Maggie the dog

I have a weird dog.

She's a great dog, most of the time but she has these weird quirks that I really can't explain.

Some of them are really cute. Like the way she likes to chase her tail when she gets excited. Or the way she goes crazy whenever the Happy Birthday song is sung (one of theses days, we need to videotape that one.)

But there are other things she does that are not so cute. If left unsupervised in the back yard for too long, she might just chew through an air conditioner hose or a very expensive, borrowed volleyball net pole. Some of these things can be very costly. As she gets older, these events are getting less frequent but other unsavory behaviors are starting to emerge.

Maggie has always been a very social dog. She loves people and, up until recently, most other dogs. We made almost daily trips to the dog park in our area and she (and I) met a lot of really nice dogs and their people. It was great for me because I am a people person and I love dogs so I got to combine both. However, over the last few months, I've noticed some aggression towards certain other dogs. So I had to watch her closely when we would go to the park to make sure she was on her best behavior. But lately, it's not just some dogs, it's pretty much all dogs. She gets all excited when we go to the park but as soon as a dog comes up to her, she snarls and snaps. And it's not just a cute little playful snarl, it's a "get the he** away from me before I take your head off" snarl. Of course this kind of freaks the other owners out (can you blame them?) and I become a "why does she bring that kind of dog to a dog park?" person.

I don't understand why she does this. But I've pretty much resigned myself to the fact that our dog park days are over. This really bums me out because I enjoyed going there and she was able to to get some much needed exercise as well as socialization.

I anyone has a suggestion for handling this, I'd love to hear it. Unfortunately, hiring some pricey "dog whisperer" isn't an option for us so unless I can figure out what to do, we will have to not go to the park anymore.