Hi all. I just need to vent a little bit. I’ve been bringing Red to the dog park on a regular basis for about 2 months now. She gets along with all of the other dogs there of various sizes and breeds. One of the first few times I was there, there were two older ladies walking their small to medium sized dogs. They wouldn’t come into the fenced in portion of the park itself, but they would always purposefully stop right at the fence to let all the dogs sniff each other. After a whole bunch of barking and running around, the ladies would then pull their dogs away to continue their loop around the park.

One day as I was leaving, the two old ladies were sitting in the gazebo near where I parked. I heard one of them exclaim to the other lady, “oh that’s Red!!”. I thought, “oh, they want me to come over and let all the dogs meet each other”. As soon as I turned around and took a few steps in their direction, one of the ladies flipped out, grabbed her dog and told me not to come over because her dog is fearful of other dogs. Well why in the world would you yell out my dog’s name??? So I just doubled back and walked away.

Then a couple weeks ago, Red was running around inside the fenced area and here comes the two ladies again. Their dogs start barking at mine (Red is not a barker or howler when it comes to meeting other dogs. She just sniffs). The ladies had to pull their own dogs away from the fence because they were getting extremely agitated. I just walked over and moved Red away from them. So I talked to a few of the other dog owners there and apparently that’s the ladies’ routine. They always make a loop around the park and stop by the fenced area. What I don’t get is that they know one of their dogs is fearful of all the other dogs, so why in the world do they purposefully stop right in front of the fence to let their dogs get close enough to ours? I just feel like they are purposefully antagonizing all the other dogs that are playing nicely inside the fenced area. All of the other dogs will instinctively start barking when a passerby is walking their dog but they normally let up once the passerby is gone. But these ladies have to stop right there. Wish they would get a clue and realize this is not helping anyone. Good grief. This has been bugging me everytime I see those ladies and I needed to get this off my chest.

OMG yes. I was thinking we need a vent thread. I'm in a perfectly crabby mood today.

Those ladies are dumb. Just dumb. What they're doing is dumb. It sounds like everyone is annoyed by them too. Maybe they're trying to get their dogs used to other dogs? Either way they're doing it wrong and they're dumb. They called your dog but didn't expect y'all to approach? Really?! Friggin dumb. I wish people would use common sense more often.

Totally need a vent thread.

I believe these are older dogs and the ladies have had this routine since the dawn of time. None of the other dog owners seem to care much as they just ignore the ladies. But it really irks me when they say their one dog is fearful but their reactions to my dog indicate otherwise. Red is such a loving 6 month old who just wants to kiss eveyone. Bah humbug to them!

It almost sounds to me that those ladies themselves are the ones scared of taking their dogs in, as opposed to their dogs being scared. I would just do as others and ignore them.

I'm personally done taking Lycus to the dog park. There are far too many irresponsible owners who don't take care for their own dogs. I would seriously see people let their dogs loose, and they just walk away texting while their dog is bullying someone elses dog.

Rocio, you're probably right. These ladies are pretty old....I'm guessing at least early 70's. I'll do my best to ignore them! Was going to loop Red around the park yesterday before I left but decided not to since the ladies were perched on the bench right near the path. Lol would have been funny to see them jump just a bit as I pass by tho....

The only upside where I'm at is that the other dog owners are pretty attentive to their dog's behavior when they're running loose.

I honestly agree with that vent thread. Someone should probably get that up and running...

Hi!

So, yeah. I know the feel. Where Light and I are, there's always so many people who call out to her only to freak out when she walks up to them. When they have little dogs, it just erupts into all kinds of chaos.

Don't get me started about shih-tzu, shih-poo, mini poodle, and chihuahua owners who praise their dogs for acting like crazed baboons for barking and 'standing up' towards a husky. Meh.

We've taken a break from the dog park for several reasons, mainly because we don't have full control over Klaus at the park (recall). However I feel like it's always some small dog to big dog kind of scenario when I hear people upset about dog parks. Our park specifically has a section for large and small yet owners always bring their small dogs over to the big dog side! I couldn't take the fact that I do my best to be responsible but maybe one day Klaus just plays too rough with a small dog, or steps on it the wrong way, and have to hear it from a small dog owner. At the end of the day I can't take how many irresponsible pet owners are at the park anymore. One owner told me once that my dog should be able to get along with every dog big or small. I just nodded because I'm not confrontational, but honestly I don't like every person I meet so I definitely don't expect my dog to like everyone he meets!

@Haley

Same thing happens at the dog park I go to also. But on the flip side, none of the owners have made any nasty comments (thus far) about someone else's larger dog being rough on their smaller dog. What normally happens is that the larger dog owner will take the responsibly of removing their dog from the smaller dog. I think what happens is that most of the larger dogs don't realize how much power they actually have. However, there was one time where there was a much smaller dog about the size of a small end beagle that was pretty much dominating Red even though Red was about twice the size. So it just goes to show that smalls dogs can be bullies too. At least this dog owner took the initiative to get her dog to cut the crap.

Wow....someone count how many times I just said "dog". Lol

What gets me is when people bring very very young children into the dog park. I mean my gosh. Even if every dog there is well socialized once they get to running and playing chase I worry about one running into the kid or stepping on it and hurting it. Accidents do happen. I can't believe some people see fit to take a risk like that.

I don't think I'll ever take Mylo to a dog park unless it's like a planned husky gathering or something. I'm not scared of how Mylo would act but of what other dogs might do or trigger a situation. The closest to a dog park that Mylo has been to was when he was a younger puppy I would take him to play with his classmates at puppy class, after class.
Id rather take Mylo to normal human parks with a bunch of land and a super long leash and toys

Oh my goodness I agree. Children of a certain age are fine but one time when we were there we seen someone's toddler running around trying to grab a ball out of a dog's mouth that wasn't his. The dog was definitely uncomfortable they're lucky the dog didn't snap at him! Toys are another issue as well. Klaus loves to get a ball and have other dogs chase him for it, it's his favorite game. However he's been snapped at many times because other dogs are aggressive over toys.

We should open a husky dog park

Ooo I would love the idea of a husky dog park...but then again I live so far away from civilization thag I don't see that happening.

I always just fein an are you being nice Maya. She knows thats code for, "these dogs owners are dumb." I have only had one woman tell me her dog didn't like other dogs. My response was to ask if she was sure it was her dog that didn't like others or if her dog was projecting her own feelings. Never saw her at the park again.

Although, once I feind an are you being nice Maya and the other lady layed in to me like, "Oh my gosh! They are just playing!." Then I was like, "get her Maya! Bonk her right in the face with those mitts!"

Just remember at the end of the day your fur baby probably loves you more than their fur babies love them and Red could out smart those women in a quick second.

grrawrrrofff wrote:

Bonk her right in the face with those mitts!

Hahhaha love it! Red probably WOULD do that but purely in a moment of play and excitement.

She's nailed me on my mouth twice with her paw when she lunged at my face so that she could lick me. Once I ended up with a scratch from top to bottom lip and the other time I ended up with a bloody lip. Love hurts. I was so mad but couldn't hold it for long because she was just being a happy pup.

an owner with a chocolate lab that they keep it on leash to see how it do in a dog park of the fist time. then they thought it would be ok let it loose and  have a growl fest with my baby     . that resulted in Leo trying to back away and then tripping over another dog and of course the owner of said dog is nowhere to be seen and i dive in to stop the 2 labs, the garbed the dog collar of the dog that started it and released him, he also move about 3ft from me along with dog 2 and my baby(had him by his harness still) and they dispersed. thank god no one was hurt and they leashed it.
Leo recovered very quickly, and even went over to the lab to smell him when the lab had calmed back down. with no altercation after wards.
he did enjoy himself when some pitties came in he had the time of his life, he love his pitties the most.
i hate when people don't fallow the rules and keep bring unsocial and aggressive dogs in. those people really need to go to a professional trainer, and not try to do socialization by themselves.
I to vote for a Husky only dog park. but i would be the only on in it.   .

I also vote for a husky only dog park, Cora has a really high prey drive and I correct her and tell her to "leave it" with small dogs, but some times she will nip them and I of course go over grab her collar and give her a time out but sometimes the owners get mad at me, its like I'm sorry we have this small ass park and I'm sorry I have a prey driven dog but I always watch her I never let her hurt another dog but people still tell me she is aggressive, I wish these people would learn the difference between aggressive and a natural prey drive. Today these people bring in a puppy who keeps play bowing with Cora and every time Cora goes to play it yelps and Cora and I both get confused and the people tell me to keep Cora away from their dog like no your dog is inviting play if they don't want her to play with their dog remove their dog. And another lady hit Cora in the nose today pretty hard and I was so mad Cora is just a little rough for small dogs and poorly socialized puppies. Cora does really well with a lot of dogs but I am not up for people hitting my dog. This is also the reason I would like a second dog so I don't have to visit these horrible dog parks.