Lanty Hanlon, our Irish terrier, was in a state of ecstasy when he met a puppy just like Paulie yesterday, on his first day out after his injections took effect. It is a slightly tricky time with black labs, since last week Lanty was attacked, on the lead and a yard inside the park gate, by an idiot woman's large one, double his weight. She was very good with us, offering her address in case of unseen injuries. But he was a recent rescue dog she didn't know how to rescue. She used a rope choker, which is fine, but as a result the dog had no collar I could have grabbed, and he heard never a hard word from her.
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Not that it bothered Lanty, who was recognised as the laid-back one of the litter, seldom the boldest but always the last to quit, when he got out tippex mark on his stomach as a three-week-old brown slug. He just wriggled free and explained in earsplitting fashion that he wasn't going to retreat, and wasn't going to bite unless he had to. He is the only dog we've owned who can inflict pain if he accidentally commits a negligent discharge close to the eardrum He prefers persuading everything from great danes to chihuahuas the size of his head to play with him. I've seen him do it with pit bulls that had a reputation locally. But I'm afraid he thought that lab made his day.
The trouble is that although unchanged with everybody else, he has chased and growled at a couple of totally inoffensive black labradors since. It was nothing like the incident, being just the way he plays with noisy dogs. But those weren't. He should come right after meeting one or two more socially.