assholes at the dog park

[fflo]

I hate how a coupla jerkwad shitballs at the dog park sour the place/experience for me and fuck up my day while I absorb their privileged attitude of ownership toward the world.

I can just feel it's gonna be the better part of the hour before my blood pressure goes down. Moreso cuz I spoke up to them. Each. Separately.

To push back or not: neither choice is any good. And this choice is scarier.

Comments

[stormdog.livejournal.com]

The dog trainer who the shelter I volunteer with works with told us a great dog park story. He's a big guy; he used to be a bouncer at a bar. So when he saw an owner with two uncontrollable, poorly behaved dogs who was basically ignoring them, he thought he might have to intervene despite his worry about causing a confrontation. He started over, but a little old lady beat him there. She walked up to the owner and said "You need to get your asshole dogs the hell out of here."

The owner did. It's hard to be confrontational with a little old lady. The trainer thanked her for stepping in and she nodded and said "That was some bullshit."

[fflo.livejournal.com]

I do like that story. Doesn't feel like I can be that old lady, tho--- unassailable. Cuz I'm not the "little" part of little old lady. All the old and gray in the world doesn't seem to free one from the prerogative of many to assail, even tho I'm a pale person.

One of the dog park assholes Sunday was carrying a lacrosse stick. I have very negative associations with lacrosse playing assholes, but it was his barging royal attitude, to hell with the rest of us and our pooches, that had my blood boiling.

There's perhaps an art to handling injustices and assholes that I haven't gotten very good at yet. I suppose the fearlessness of the woman in your story would help. She had to do that knowing that the reaction might not have been so smooth and successful, and she didn't care. On the flip side of the coin, there's letting assholes be assholes.

Emboldened pushy men with a rapist's attitude toward others & the world--- they're so in our faces these days.