Treats At The Park?

[aussielover]

I usually take some treats to the park to reward good recall from my dog and to do some training.

I try to do training in an area that is away from other dogs and when i recall my dog, I usually walk away from the group of dogs and get her to come over to me.

I keep my treats in my pocket usually and i NEVER give treats to other peoples dog (unless they ask me to).

There was a dog that kept following me around today and oblivious to it's owners futile attempts to call it away. The owner then blamed me and said that i shouldn't have brought food to the park, she didn't want her dog to follow me around and her have to chase after it. She said bringing food only encouraged dogs to beg? My dog doesn't beg from others to get food even though I have been bringing food to the park since she was pretty young.

I am aware of the risks of resource guarding around food, which is why I only bring the treats out when there are no other dogs close to me.

Is it wrong to bring some kind of reward for your dog to the park? If I brought a toy (it would be stolen by another dog anyway) then there is still the potential issue of resource guarding- I have seen this happen over a stick, over owner's, over a chair even....

I feel I should be able to bring food into the park without being yelled at by other owners for distracting their dog. It is not my fault their dog has poor recall and runs away when they try to catch them. And what if I was walking through the park with a packet of chips or a sandwich... people should be able to bring food into a park without being hassled by dogs imo.

[Kavik]

I always bring treats to reward recalls and do training. I very rarely go into 'dog parks' though as they are crowded and even when I do decide to go only occasionally is there an issue with a dog that tries to mob me. The owners just usually apologise. I never give treats to other people's dogs.

[Elsha_UK_AU]

I think you should be able to take treats to the park, I don't myself but then I don't train in the park...BUT like you said...what if you were eating a sandwich and the other dog came over, are you in the wrong for trying to eat your lunch? I would say "NO"

If a Dog is begging for food then it is obviously a behaviour that is tolerated or not yet adjusted. I have 2 dogs.... my older (nearly 2 year old) can sit on your lap whilst you are eating and is not concerned, interested or expecting something. My younger one (nearly 1 years old) sees all food as an excuse to sit intently staring at you, getting closer to you at each blink of the eye until he's touching your knees under the table. He doesn't jump or make a noise - he just stares. We're working on him.

I would have told this lady that if she could not control her Dog off lead, the she should have the Dog remain on lead. I would have stated that if a family or a child was sitting on the grass enjoying something to eat and her Dog could not be recalled without being chased, that this could be a problem.

I am not good with things like that though. I was walking my two on a lead in an onlead (school oval) when this teenager with a family said "You best walk by quickly, our Dog doesn't like other Dogs and could attack"... I looked over and they had a huuuge Dog (not sure of breed) and so I walked by quick and said "If you have a Dog that doesn't like other Dogs, then put yours on a lead...this is an on-lead park"

Anyway, you did nothing wrong and I would continue to train your Dog in the park

[RubyStar]

Nope, I don't think it's wrong to take treats with you when you are out with your dog, no matter where you are. Lets you reinforce your dog for good behaviour. The woman is at fault for not being able to control her dog.

Those who sit in a designated offlead dog area with a picnic on the ground is a worry, though!

[twodoggies2001]

In my opinion, it is your choice to bring or not bring treats to the park. It is up to the 'offending' dog's owner to keep him/her under control and not make a pest of themselves. You will probably find they carry on when they have no control of their charge and they are more embarrased than anything because of their inability. If you choose to train your dog at the park then in my mind, that's OK too. What I do object to and take offense to is when owners, without asking feed my dogs treats.

[minxy]

Perfectly fine to take treats to the park imo.

[teekay]

Absolutely, I always take treats to the off lead beach with me. We are still reinforcing Jenna's recall so I want to be able to treat her when she comes.

There will always be somebody quick to blame other people for theirs and their dog's shortcomings, unfortunately

[W Sibs]

Depends.

I only bring the treats out when I'm doing training with them, and when I train with my dogs, I don't let other people bring their dogs near and if they do, I ask the owners to take their dogs away. Usuaully people are good about it.

But, if just at the dog park and there are other dogs there and they are playing, then no. There is no need for it.

My dogs has to work for their treats... NILIF

My 2 will work for cuddles with recalls or game of tug.

[Loving my Oldies]

I feel I should be able to bring food into the park without being yelled at by other owners for distracting their dog. It is not my fault their dog has poor recall and runs away when they try to catch them. And what if I was walking through the park with a packet of chips or a sandwich... people should be able to bring food into a park without being hassled by dogs imo.

The women is being ridiculous. Agree totally with your summing up as quoted.

[Cookiez]

I bring food with me to the park if I am working on recall, or any other form of training.

In fact, quite a few others who go to my park do this also.

My dog never "begs" from anyone else and if another dog does come up to me the owners usually just laugh it off and say my food must smell better.

[GSD's 4EVER]

You're fine with taking treats. Just keep going with your training & ignore comments like these from other dogs owners. It's not your problem/fault if the other person's dog is unresponsive to their owner's commands.

[FionaC]

She's just making excuses as to her dogs poor recall - don't worry about it, as long as you're not throwing them about, trying to have a picnic in the centre of the designated dog park or feeding other people's dogs then you're fine

[koalathebear]

Wow aussielover ... the parks/dog parks around where you live sound like they are frequented by so many rude or inconsiderate dog owners! How incredibly frustrating for someone trying to get their dog exercised and socialised.

[Guest belgian.blue]

I tend to not got to parks but at the beach I take treats as I'm training Badger recall. Though I wouldn't treat him if there was a random dog hanging out.

I also wouldn't want anyone treating their dog if Badger was near them as then I'm sure they give him one as he's adorable!

[wuffles]

I always have treats as I reward each and every recall. I don't really have any issues with other dogs running up to us as long as they are friendly and I'm also not really annoyed by dogs begging for treats If Ava sees someone training their dog she is there in a flash doing everything they say. I can call her away if I have to though. In saying that, this is in fenced dog parks, they are not great places for training. If we are on the local oval or another general use off leash area I keep her close to me (although I've never seen anyone else out training their dog anyway).

I might get flamed for this but once a family brought fish and chips to the fenced dog park! My big boy hung around them like glue and they had to hold the chips way up high as his nose was going crazy. I didn't call him away as I thought it was a stupid thing to do in the first place.

[aussielover]

Wow aussielover ... the parks/dog parks around where you live sound like they are frequented by so many rude or inconsiderate dog owners! How incredibly frustrating for someone trying to get their dog exercised and socialised.

It is an area that has a reputation for people being pushy, rude, inconsiderate and basically expecting to be able to do whatever they like....

As for picnicing in the middle of a designated dog park- when i went to walk my dog at lunch there were no less than 5 groups of people attempting to do this

[SpikesPuppy]

Tell her to train her bloody dog!!

I take treats with me 99.9 percent of walks or outings, never know what behavior I might want to reinforce or reward etc. And why shouldn't I?

[corvus]

I always have treats with me because I'm always training. My dogs do heaps of things at the park that I want them to do more often, so yeah, we keep treats handy to reward them. We do get dogs that come and beg sometimes. Usually the ones whose owners DON'T bring treats to the park. When someone is rewarding their dog for something, we often see a little line of dogs sitting and waiting politely and hopefully for their turn. It's the ones that don't know this basic rule that end up trying to climb into the treat pouch. I don't mind. I dismiss my dogs to go and play for a bit and ignore the interloper until they give up. My dogs will often happily keep training around a dog trying to stick its head in my treat pouch if we get ambushed. I've never had someone yell at me for bringing treats to the park. Sometimes they pretend they haven't noticed their dog being a pest, but usually they apologise and take the dog away. My dogs "beg" by sitting down in front of someone, or Kivi sometimes tries glueing himself to someone's thigh to show them what good heeling he's doing. I call them away and they always come. I'm a surer bet.

[Sydoo]

I don't bother taking food any more as Billie has no interest in treats when we are out and about. Clamps her mouth shut and won't have a bar of food rewards.

That said, I wouldn't have a problem with what you are doing even if I had a foodie dog. Billie loves children and will run to them at the park. Whilst I personally wouldn't take very small children to a dog park, it is certainly not the parent's fault for distracting my dog with their children! It was our issue and we managed it accordingly whilst working on her recall and she will now leave kids if we call her. She will undoubtedly encounter children outside of the dog park and needs to know how to behave.

[Mason_Gibbs]

I always take treats to reward my dog when he comes back if I call him recalls can never be too good IMO