At 14 Months

He is slowly maturing. What does this mean exactly? He sees a chihuahua on a trail and stops to sniff him. When I call him, he leaves the tiny dog and follows. A woman on a wheelchair asks us to stop during a walk. She wants to pet him. I start to explain he is afraid of wheelchairs, but before I finish the sentence, he proves me wrong. He licks the woman's hand, basking in the attention. Nana, a brindle-colored pitbull and her friends, two labrador mixes, are playing at the beach. I know he wants Nana's ball, but does not even approach her. Instead, he hangs around until one of the labs gets the ball, then chases the lab.

And the best one of all: He does not need the prong collar anymore. He does not pull when he walks. He pulls when he sees a critter, and then he pulls with the same force whether he has the prong collar or a leather collar

Attack

[A schnauzer is] never one to start a fight but always one to finish it. Barbara Dille 

There are dog breeds that don't get along well with Kafka. Dalmatians, greyhounds and pit bulls. Larger dogs intimidate with size. These breeds intimidate with actions. Dalmatians and greyhounds issue warnings like any other breed, they just seem harsher. Some pit bulls don't. They go from zero to sixty in seconds.

In his 14 months, Kafka has been bitten three times, and always by under-socialized pit bulls. The first time we were at the dog park and an off-leash pit bull did not like how five-month old Kafka approached him. Instead of getting a warning, Kafka got bitten but was able to retreat unharmed. C'est la vie, I said. That's how puppies learn to respect elders. The next time, the dog was on a leash in a regional park, but he lunged as Kafka passed him on a trail. This time it was much scarier because it was so fast and because the owner has to wrestle his dog off Kafka. I didn't see Kafka defend himself.

This last time it was again at the dog park. Kafka had plopped himself on the ground and I had sat next to him. I was asking him if he was tired when we saw a pit bull catch a ball and, instead of turning around to return to his owner, circle us with the ball still on his mouth. Kafka, who was on a leash with a prong collar, growled at him. The dog lunged and Kafka lunged. They made contact and I realized I had to let go of the leash so that Kafka could defend himself. I was crying, screaming for help. I visualized which vet would I drive to and whether I could carry his sixty pounds by myself. I became aware of onlookers on the main road. The owner came running but it was almost impossible to separate them, as his dog had latched on to Kafka's neck. He had to pry his dog's jaws open and almost sit on him. 

Kafka was fine if a bit nervous. I believe his size and the fact that he was not afraid helped him this time around, because he would have been chased and attacked regardless of his reaction. As we got up to leave, he tried to lunge at the pit bull again, but by then the owner was securing his harness (it was a snap-on!) and mentioning that he would be on leash from now on. I checked him and the place where the dog had latched was pink and swollen but not punctured, so I felt immensely better. I washed it with soap and water once we got home, and Kafka just laid down and went immediately to sleep.