Dog Parks Vent / Discussion / Etiquette Thread

[BarbedWire]

I don't know if you have seen this but it is what some dogs do with balls. :)

https://www.facebook.com/Unexpected.Ent/videos/692798214070066/

eta or sticks

Funny that. There is a Cocker Spaniel that does that with a tennis ball. She doesn't want her owner to throw the ball but urges anyone standing near her to do so. It's so funny really. I'm always afraid I'll kick her in the head.

That is what my dog does with balls too. I don't take balls to dog parks but, as soon as we are inside the local fenced one and she is off the lead, she runs off in search of a ball and usually finds one. She then brings it back to someone who she must think looks promising (usually a young man) and she will behave the same as the dog in that clip. I will ask him to ignore her but usually he gives in and once thrown my dog retrieves the ball and returns and drops it at his feet and the whole process is repeated over and over again until I take her home.

[YippeeGirl]

We run our dogs at a reserve that has two fenced ovals for soccer and I assume other sports. Dogs are permitted off-leash in the reserve, although I think someday this might not be the case if more dog owners don't start picking up after themselves.

The other day while the dogs were running around in one of the ovals, some guy jumped the fence without even checking to see if they were okay with strangers, and starts kicking his soccer ball around. Our oldest bitch is ball obsessive and so she immediately starts trying to maul his ball. Instead of picking up the ball and waiting a few seconds for us to come and catch her, he starts snatching at her collar.

Our dogs are German Shepherds. I am likely more cautious than the average person, but I couldn't imagine just clambering over a fence into an area where there are strange dogs running loose without checking with their owners first.

I will readily admit our dogs have crappy recalls and apart from our oldest bitch and our puppy, are not particularly dog friendly. But this is why we run them in a fenced area where there are almost never any other dogs.

[Simply Grand]

Oh gosh YG, the idea of grabbing at an unknown GSD's collar makes me I wonder if he was just clueless or thought he knew what he was doing and could "dominate" her. I guess if he regularly jumps over the fence he may not have thought to ask first although doing that could freak many dogs out.

That's the kind of circumstance though where I think it's really important for us to speak up as soon as we see something concerning, so (obviously in an ideal world) I would have said hang on a sec, let me get the dog as soon as I saw the guy on the fence. Like I said before, I think we have to expect that some people will do dumb things in these parks and manage accordingly.

[corvus]

Dog parks are just another public space. The best way to get along with everyone is to accept that people may not have the same values and expectations as you, but do your best to minimise the impact you and your dogs have on others. If your dog is a mad retriever, you have two choices: train your dog to accept the approach of strange dogs or play fetch elsewhere. If your dog loves to train, it's the same thing. Train your dog to be able to work around dogs approaching or train somewhere else. The other dogs and owners in the park are environmental distractions. I dismiss my dogs from training if they are approached, because one of my dogs gets anxious if another dog might cramp his style while he's training. Dismissing them tells them training is off for the moment and they can deal with the incoming dog. It's important to watch your dog closely and notice signs of conflict. They can be subtle, and if you miss them, you can be teaching your dog that dog parks are not very fun. We don't go to the dog park much anymore because Erik decided he was over the excessively friendly dogs. It is frustrating that we can't take him because we can't make sure he is left alone, but that is the nature of dog parks. You can't change it, so if you can't train for it, you have to just find other options.

I find people often don't realise how much they can do in a dog park to influence events. If there's an incoming dog, you CAN intercept it. You can signal your dogs to cluster close if that's where they are safest. One of mine comes to heel and the other pops between my feet. The latter is a good place for a dog that may want to escape at some point to be. He can duck back through my legs and I can close them to block the other dog, or if they come from behind, he can go forward and I can block. You can tell your dogs to hop up on a bench or platform to get them clear.

Avoid picking dogs up in the dog park. Some dogs see it and seem to lose their marbles and will come over and try to grab the dog you have lifted. If you must lift a dog, better to crouch and gather them close to your chest and then stand up with them. This does not seem to trigger the grabbiness.

A lot of people run into trouble at the dog park because they let the dog off the instant they get in and the dog runs off to do its own thing until it's time to leave. You are there WITH your dog. Make an effort to share in their activities. Avoid creating powerful anticipation by letting the dog off straight away. It gets the arousal through the roof and heightens the possibility of inappropriate play and bullying behaviour. Dogs should be able to show they are still able to respond to you before they get off leash privileges. I expect a sit and the dog to wait for a release before they charge off. If they bolt and won't heed you once they are gone, you need to make the release less predictable and reward the dog for turning back to you when you say their name. You can do a lap of the park leashed if you can confident you won't get mobbed. Responsive dogs are dogs that better stay out of trouble.

Keep moving. Dogs that are moving with you don't get such a chance to get up to mischief with other dogs.

[Simply Grand]

Corvus

[YippeeGirl]

Oh gosh YG, the idea of grabbing at an unknown GSD's collar makes me I wonder if he was just clueless or thought he knew what he was doing and could "dominate" her. I guess if he regularly jumps over the fence he may not have thought to ask first although doing that could freak many dogs out.

That's the kind of circumstance though where I think it's really important for us to speak up as soon as we see something concerning, so (obviously in an ideal world) I would have said hang on a sec, let me get the dog as soon as I saw the guy on the fence. Like I said before, I think we have to expect that some people will do dumb things in these parks and manage accordingly.

Unfortunately I think he had earphones on or something because my mum shouted at him when he first came in that our bitch would probably go after his ball, but he just ignored us and kept kicking it around.

Usually when people hop over the fence we can quickly leash the dogs and remove them from the oval. However, in this instance we didn't see him until he was halfway over the fence and then we he started kicking the ball around our bitch decided chasing that was much more fun than chasing her old tennis ball.

[flame ryder]

We have a new dog park....it's great. So far all dogs have been friendly. But in the landscaping of the park they have used alot of pine bark. I find that when the dog poos it's really hard to find the poo to clean it up as it blends with the pine bark. There was one incident that I could not find my dogs poo amongst the pine bark even though I looked and looked. I guess I could have taken my shoes off and walked around on the bark....that would have worked for sure.

[JulesP]

My dog park whinge from yesterday. Took the dogs out and when I got to the off lead section of this park there were a bunch of people using it playing bubble soccer (whatever that is). There are heaps of sporting ovals etc around that I can't let my dogs off lead so why weren't they using one of those places.

They were just talking when I walked through so did intend to leave the dogs off lead just because but they had a tiny baby sitting on a rug on the ground! So dogs went back on lead.

[Roova]

Dog parks are just another public space. The best way to get along with everyone is to accept that people may not have the same values and expectations as you, but do your best to minimise the impact you and your dogs have on others. If your dog is a mad retriever, you have two choices: train your dog to accept the approach of strange dogs or play fetch elsewhere. If your dog loves to train, it's the same thing. Train your dog to be able to work around dogs approaching or train somewhere else. The other dogs and owners in the park are environmental distractions. I dismiss my dogs from training if they are approached, because one of my dogs gets anxious if another dog might cramp his style while he's training. Dismissing them tells them training is off for the moment and they can deal with the incoming dog. It's important to watch your dog closely and notice signs of conflict. They can be subtle, and if you miss them, you can be teaching your dog that dog parks are not very fun. We don't go to the dog park much anymore because Erik decided he was over the excessively friendly dogs. It is frustrating that we can't take him because we can't make sure he is left alone, but that is the nature of dog parks. You can't change it, so if you can't train for it, you have to just find other options.

I find people often don't realise how much they can do in a dog park to influence events. If there's an incoming dog, you CAN intercept it. You can signal your dogs to cluster close if that's where they are safest. One of mine comes to heel and the other pops between my feet. The latter is a good place for a dog that may want to escape at some point to be. He can duck back through my legs and I can close them to block the other dog, or if they come from behind, he can go forward and I can block. You can tell your dogs to hop up on a bench or platform to get them clear.

Avoid picking dogs up in the dog park. Some dogs see it and seem to lose their marbles and will come over and try to grab the dog you have lifted. If you must lift a dog, better to crouch and gather them close to your chest and then stand up with them. This does not seem to trigger the grabbiness.

A lot of people run into trouble at the dog park because they let the dog off the instant they get in and the dog runs off to do its own thing until it's time to leave. You are there WITH your dog. Make an effort to share in their activities. Avoid creating powerful anticipation by letting the dog off straight away. It gets the arousal through the roof and heightens the possibility of inappropriate play and bullying behaviour. Dogs should be able to show they are still able to respond to you before they get off leash privileges. I expect a sit and the dog to wait for a release before they charge off. If they bolt and won't heed you once they are gone, you need to make the release less predictable and reward the dog for turning back to you when you say their name. You can do a lap of the park leashed if you can confident you won't get mobbed. Responsive dogs are dogs that better stay out of trouble.

Keep moving. Dogs that are moving with you don't get such a chance to get up to mischief with other dogs.

Such great advice, thank you!

[Staffyluv]

Zig loves the leash free park and we go every day.

We take his ball and a stick to throw it with. He is ball obsessed but if another dog picks his ball up, he isn't reactive and is happy to follow them until they put it down.

Here he is with a friends GD girl.

Zig and Maisie by Jodie, on Flickr

He loves it when puppies come in to play (although our park has two separately fenced areas, for small dogs and puppies and one for larger dogs).

Zig and Riley by Jodie, on Flickr

This one wasn't taken at our leash free park but over at a local dog club (after hours) - taken by the wonderful Ruth, from Ruthless Photos

We have Daxter, Bella (she was a foster from a while ago), Bruno the dog and Ziggy..

ruthlessphotos-5078 by Jodie, on Flickr

I have no problem calling Zig away from the gate (I hate it when he makes himself part of the meet and greet committee and blocks the gate) or from other dogs or groups of dogs.

Zig tends to avoid the dogs that are over the top and if there are dogs there that are out of control, we leave.

Probably my only peeves about the park are humans who don't pick up after their dogs and people who give treats to other peoples dogs.

I would never treat someone else's dog and I ask people to not give Zig treats either. So far I have only had one person 'offended' by asking him to NOT give Zig a treat. Idiot was offended and tossed a handful of treats on the ground. I immediately called Zig away and then he had a few dogs fighting at his feet over dropped treats..

Mostly though, we are pretty lucky - we see the same group of people and dogs every day and they all get along like a house on fire (there are about 20 dogs in the wider group that we see - usually not all there at the same time).. There is everything from an aged (15 year old) JRT, a mini Schnauzer, a great dane, a DDB, labs and a couple of staffies. It is a diverse group and amazingly they all get along really well.

[LisaCC]

Some lady walked into the dog park yesterday without warning with a possum in her arms...

I feel like that's dumber than the person who was walking the Guinnea pig on a leash past the dog rings at a show the other weekend.

[dee lee]

Oh goody, a gripes thread! :laugh:

I find the onlead vs offlead arguments really stupid.

My local off lead parks aren't fenced in and at any given time, there will be at least one or two dogs onlead- usually because their recall is crap (in the parts of the park with water, this will include my dog, whose water/duck obsession overrides everything!).

It's really not hard to respect other owners who chose to keep their dogs on lead, & if you can't stop your dog approaching such a dog, then maybe yours should be onlead too. Especially if it "hates" onlead dogs.

Personally, if I see an onlead dog in an open park, I'm erring on the side of caution, assuming it may not be dog friendly, and keeping my dog clear if it.

And balls. I take a ball for my dog to the park, and yes I expect it may attract attention from other ball loving dogs. So I try and keep out of range of any likely contenders & grab the ball if I see one coming. So I know the risks & don't get angry if our ball gets nicked (my dog is a non-contester & drops it every time), but geez I get frustrated when I have to chase some naughty little shit whose owner can't catch it & get me back my ball.

And bully dogs with ineffectual owners. Geez, if your dog has more balls than you, go see a trainer. Don't just let your dog bail mine up and bleat "stop.. stop..." then glare at me when I loudly tell your dog "NO" and yell at you to get it away from my dog & put it on lead. MORE THAN ONE TIME. Grrr.

That said, I rarely have problems at the park. I've learnt to keep moving, that prevents a lot of issues, I've observed. My dog isn't very social though, so that helps.

[Simply Grand]

Some lady walked into the dog park yesterday without warning with a possum in her arms...

I feel like that's dumber than the person who was walking the Guinnea pig on a leash past the dog rings at a show the other weekend.

Omg, I was thinking about putting on the etiquette page not to bring animals other than dogs to dog parks as I'd heard of it happening but I thought surely it can't come up that often! I can't believe people are really that dumb! How scary for the poor possum and guinea pig

Edited September 29, 2015 by Simply Grand

[Simply Grand]

Love the good times photos Staffyluv! I tried to take some the other day but they turned out terribly, I'll try and get some more.

I don't give treats to other dogs unless the owner is there to ask first, and usually don't anyway, I have to ration my treats enough just for my three, I don't want to give them away to everyone else! I'm sure some people think I'm mean about it when they see me give treats to my own but none of the others standing around giving me starving eyes. Although I'm careful about giving anything out if there is a crowd around, I don't want mine to snap at another dog over "their" treats.

Re. The lead thing, it really worries me when people give the advice to other people to let their dog off the lead if the dog is uncomfortable or snappy on the lead. I get that some dogs react better off lead than on but what if they don't?? Don't test it in the middle of a dog park. The other day a guy came in with his BC on lead on a head collar, the dog was ok with other polite dogs, I watched him for a while, as like dee lee said, I don't let mine approach on lead dogs unless I've figured out why they are on lead and what they are like. I eventually let Quinn go over, they had a nice greeting and he was happy to interact with her, just standing around sniffing. A couple of times a younger, boisterous dog would approach the BC and I could see him lip lifting and growling at them to back off.

A bit later a young female dog was in the BC's face (he was still on lead) and would not leave him alone. He was warning and warning and she was not listening. I said to her owner that the BC wasn't liking her in his face and she might want to move her dog away. She looked at me so blankly that I actually said, sorry is that your dog? She said yep and still did nothing, BC snapped and lunged and other dog eventually ran off.

Apparently people were encouraging the BC's owner to let him off the lead as that was what the problem was. I didn't see this but not long after BC was off lead, same female dog was back in his face, wouldn't leave him alone and now he was off lead he could properly tell her off. I said there's about to be a fight, one second later of course there was.

Anyway, that was a long story, but of course it looked like the BC had started it when really he 1. Shouldn't have been put in a group of dogs like that in the first place and 2. Was actually pretty good at warning and making it clear he was uncomfortable but neither humans or this dog listened. Ugh. Poor dog.

Edited September 29, 2015 by Simply Grand

[Two Best Dogs!]

I keep thinking about it and sighing in frustration. So a quick hijack/tangent that it slightly related to this thread but doesn't warrant its own thread.

Was in the Royal Botanical Gardens yesterday. Strictly dogs on-lead. In the first 30 minutes I saw many lovely people walking dogs in varying sizes, ages and obedience levels (one guy with 2 very young huskies being dragged along at almost comedic levels).

In that 30 minutes I also saw 4 separate people with off lead dogs. 3 of the dogs appear to have alright recall, the 4th was running around like a headless chook. All 4 owners are bad dog owners and I so hope the PSOs spotted them and fined them. Way to ruin the park for everyone else with your selfishness. If it becomes a no-dogs-at-all-zone I can't imagine why *sarcasm*

(Might just start reporting these people myself, as I suspect they're probably lax locals...I would like to take my dog here for a nice walk around different scenery/surfaces/trick proofing without your dog ruining our fun, thanks.)

[nyssel]

Most people are very lovely, it's just the few who assure me "Don't worry my dog doesn't bite!" letting their boisterous dogs (most big in comparison to my two nervous Cavs) run up to them and nip at them, chase them around and bully and try to pin them down. I get that people's dogs are friendly and some just boisterous, but my dogs just don't appreciate that! They take a while to warm up to other dogs, and are terrified when big dogs rush up at them chasing them especially after an incident with another dog off leash on a walk Decided the best course of action was just to not bring them anymore.

Best way to prevent any incidents is just to see how many dogs are at the park and observe their energy levels, and if I don't feel comfortable then we go home. Just love it though when there are nice, well-behaved dogs that the girls get to play with. They have made a few new friends at the park that they really get along with. :)

Edited September 30, 2015 by nyssel

[Staffyluv]

Most people are very lovely, it's just the few who assure me "Don't worry my dog doesn't bite!" letting their boisterous dogs (most big in comparison to my two nervous Cavs) run up to them and nip at them, chase them around and bully and try to pin them down. I get that people's dogs are friendly and some just boisterous, but my dogs just don't appreciate that! They take a while to warm up to other dogs, and are terrified when big dogs rush up at them chasing them especially after an incident with another dog off leash on a walk Decided the best course of action was just to not bring them anymore.

Best way to prevent any incidents is just to see how many dogs are at the park and observe their energy levels, and if I don't feel comfortable then we go home. Just love it though when there are nice, well-behaved dogs that the girls get to play with. They have made a few new friends at the park that they really get along with. :)

I would leash my dog and leave if he chased a dog and pinned it down (he wouldn't because he doesn't do that)..

I really dislike seeing dogs chase other dogs and especially puppies, just to tackle them at the end of the chase and it is obvious that the one being chased isn't having fun.

I watched a puppy being chased by a dog at the leash free park once and the owner thought it was having fun, until I pointed out how stressed the pup was and she should take the puppy back into the puppy/small dog side of the park.

Some pups can handle themselves and don't 'scare' easily but I would think most would be quite frightened by a bigger dog chasing them.

Sadly some people really are clueless when they see dogs reacting with each other.

[Brandiandwe]

Some lady walked into the dog park yesterday without warning with a possum in her arms...

I feel like that's dumber than the person who was walking the Guinnea pig on a leash past the dog rings at a show the other weekend.

Omg, I was thinking about putting on the etiquette page not to bring animals other than dogs to dog parks as I'd heard of it happening but I thought surely it can't come up that often! I can't believe people are really that dumb! How scary for the poor possum and guinea pig

Reminds me of the greyhound adoption event I went to which had the greyhounds set up just beside the rabbit show-jumping exhibition. Not sure what the organisers of the larger host event were thinking of, but it made for an interesting few hours.

[nyssel]

Most people are very lovely, it's just the few who assure me "Don't worry my dog doesn't bite!" letting their boisterous dogs (most big in comparison to my two nervous Cavs) run up to them and nip at them, chase them around and bully and try to pin them down. I get that people's dogs are friendly and some just boisterous, but my dogs just don't appreciate that! They take a while to warm up to other dogs, and are terrified when big dogs rush up at them chasing them especially after an incident with another dog off leash on a walk Decided the best course of action was just to not bring them anymore.

Best way to prevent any incidents is just to see how many dogs are at the park and observe their energy levels, and if I don't feel comfortable then we go home. Just love it though when there are nice, well-behaved dogs that the girls get to play with. They have made a few new friends at the park that they really get along with. :)

I would leash my dog and leave if he chased a dog and pinned it down (he wouldn't because he doesn't do that)..

I really dislike seeing dogs chase other dogs and especially puppies, just to tackle them at the end of the chase and it is obvious that the one being chased isn't having fun.

I watched a puppy being chased by a dog at the leash free park once and the owner thought it was having fun, until I pointed out how stressed the pup was and she should take the puppy back into the puppy/small dog side of the park.

Some pups can handle themselves and don't 'scare' easily but I would think most would be quite frightened by a bigger dog chasing them.

Sadly some people really are clueless when they see dogs reacting with each other.

This happens far too often, unfortunately. And people shake their heads at you and give you disgusted looks when you ask them to call off their dogs! When they are chased as soon as we arrive their tails are tucked in between their legs and they're trying to lay flat on the ground. If they were comfortable they would incite play not try to escape!

[JulesP]

Love it when people doing the wrong thing glare at you when you ask them to call their dogs. I very nicely pointed out that it was a on lead area and waited whilst the person caught their second dog.

I don't personally care about dogs being illegally off lead as long as the person has control of them. There was another dog on the oval also off lead but that one was under control.