Sunday, May 30, 2010

Dog Run

Dog Run.

And boy that dog could run.

The lack of fenced in yards in Japan has led to a clever thing called a dog run. It's like an enclosed park but only for dogs. They've got water troughs, baskets full of balls and Frisbees, hurdles and tunnels, and what really made me giggle--dozens of curious spray bottles filled with charcoal water sitting around everywhere. These are to be used after your doggy does his business. Dog pee=master run for spray bottle. I'm easily entertained.

So today we took Cha. J warned me but I didn't listen. I had faith in my pup. I believed he wouldn't embarrass me. I believed.

Meet, Hana.




She's the vixen that has stolen Cha's heart. Stolen it and stomped all over it. But let's back up.

We arrived at the dog run curiously named JOIN at about 10 am and already there were 6 dogs: Hana (the little French bulldog/sex pot, above), a white German shepherd, an Italian greyhound and three shi tzus. Read things, signed things, decided against joining JOIN (50 bucks plus 30 dollar's worth of tickets for visiting, not to mention the pushy name) and I figured we do the daily trial (15 bucks). And good thing too.

This is how it started. Happy dogs all running around and sniffing each others' behinds. Happy, happy, happy dogs. Sniff, sniff, sniff. We're all friends here, right? And then Cha gets a whiff of Hana. His eyes glazed over and he goes all wonky.

Chase, chase, chase. Run, run, run. Sniff, sniff, sniff.




At first it was all cool. But cupid is a cruel, cruel, master.




Run, run, run, sniff, sniff, sniff.


And, Oh My Gawd, is trying to mount her?!

A mere five minutes into our visit and we had to separate Cha from Hana. We put him into the next fenced in lot. Then Ol Horndog starts running up and down the fence and howling. He's never howled in his life. Love sick. Hana just prances around all Come Hither and stuff. Man, we gotta get out of here.

Yeah, she might have been in heat (which in Japanese they call in "season", I learned). But still. So uncool. So, so uncool. I apologized and bowed and gave Hana generous ear scratches and we bolted after about fifteen minutes.

Home life wasn't much better because for two days he cried and whined and kept trying to open the car door telling us he's got a hot date and needs a ride. The keys are now kept on top of the refrigerator.

Lesson learned.

Here's a photo of Cha all hepped up on French bulldog-butt pheromones.


Yep.

12 comments:

Pat said...

So were Hana's humans wanting puppies? Otherwise, why take her to the playground when she's in heat??

Frank Baron said...

Terrie, my friend, much as I hate to say it - you have to neuter Cha. Not you, personally, no. A vet. Best if a vet does it.

Then he won't fall prey to every Hana, Jane and Fidette who presents their inflamed nether regions for his inspection.

Trust me, I understand the pain of even considering de-testiclizing a living being, let alone Man's Best Friend. But long term, it's in his own best interests.

Plus, he'll obey 1% more often. At least. :)

Virginia Lee said...

I'm with Frank. You must have Cha neutered. I'm frankly amazed he hasn't been already.

Also, what Pat said is also on point. Why bring a dog "in season" to a dog park if you don't want her mounted? Sheesh. That's a hello-duh if I've ever seen one.

I'm sorry you were embarrassed, but the Frenchie's owners were actually more at fault than you. Male dogs are always horny upon smelling a female in estrus. If those people were aware at all, they shouldn't have brought her to the park. That's just stupid.

Give Cha an ear rub or three for me, please. Poor horny dawgfriend.

Kappa no He said...

Pat, they would be cute though, half bulldog and half beagle. Did I say cute? I mean...pretty darned ugly.

Frank, Virginia, yeah, we did the cats right away but the vet was (for some reason) hesitant about Cha Cha. I'm not sure why we weren't more insistent either. Back home we always got our dogs from the pound and they were all fixed up. I'm not sure I've ever *seen* a testicle laden dog before Cha. Methinks we're going to have to do some clip clip.

Hilary said...

That last photo is hysterical. But yes, neutering would be the way to go for Cha. But if he's anything like Benny, he'll still try to mount.. things and air hump when he sees a canine of interest.

Anonymous said...

Poor, poor, Cha! He is traumatized and may never get over it. This same think happens to male humans.

Sympathetic in Arkansas

Kappa no He said...

Hilary, ah~ birds of a feather...dogs of a bone...

U.J. It was a sad, sad sight. Although he does have a favorite blankie he rolls up and, um, gets affectionate with.

Joe said...

That brazen hussy!

But anyway, like they said above, and like I said on Tuesday, get 'em chopped off! My wife knows how to do it...

Kappa no He said...

Joe, oh, no~, not the "C" word. I threatened him with a pair of scissors yesterday. BTW, do you know how much it cost to do it here?

Anonymous said...

Here's a long dog park story for you. We took Yak (a boxer/whippet) and Jupiter (a lightweight Akita @ 85lbs) to a dog park to let them run. They were always pretty good, but this day was bad. A 20ish-year old woman had a nice looking boxer/pit bull mix that was a little aggressive, but not much out of normal for dogs. Yak is fairly small, about 40 pounds, and fast, but timid. This other dog was chasing Yak, and Yak submitted, going belly up. That's not a problem - dogs have a set of rules that prevent problems. Momo and I were standing about 20 yards away with Jupiter in the shade. Jupiter overheats easily. The woman's dog started harrassing Yak even though Yak had submitted, so Yak ran to us for protection. That brindle boxer/pit bull ran right up to us to get at Yak and Jupiter stopped him. The woman's dog came in among us and went at Yak and Jupiter went at him. Jupiter was kicking ass while I was holding her back, and the woman runs up to the dog fight, with ME elbows in the middle, and screams,"Someone help us get these dogs apart!" I eventually got her dog by the scruff, got Momo to hold Jupiter, and threw her dog at her. She hadn't been able to control her own dog, and Momo wasn't almost able to control me when the chick started whining about how her dog was cut up and then had the audacity to ask me if my dog had its rabies shots. The bitch couldn't even control her own dog and was trying to deflect blame to me. In any case, our dogs were pretty excited by now, so we went home.
Two hours later a cop comes by to ask us about the dog fight. She had sicced the cops on us because she couldn't handle her own dog. The cop looked at our rabies certificates and took a couple of licks from Jupiter and told us that every vet has to report dog bites, thanks to Michael Vick, and that in interviewing the young woman, he had thought that she really didn't have a good grasp at the difference between a stuffed animal and her dog, and she had gotten that kind of dog because she had heard that they were good at defending single women, which is probably true. He told me how difficult it was to convince her that when people take their dogs to a dog park, there's always a chance that some dogs won't get along, and that she had to be able to control her own dog. In any case, Jupiter (and us) are now on file with the police department.
That doesn't sound like much, but we are now unable to get a homeowner's umbrella liability insurance policy from our regular company because of breed discrimination. Akitas are killers, I guess, so we have to get our umbrella liability policy from a different company for a much higher rate.

And you were bummed out just because your dog wanted to hump another.

Momo is coming to Japan sometime in July, but I don't know if she'll have much free time. She's scouting schools for short-term intensive programs.

Later,
imomomo

Kappa no He said...

Oh, man, B, what an awful story. But I loved how Jupiter came to the defense of Yak, f$%&in sweet. I agree about dogs and owners. *sigh* Wish I could give little Yak and Jupiter some ear scratches now. I just love their pictures.

Gina said...

Honestly this is the funniest post I've read in a long time! I love the way you write. ; )

And poor Cha! He was just overcome, overwhelmed. he could not help himself. ; )

I agree with the other commenters though, perhaps it's time for the ol' snip snip? ; ) When we had our 2 dogs (Dalmations), in Denver. Years and years ago. We didn't want any pups. So, we had the girl spayed and the boy neutered. Their personalities didn't change. Perhaps a bit more relaxed at most. ; )

I love Cha's carefree spirit though. He's such a cool dog!