Every Monday evening I take my now 5 month old GSD puppy socialization class and I have since she was 8 weeks old. She has always loved the class and has a great time wrestling and playing with the other puppies.
So last night my GSD made friends with a pitbull and really wanted to play with a golden retriever. This is when I should've realized there was a problem. The owner of the golden kept following behind my dog when she would chase after him. Everytime my dog would start to pull and wrestle with the golden the owner would collar my dog and tell her to be nice. I had politely told the woman my dog wasn't hurting her puppy they're just playing. But the Golden's owner continued her behavior everytime my dog came near her puppy. Please know my dog was in no way hurting her puppy as I would've stepped in if that was the case.
My son and I were filling water dishes for the dogs when I looked over and this woman had a hold of my dog's collar again and her puppy was at her feet and she slapped my dog. I asked her nicely not to slap my dog and before I could reach my dog this woman slapped her a second time and I screamed at her for slapping my dog. I yelled at the trainer that this woman had just slapped my dog and I was leaving. I was shaking from the anger I felt of this woman putting her hands on my GSD girl.
I demanded the girls at the counter refund my money for the class and they did and apologized. One of them grabbed a supervisor and asked me to wait while they figured out what happened. When the supervisor came back she said the woman apologized and they advised her that they don't allow the abuse of animals. They actually told me I could go back to the class which I told them I wasn't subjecting my dog to that ever again. That could've potentially given her a bad socialization experience. I was shocked that the woman who slapped my dog wasn't asked to leave and it was us who left.
While dog parks and puppy romps sound great -- in reality, I trust no one else. I probably would have been the golden owner (without the slapping). I, as the golden owner, would have done the yelling at the GSD owner and the trainer for letting play be rough. Of course slapping was not a good thing, but here is just another example of puppy socialization class gone wrong.
They claim they would have someone call me today to discuss what happened. But I feel there isn't much to discuss that woman should be banned for the mistreatment of my dog. And someone should call the humane society as who knows what she does to her puppy. Was I wrong for losing my temper and screaming?? Should I even consider taking her back there??
