Dog Fight

After a full year of going to the dog park at a rate of once a week without any incident, I'm sad to say that he got into a fight yesterday. I'm not sure what kind of dog the other one was. It was larger, stocky, and more muscular. Maybe a boxer or a pitbull. No one was seriously hurt.

I didn't want that incident to discourage us from going back to the dog park, so I took him there again today. Big mistake! As soon as Loki entered, he was nervous about every single dog that sniffed him. And not five minutes passed before Loki started a big fight. It wasn't even with one dog in particular. He was just snapping at every dog around him; it didn't matter what dog it was. After making sure that no one was hurt, we promptly left.

I'm not sure if I handled it entirely correctly. I just leashed him and left. Yun thinks that I should have kept him on leash, but remained in the dog park. Or maybe I should have alpha rolled him there. I'm not sure what would have been the best way to handle it -- I never had to deal with it before. I was shocked, frustrated, and also saddened.

I felt like we spent so much time trying to properly socialize him so that he wouldn't be dog aggressive. Always going to the dog park every weekend. And now, what a setback! Sigh.

Smush

When Loki sleeps he loves to smush his head against something.

Here he is lying outside of his exercise pen, smushing his head into it.

Smooooosh into the blanket.

Other times he'll smush his head into us, into corners of the room, into the coffee table, or into the couch. Maybe it makes him feel more protected.

Sticking his tongue out

One evening Loki decided to just stick his tongue out. I don't know why.

What a cute little pink tongue!

Rollerblading

I wasn't sure how Loki would react to rollerblades. I was afraid it would freak him out & he would start barking at them. But luckily, he didn't. The blades didn't seem to phase him one bit.
Despite the misleading picture, he didn't really pull me too much. Mostly, he hung around on my side. He had lots of fun and seriously surprised me by how well-behaved he was. Great exercise for him without making me exert too much energy. I highly recommend it.

Ventura

On Saturday my family and I went for lunch in Ventura, CA. Since Loki was with us, we needed to find a restaurant with outdoor dining and allowed dogs. We went to Tutti's Off Main. I've been there before for dinner and their food is excellent. This time I was very surprised that the server even brought Loki water. I've never encountered such pet friendly service at a restaurant before. How cute is that water bowl!

After lunch we took a stroll on the beach. Loki was very excited. He loves running towards and away from the ocean water as it drifts in and out.
Yesterday, we went hiking in Arroyo Verde Park in Ventura.

Lazy dog. Lying down in the middle of the hike.

We couldn't find a doggie water fountain & I forgot to bring a bowl. So I put him up on a human water fountain. So cute!

Dogs in Taiwan

I suspect that most dogs in the world live like those in Taiwan rather than those in the US - unleashed. We saw many sickly dogs, dogs with apparent skin problems, dogs with stitches, and injured dogs. A leash was a rare sight indeed.

While we did see many dogs that seemed to be uncared for, we also did come across dogs that were well-loved. During our visit, one of our accommodation sites was Leader Village Taroko. They had two dogs.



Among the two, this one was particularly friendly:


Here are their dog houses:




The hotel was located in the mountains, so there wasn't too much of a risk in roaming freely.