The Sprayberries

Roland Got In A Dogfight!

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For those of you who may not have met our dog Roland, he is very large, very hairy, very sweet rescue dog. He's half Alaskan Malamute and half Great Pyrenees which results in a 110 lbs. of sweet disposition with a very strong stubborn streak.

Every Sunday morning we wake up at the ass-crack of dawn and haul ourselves over to the local Humane Society for "Sunday Funday." This is an opportunity for neutered dogs with all their shots and no history of aggression to race around in circles and sniff each others anus at top speed. Roland is not the most socially ept dog but he's not aggressive, he just doesn't know how to play and he loves running around with all the other idiot dogs.

So apparently what happened was this: A random pound mutt (~80 lbs) there for the first time loped up to Roland and took position right next to him and behind him, even with his shoulder. If done aggressively (hackles up, no wagging tail) its the doggy equivalent of a stranger standing right behind you with his hands up close to your neck. So Roland did what he does when another dog tries to hump him or growls at him, he growled and snapped at the air to show his displeasure. This was apparently enough for the other dog who promptly big Roland hard enough to draw blood on both sides of his muzzle.

Now I wasn't actually there when it happened but I've seen how my dog handles this sort of thing and the eyewitnesses all agreed. Roland let loose with a ferocious growling/snarl, picked the other dog up by his neck, slammed him down on the ground, stood over him, and held him pinned by his neck till my wife pulled him off the other dog. The other dog was crying, whining and wanted nothing to do with any other dogs after that, but he was unmarked.

Roland had a puncture on one side of his muzzle and a nasty scrape on the other. Interestingly, Walshy-man had a good point about why Roland probably didn't hurt the dog. As pack hunters, Malamutes have a very strict heirarchy determined sometimes by fighting. But when all is said and done and pecking order has been established if you've injured a pack member you're less likely to hunt effectively. Hence the "I owned you, but I didn't hurt you" tendency.

Or maybe he's just getting grumpy in his old age.