So, for Christmas last year my husband got me a membership at a canine
country club. Open field, fenced working areas, gun dog training,
agility, flyball, a pond with a gravel beach and a dock for diving,
sheep for herding.

After Scully's spinal stroke we opted to begin PT and rehab immediately.
Stretching on an exercise ball, massage, passive range of motion,
swimming.

So today my daughter and I took all three dogs out to the park. It was
way too hot to do much of anything but swim. My heart sank when I saw
the mob of dogs on the beach. I leashed up Zane and Cooper, who do not
suffer fools gladly, and headed over to the other side to let them swim
off the dock. Scully needed the gradual slope of the beach to swim
safely so that's where my daughter took her.

A huge chocolate lab, an intact male, came charging up and stepped into
Zane's path, then stood there, stiff legged. I took the slack out of
Zane's leash and tried to step around him, and he moved again to block us.

Meanwhile, the dog's owner is sitting in a lawnchair nearby, just
watching. "Call him off, please". "Oh he's fine, he just wants to say
hi". "Call your dog *right now*." At least he had a decent recall.

So we made our way to the dock without further incident. The couple
with the two labs packed up and left and at that point it became
apparent that the eight remaining dogs all belonged to a single woman.
A keeshond, a sheltie, 3 weims, 2 vizlas and 1 other hunting-type dog,
all careening around, completely ignoring the woman's efforts at
recalling them.

From the dock I could see that my daughter was trying to put some
distance between herself and the broad and her dogs but every time she
moved away, the woman trailed after her with her pack brawling and
bashing and tumbling along.

After several minutes my daughter and Scully joined me and the boys on
the dock. Said she'd explained to the gal that her dog had suffered a
spinal stroke and was there for physical therapy and that she could be
injured by rough play. Didn't seem to make any sort of an impression at
all.

Then half of her dogs came racing towards us. I threw Zane and Cooper's
balls and they launched themselves just before the others arrived on the
dock. One of the weims took exception to something one of the vizlas
did and they were snarling and snapping, forgot where they were and fell
off the end of the dock. They surfaced battling and eventually made
their way to solid ground to continue their dispute.

And then, I'll be goddamned if she didn't follow us over to the dock.
At that point we gave up, returned to our vehicle and loaded up the
dogs. She was apparently hell-bent on "socializing" but I had no
intention of subjecting my dogs to that pack of ill-mannered bumpkins.
That woman and her out-of-control canines are a disaster waiting to happen.