Am I the #$%hole at the dog park?

sdm

New Member
And the other situation as op stated is the fact that owners use the dog park as a social event. They bring Fido and turn him loose and then stand around bs'ing with the other park users not paying any mind to what Fido may or may not be doing. Thus the bare spot on the hill on the large pen. That is why the second gate was put in and the previous gate closed to try and regenerate grass in that area. That is the local socializing hang out.
 

dustin

UAIOE
i let our dog play rough and chase with other dogs if the other owner(s) doesnt mind and it stays civil between the dog(s). dog owners SHOULD be able to tell when/if it escalates or gets out of hand. if not maybe those owners need some training...

if the owner (or the dog) takes the play negatively then i respect that and take action accordingly. sometimes its just calling the nucklehead dog back and making him chill out by laying down or maybe just leaving altogether. dog has to learn what is acceptable and what is not at the moment the unacceptable behavior occured with appropriate action and praise when it does something good. by letting the dog continue the unacceptable behavior you are just enabling.

same as if your kids were wrestling in the front yard with the other neighborhood kids.

that dude was wrong for not respecting the dog park "karma"
 
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vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
same as if your kids were wrestling in the front yard with the other neighborhood kids.

See, and this is what I was thinking - as long as there's no blood and nobody's crying, they're fine. Two little boys wrestling, one is going to get the worse end of the deal. So Mommy comes running, having a fit - way to wussify your kid, Mom.
 

glhs837

Power with Control
See, and this is what I was thinking - as long as there's no blood and nobody's crying, they're fine. Two little boys wrestling, one is going to get the worse end of the deal. So Mommy comes running, having a fit - way to wussify your kid, Mom.

It not really accurate to analogize this as kids on the playground. But if one kid outweighs the other by say 30-40 pounds, and has just knocked down the little kid (think a 3 year old 10 year old, thats maybe the size difference we are talking about here) twice, is it having a fit to want to separate them? Picture a toddler and a 10 year old, how many times would you let the 10 year old push the toddler down before intervening? Keep in mind, one dog was 40 or more pounds, 2 feet or better at the shoulders, while the other was less than 10lbs and maybe 8-10 inches at the shoulder.

And it wasn't playful pushing around or rolling around. The dog just smacked the little one down, a stomp to the head. Twice in less than say 30 seconds.
 

Compa

New Member
To me it sounds like the retriever should have been in the large dog side. And I don't think the lady over reacted. Everyone has different ideas of what is too rough.

I have an overly energetic large puppy. I am very cautious when he is playing with smaller big dogs until the owner lets me know he's not too rough. I often times control other peoples dogs if they aren't paying attention or are too far away. And others do the same.

If the guy wasn't controlling his dog I would have. I see lots of people with large breed puppies in the small dog side because they are small. That's fine until they get too big and strong for the small dogs. I started my dog off in the large dog side and I set the limit on what was too rough. I didn't wait for others to call their dog off if I thought they were too rough.

Another problem is lots of people don't understand dog behavior. So they don't understand what is play and what isn't. And again as a responsible owner you have to be sensitive to others expectations. Unfortunately there are lots of irresponsible people out there. And I'm not just talking about dog owners.
 
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