At what age do you think a puppy is ready to go to an off leash park?

Your puppy has to be completely up-to-date on shots before they can go to the dog park...so I'd say 4 or 5 months...

Raven will get her shots next week including the rabies shot. She's 4 months. Even being up to date with shots is the dog park a good place to socialize a puppy?

We go to a puppy class but its very structured, focused on obedience training. The puppies don't/can't interact with eachother at all. Even before class everyone restrains their dogs. I haven't been able to find a puppy play group in the area.

I feel it would be good for her to be able to play with some other dogs. It would help with learning bite inhibition as well as dog social skills. She bites HARD! She's super friendly wants to play with everydog she meets, but she still has lots to learn.

i think the answer to that is yes and no. i've been socializing my rat terrier puppy at a dog park because i simply cannot afford puppy classes. he's really benefited from it. on the flip side, if another dog decides he wants to attack your puppy for whatever reason it could be very detrimental to their social health. they could become frightened and especially at this age that can imprint in their brains and be very, VERY difficult to change

Cheyenne has been at the dog park since we got her. As long as you pay close attention and can read body signals and remove the pup before an issue can start, dog parks are great. But if there's a dog who comes in that's already had a few scuffles before he's been in there 5 minutes... probably best to pack up. Generally though we've never had much of an issue at the dog parks with fights. Just depends on where you are and the kind of people come to the individual parks.

I took Sadie to the dog park way to young. First thing that happened was a girl says oooohhhh my what a cute puppy!! Bends down and starts to pet her and BAM!! This F/N Big ass bull mastiff tries to eat Sadie. Scared the shit out of me and the pup. The girl replies "oh im sorry my boyfriends dog gets super jeloius if i touch another dog" WTF lady!!!! Dont touch my 9 pound dog if you own a 130 lb huge mean dog!!! From there out it was months of working with her due to fear of other dogs. Stay close to your pup when you go, and i personnaly carry a firearm for protection! Its legal here with permits and i will protect my family. SADIE IS ONE OF MY KIDS!!

I think I'm going to start taking her.I cant spend my time and hers worrying about being attacked, she could get attacked on our walks, or at petco, or in our yard if a stray dog wonders over.

There's an off leash park Duck Farm Dog Park in Lindenhurst, IL near my house anyone in the area want to meet up there?

That story wasnt to scare you away from the parks. The dog park is Sadies favorite place, just keep an eye on em. Ive never seen a more awesome sight than when huskies play together!

I know and I'm glad you told the story. I need to know and understand the good and the bad about dog parks. I cant imagine how scary that must have been for you two! Raven is a part of my family too.

I dont want the firearm comment to be taken the wrong way. I dont ever want to shoot a dog. Dog fights happen alot between good dogs. most just get wrapped up in the moment and piss each other off. Ive only encountered one dog at the park so far out of 4 months that worried me. It came in and just started attacking dogs. My guard went up! Anyways dogs work out most problems themselves and sometimes we just have to step in and pull them appart.

Dogs working out their problems is most of the reason I want to take her. She bites really hard with a lot of pressure. She doesn't break the skin but she does leave little tooth "dents" in your skin.

I think engaging in some play with other dogs would help her to learn not to bite so damn hard, along with reinforcing the leave it at home. My yelping only seems to encourage her.

I also want to see her run

Mines been off leash with other dogs ever since his second set of jabs that he received at 12weeks - he has been off leash in parks every day since then for hours... playing chase with other dogs is the best way to tire them out in my opinion! He did get jumped by a rather large pit the other day though :/ if your dogs dangerous, why keep him off his lead? we weren't in the park 10seconds and Luka was still on his lead - he broke free from his collar when this pit came too close - i don't know how he did but i guess he could sense what was coming... long story short, i had to smack the pit around the side of the head and hooked my hand under neck in order to pull him off (Luka was on his back on the floor)... Luka wasn't hurt, physically or mentally - he knows daddys here to protect him - in fact, he gets on really well with pits and staffs, he just spends most of that play time on his back side because he keeps getting knocked over

After all the shots. I took my two after they had all their shots, but would take them to the litter dog side until they were big enough to go onto the big dog side. Just keep an eye out. Puppies usually just have a blast there.

When it is about socializing puppy classes are a much better idea, because you sem to have a lot of aggressive dogs at dog parks in the US.

SiberianAnubis wrote:

When it is about socializing puppy classes are a much better idea, because you sem to have a lot of aggressive dogs at dog parks in the US.

I've been to a lot of dog parks and I think aggression is the exception rather than the rule. The only serious issue I witnessed was when some dumbass brought in food.

Lordbroll wrote:

The only serious issue I witnessed was when some dumbass brought in food.

Or a toy. No toys! You don't know if other dogs are possessive over them or not. Seen too many dogs get into a brawl over a damn slobbery, dirty ball than anything else. Figure out the best times to go as well. (what day of the week and what time of day) I used to hate the dog park until I figured out that Saturdays and Sundays at 3:30-4ish were the perfect times to go. The owners are friendly and observant and their dogs are well-behaved and social. Always take time to observe the dogs before entering; if you don't like how one of the dogs are playing, wait till they leave or go back at another time. Of course after your pup gets all of their puppy shots.

From all the stories I read here it sounded like it is on a regular basis. So it seems I got the wrong impression.

I have only had 2 dogs give Stormy a problem. He is a face dog (meaning he likes to say hello with his face rather then sniff the butt). That sometimes causes new dogs to go on guard for a moment. In fact when the one dog shows up, everyone leaves. He is good if there is only one or tow other dogs there.

If you're going to take her, do so as often as possible until she's full grown. Getting dropped on by a bigger dog won't effect her permanently if she goes back the next day and gets to be the boss of a smaller puppy. It's good for her to learn that there are bigger dogs out there. But she also needs the assurance that she isn't the smallest dog, too. If you take her once and she gets beat up by a big dog and then you don't take her ever again, that will forever be her only knowledge of strange dogs, that she's going to get the crap knocked out of her.

Sadie is a face dog too. Man it gets her into trouble sometimes with new dogs. Never thought i would say this, but i wish she would just sniff a butt for once! I watched her lick a saint bernards mouth dry once I didnt eat that day!