Kind of sad that I think my walks with all four dogs at once have to come to an end. :-( Unless I start getting up at the crack of dawn so that I know for sure nobody else will be at my park/field. Or just scope out whether my field is empty or not first, or just put a leash on him when I see another dog... I don't know.
Ripley's becoming increasingly not trustworthy with other dogs as of late. Mostly males, but some females too. And he won't instigate a fight, but if he hears any growling or anything he wants in on it and has attempted to 'attack' two dogs now. I knew this was a possibility with his breed, but I always hoped it would never happen. We don't go to real dog parks, but the field I do walk in does have a few other people and dogs in it, and the one and only dog we ran into on Friday he was not nice to. Granted, the other dog snarked at my girls first because it apparently didn't like being greeted (even politely) by multiple dogs, but Ripley came flying across the field from where he was and tried to aggressively grab the dog. He used to avoid confrontation at all costs... not anymore. I guess I should be happy that he didn't actually do any damage and I was able to call him off and put his leash on him, but still, not a reaction I ever really expected of him (based on personality and not breed) and I'm a little heartbroken that it's come to this. But I just feel like it's asking for trouble to continue to take him, and I don't want to be the moron at the park who takes a dog there known to not always be friendly with other dogs. He's still dog friendly most of the time, but there have been a couple of moments now that have concerned me.
And I don't know how to exercise him now, which makes me even sadder. I don't want his life to deteriorate, and he's still a young, active dog. If he was old and didn't care whether or not he got to run, I wouldn't care, but he loves to just run and frolic. And there isn't really anywhere to do that around here that allows dogs. So I'll have to do some searching and come up with a solution.
It's just so much easier too just to take everyone together after work. I only have two hours between the time I get home and bed time, so it'll be a bit challenging.
Also, I want to move out with my girls as soon as I can and I don't want to make my mom feel inept, but I do worry about her ability to have a mildly DA/SSA dog with mild leash reactivity to boot. She's not a bad dog owner, but she's not as good with body language as I am. I probably shouldn't worry and just let her live with him her way, but I can't help it. Ugh.