You know that kind of dog I dreaded getting on my first day of dogwalking? Well, that's the kind of dog I got on my weekly Thursday duty at the SPCA. . 
His name is Pirate. He's supposedly a Pitt Bull Terrier cross. As soon as he came out of his kennel, he immediately relieved himself to the side, then crazily dashed here and there smelling everything and pulling at his leash. The pulling was interspersed with a lot of stopping abruptly so he could go to the bathroom again and again. He went so often i suspected it was more of a territorial marking thing, but I'm not 100% sure since he would cover his waste with dirt afterwards. Later on, I thought he might've had a problem because he kept stopping and going, but only little dribbles came out. (Good times).
His name is Pirate. He's supposedly a Pitt Bull Terrier cross. As soon as he came out of his kennel, he immediately relieved himself to the side, then crazily dashed here and there smelling everything and pulling at his leash. The pulling was interspersed with a lot of stopping abruptly so he could go to the bathroom again and again. He went so often i suspected it was more of a territorial marking thing, but I'm not 100% sure since he would cover his waste with dirt afterwards. Later on, I thought he might've had a problem because he kept stopping and going, but only little dribbles came out. (Good times).
The real trouble started about ten minutes into our walk. At the SPCA, they have you walk on this little trail that goes in one direction so the dogs don't meet face to face, in case they hate each other and fight. Well, as we were plodding along, there was another dog that was walking a little ways behind us. I guess Pirate caught it's scent or something because he suddenly stopped and turned around. Without warning, he started barking at the other dog, and THEN, he turned around and began jumping up on me while growling and barking and trying to bite at my hand! I panicked and dropped the leash, which is not a very good thing to do with shelter dogs as most likely, they will try to run away! And run away Pirate did, except he ran to the other dog and began to sniff him out. Luckily, the lady that was walking that dog managed to grab him as I dashed after him. There was no dog fight, although Pirate started getting really growly before they walked away.
It became apparent that Pirate liked to assert his dominance, as the whiff of another dog was enough to set off the barking/jumping up/biting response. I figured out that he wasn't actually trying to bite me each time, he was trying to bite at the leash. Even with the relief that my hand was not the target, each episode became more and more irritating. I felt like those mothers you see at the mall that either try to scold their shrieking toddlers or comfort them, yet each attempt only results in louder shrieking. I definitely wasn't trying to comfort the dog, but I could hear my sharp commands of "Down! Off! No!" becoming shriller and shriller each time. (This was probably exacerbated by the fact that I was grumpy due to "hormonal fluctuations.")
After these episodes, I found myself bitterly wishing for a fuzzy German Shepard to coddle. On the other hand, once Pirate was away from the other dogs he was actually quite nice. He had the softest, silkiest coat, and seemed to be happiest being petted and getting a lot of attention from people (which he did). I had him out for a long time, so towards the end he was a lot calmer, having got all that pent up energy out of him. Plus whenever you told him to stop, he usually did and would look up at you as if waiting for your next command (Except during the "episodes," grrr!).
After today, my desire to own a dog waned slightly...but then it popped up again. Yay for dogs!
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