Puppy Park Madness

[CARRINGTON]

Zach and I decided to take Balto to the puppy park on Sunday. It was a beautiful day, there was even a 4 month old husky for him to play with. We had been there an hour when all hell broke loose. A man brought his pitbull to the park (I have no problems with pitbulls as they are one of my favorite breeds of dogs) well he let his dog off lead which is fine with me, but things got out of hand fast. His dog would go and attack another dog such as by rolling them and then biting their necks, etc. well the owner would then go over to his dog pick him up by his harness and throw him backwards hard on the ground. Well this dog got the other dogs really excited and Balto wanted to play so Balto play bowed and then jumped up on his back, well the owner of that dog told Balto to get off this dog and grabbed him by his collar and threw him off his dog. Zach walked up to him and told him not to touch our dog again. The man told him to keep our dog off his, which then ensued to Zach telling the man if your dog doesn't want to play or isn't capable of playing nicely with the other dogs then he shouldn't bring his dog around. So we then just kept them separate but the dog was still trying to attack other dogs and the man was throwing his dog or throwing other peoples dogs. Well then we had a group of ladies who had a dog that would run from all the other dogs that were trying to either sniff it or play with it or chase it so the ladies made their dogs and ours get because they were harassing their dog. Obviously this dog needs to be socialized as if a dog went near it even to just sniff this dog out it would run and yelp like it was being murdered so their owners would run over and yell at the other dogs (It was a labardoodle). That day was the most ridiculous day at the dog park EVER!!!! It was utter chaos and we were only there for a little over an hour before we finally had to leave because it was getting insane. I am not sure if anything could really be done.

[Chula]

The dog park is an interesting place. Chula is still scared of some dogs. She doesn't like to have 10 dogs after her, it scares her. She will also yelp when she runs too fast for her legs and falls down and gets nervous because she's on her back and dogs are coming at her. So mostly we just stick to the corners where there is one or two dogs for her to play with. I don't let her stand by the gate and I hate that there are always 15 dogs standing right at the entrance. I wouldn't ever try to make someone else leave the park (unless they were obviously being abusive or neglectful of their dog attacking other dogs) but I'm also not going to leave because my dog gets scared sometimes. We try to go at times when it isn't as busy, and she is slowly getting used to it - but sometimes there is that one dog that just won't leave other dogs alone and the owner is off chatting or laughing about it.

 

I always stay within 10-15 feet of Chula in case I need to do something, and I don't ever NOT pay attention to her. Some people sit in the corner and read a book and pay no attention to their dog either being aggressive, or being bullied.

 

That said, unless my dog was being seriously vicious (which I can't imagine given her demeanor) I would go ape on anyone who grabbed/threw my dog. I'd probably call the police. 

Edited August 13, 2013 by Chula

[CARRINGTON]

The dog park is an interesting place. Chula is still scared of some dogs. She doesn't like to have 10 dogs after her, it scares her. She will also yelp when she runs too fast for her legs and falls down and gets nervous because she's on her back and dogs are coming at her. So mostly we just stick to the corners where there is one or two dogs for her to play with. I don't let her stand by the gate and I hate that there are always 15 dogs standing right at the entrance. I wouldn't ever try to make someone else leave the park (unless they were obviously being abusive or neglectful of their dog attacking other dogs) but I'm also not going to leave because my dog gets scared sometimes. We try to go at times when it isn't as busy, and she is slowly getting used to it - but sometimes there is that one dog that just won't leave other dogs alone and the owner is off chatting or laughing about it.

 

I always stay within 10-15 feet of Chula in case I need to do something, and I don't ever NOT pay attention to her. Some people sit in the corner and read a book and pay no attention to their dog either being aggressive, or being bullied.

 

That said, unless my dog was being seriously vicious (which I can't imagine given her demeanor) I would go ape on anyone who grabbed/threw my dog. I'd probably call the police. 

I would understand if there were tons of dogs on the other dog, but there weren't even 10 dogs at the dog park there were I think 9 and two of them were so busy playing in the water they could care less and two others were really small dogs that they just sniffed and did their own thing and there was that big mean dog who kept attacking another dog so there were only three left but they would run and play with each other and when the other dog would start running or playing or something they would get interested and go sniff her.

[Chula]

I think the bigger problem is that she was 1. yelling at other dogs, and 2. not paying attention to the fact that her dog was actually terrified. I was lucky in that the first time I brought Chula to the dog park, a couple of nice people came and asked me about my dog and were understanding when I told them it was her first time at the park. She had just been piled on by a big group of dogs and it completely freaked her out. So we had been just sitting in the shade about 30 feet away watching. They brought their dogs over nicely and not in a group and it helped her feel more at ease. It has gotten progressively better each time we go, and last time she actually initiated play with a dog. She still yelped when she fell down and saw a couple other dogs barreling behind her, but this time she got up and didn't hide.

 

She has always been fine with one or two dogs at a time, but the dog park is a very different place and can be scary for a dog the first couple of times, especially if they weren't brought as puppies. But it's never okay for owners to be mean and nasty when dogs are just being dogs and are sniffing.

 

It's also not okay for an owner not to scold their dog for trying to pee on people. I almost got peed on the last time we were there by this big aggressive dog who literally walked right over to me and lifted his leg, had I not moved I would have gotten weed on. The owner did NOTHING. 

[LittleLuka]

Unfortunately, that's another person giving pitties a bad rep.

 

My two love the dog park but one thing that makes me mad is people bringing their small dogs in to the large dog side. Don't be offended when my dog hurts yours or plays too rough because you can't follow the rules. Luckily, for the most part i don't have any issues.

[Chula]

^^

Oh I so agree with you on that one. I'm terrified Chula is going to pick up a tiny little dog by the neck and shake it. Each time a little dog comes in the park she heads RIGHT for them. I wish people wouldn't do that. It wouldn't even need to be the dog getting bit, it could just get trampled.

[Jay]

That drives me insane when people do that.  Earlier this year this lady brought a chihuahua to the big dog section. She was like "he is fine with big dogs", but I thought to myself, that she better not get an attitude if my dog things yours is lunch.  However, those dogs are more vicious than any other breed I know, and would snarl and bark at all the other dogs.  Ugh, I wanted to kick it so bad. 

 

Now I am glad that the park I go to is always empty!

[sarahjng]

I've stopped taking Bear to the local park where lots of dogs go, partly (small part) because of the dogs but mostly because of the owners, they don't pay attention, let there dog's run all over even though it's not secure and then tell me I'm damaging bear because I won't let mine off lead.

[Storm Angel n Auroras Mum]

i dont have any in the uk near me.

im glad i dont.

[Stranger]

as Louise said, their are none near us....I would like one, but then when you hear about these sorts of things, it doesn't do much for your confidence in people and their dogs.

[Dunc]

And Breath 

[goingsolo]

We don't have a dog park as such but a couple of places we go do have lots of dogs. Only proplem I had was a girl screaming like she was being attacked when approached by Charlie once. At the time ge was a 7 month old pup ! I was told she's scared of dogs, my answer was don't bring her here then as he is was small and some dogs won't take kindly to the noise she was making.