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One of the best things I've ever seen was a Golden Retriever chasing seals off the rocks in Monterey. He'd swim out the 20 yards or so, bark the seals into retreat, and start swimming back to shore. By the time he got halfway back, the seals had popped their heads up out of the water, watching him leave, and they started back up on the rocks. Dog had to turn around and do it all over again. This went on for half an hour or so. It was awesome. I started to worry that the dog was getting fatigued, but he kept at it. He was dedicated, man.
bmarkey, i get where you're coming from, but it occurs to me that the otter is both a much faster swimmer, and more agile than the dog at any rate... meaning that at any point it got fed up with the proceedings, it would have just left. particularly the last few frames, the body language of the otter seems to indicate he/she was actively participating in the fun.
otters are very playful creatures. i bet that one could have run/swum rings around the dog, and probably did.
Yeah, I dunno. As a dog owner, and as someone who's spent a fair amount of time on the trail, it always sorta gets my hackles up when people let their dogs harass wildlife.
Obviously in this particular case everything turned out fine, and the pix are pretty cute. The potential was there for a much different outcome, though.
So many people forget that deep down inside, lovable ol' Spot is a predator. That instinct is there, and it will kick in at unpredictable times. As the owner of a small dog, I can't tell you how many times Lucy has been attacked by other, larger dogs, up to and including having her entire head inside the mouth of a lab. And every time something like that has happened, the response from the owner of the other dog, without fail, has been a variation on "Gee, he's never done anything like that before".
Also, that otter could just as easily taken a chunk out of the dog's nose.
I don't know where those pictures were taken. Here on the west coast of the US, sea otters are still on the endangered species list, I think. If not, they're not long off it. Either way, it's just this sort of behavior on the part of irresponsible dog owners that gets beaches and parks closed to all dogs.
So maybe I'm over-reacting, but it's difficult for me to see the upside of this set of pictures. The closest interaction any dog should be having with wildlife is the sort of thing that mudpuppie described. Letting Fido get as close as the dog depicted here is just asking for trouble. And it's fucking rude, too.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
