There might not be a more confident animal on the planet than a “yappy dog” that’s never been put in its place.
Simply put, small dogs don’t really know they are small dogs. They have the confidence of an animal five times their size, and almost always, it’s a “bark is worse than their bite” situation. As you’ll see in this footage below out of Estes Park, Colorado, this lap dog wasn’t intimated at all by a couple of fighting bull elk.
Even though it – and the dog’s owners – should have been.
It’s estimated that over 280,000 elk live in Colorado, which is enough to give the state the honor of housing the largest concentrated population of elk in the world. Believe it or not, that many elk bring in tourists from all over the planet, and one of the more popular places they visit is Estes Park, Colorado.
Elk are typically abundant in and around the Estes Park area.
The large, antlered animals might seem like the peaceful, grazing type, but they can turn it on in an instant if the situation calls for it. They’ll throw down – or rather, rattle antlers – at any place at any time. That’s certainly true during the elk rut, which typically extends from early/middle of September to the middle of October. If you happen to live in elk country, you know that it’s best to avoid elk during this time.
These tourists may not have gotten that memo, even though they were mere feet away from two bulls actively fighting. Any normal person would see that and think to themselves, “We better keep our distance.” But these dog owners saw the elk and thought, “This seems like a great place to let Sparky run free.”
While the bull elk were locking antlers, this little zoomie-fueled dog went sprinting right towards them, and even started barking at the much larger wild animals. The bulls seemed to be stunned by the yappy dog, and stopped fighting while the short-legged pooch ran circles around the area.
Good Bull Outdoors shared the video, and had this to say about the crazy encounter caught on camera:
“Even the elk were freaking about about this dog living his best life! Amazingly this isn’t the craziest thing we’ve seen on this exact golf course this year.”
Looks like a wanna-be herd dog to me.
But let’s be honest… that’s an incredibly dangerous situation. I’m glad everything worked out, and the dog eventually ran back to the safety of its owner. However, if one of the elk would have turned its aggression (it’s basically peak rut right now) towards the small animal, things could have ended much differently.
That’s what social media users were talking about in the comments below the post:
“A little game of catch me if you can.”
“That dog is lucky that there were no cows/calves nearby.”
“Where is its leash? So glad it didn’t get trampled.”
“Looks like it just wanted to play.”
“Dogs are supposed to be ‘leashed’ for their safety.”
That’s true.
Estes Park does have some leash laws that require pets to be on leashes, and specifies that dogs are only allowed on paved walkways. Furry friends are actually barred from going on hiking trails in the area, and that’s for the safety of hikers, pets, and wild animals native to the area.
