had a message from a Waterford Township woman who is being asked to relocate or euthanize her 11-year-old mixed breed dog because the township feels it is a pit bull (Waterford has a breed ban). There’s always two sides to every story and I admittedly just heard one side, but according to her, a person entered her yard with another dog and her elderly dog — which she says is not a pit bull — bit the trespassing dog.
Her dog has problems walking and is losing her vision. I’d like to point out here that as dogs age and lose the senses they rely so heavily on, and begin feeling the aches and pains of old age, they are more apt to be frightful and ornery in situations they haven’t been before. Not so different from people.
This drives home two other points — 1) Don’t trespass on other people’s property or approach dogs you don’t know without the owner’s permission, and 2) Even if you have a well-behaved dog who stays in your yard without a restraint, or even a physically disabled dog who literally does not have the type of movement that makes it capable to meander outside of your yard, there is still a reason to use restraints to keep your dog in your yard. Why? Because it's not just about keeping your dog in your yard, it's also about keeping other people and other peoples’ dogs out of your yard.

Lastly, a note to all pit bull owners and all owners of bully breeds in general: Be mindful that there are people out there who will seek to instigate your dog to hurt themselves or their pets in an effort to get a financial settlement. Everyone who owns a bully breed should think of themselves as a target for people who want to exploit them. The onus is on you to protect yourself and your dog.