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dog park or not?

Nik

Well-Known Member
So, starting up this thread again. Zeela & I had a bad experience this past weekend at the dog park, some mixed lab/pitbull dog came in & basically tried to attack her, trying to bite her & nasty growling/barking noises. I never heard her scream sooo loud, I ran and slid into mud and grabbed her from underneath & told the owner, get your f#%kin dog off of mine. Don't ask me how I picked her up. Zeela is only like 20 lbs lighter than me. The guy who's dog was attacking mine, I think went into shock and mind you he is a man and I am a female & my dog is bigger. Crazy, anyway, we are fine, she just got freaked out and after we left, hosed our muddy selves off at home. I did take her the next day because I know she has fun there & I got her back. It was bad at the time, her screaming is what terrified me. Loud & loud, she's gentle. So, i still believe in the dog park, you just gotta really pay attention.

This reminds me of the time a standard poodle attacked my Diesel. This poodle full on went psycho angry aggressive and my Diesel being the sweetie he is just flopped over onto his back and exposed his belly. The vicious poodle kept at him and I dove onto them without a thought and grabbed that poodle and forcibly removed him from my diesel who stayed paying possum with belly exposed. The owner had the nerve to tell us it was because Diesel wasn't fixed (this was before he was old enough to be fixed) and normally their precious poodle is so sweet and kind and blah blah blah. Nevermind that owner didn't make one move to get their dog in line and off my dog. I probably would have gone for the owner's throat if my husband hadn't been there to stop me. My dog may be a sweetheart but I most definitely am not.

My point being when it comes to our babies we are capable of some amazing things and also sometimes lose hold of our own senses when there is danger for them. I also think that my quick reaction whenever there has been any threat to him is what has kept him so sweet and friendly to other dogs. He absolutely relies on me to save him from any possible threat. When he is hurt and doesn't feel well he comes to me. When someone or something threatens him he relies on me to take care of it for him which I always do.
 

April Nicole

Well-Known Member
This dog was not large, much smaller than Zeela. I always say, nothing against pit bulls but they seem to be the only ones who causes us problems. This was a lab/pitbull mix. anyway, yes, adrenaline works wonders. It's a crap shoot when you go to the park as far as who will be there. Don't get me wrong, I've seen her get a little aggressive with dogs, however, I watch her & intervene.

Sounds like you've got it under control :) Zeela has a good owner looking out for her.
 

Zeela

Well-Known Member
This reminds me of the time a standard poodle attacked my Diesel. This poodle full on went psycho angry aggressive and my Diesel being the sweetie he is just flopped over onto his back and exposed his belly. The vicious poodle kept at him and I dove onto them without a thought and grabbed that poodle and forcibly removed him from my diesel who stayed paying possum with belly exposed. The owner had the nerve to tell us it was because Diesel wasn't fixed (this was before he was old enough to be fixed) and normally their precious poodle is so sweet and kind and blah blah blah. Nevermind that owner didn't make one move to get their dog in line and off my dog. I probably would have gone for the owner's throat if my husband hadn't been there to stop me. My dog may be a sweetheart but I most definitely am not.

My point being when it comes to our babies we are capable of some amazing things and also sometimes lose hold of our own senses when there is danger for them. I also think that my quick reaction whenever there has been any threat to him is what has kept him so sweet and friendly to other dogs. He absolutely relies on me to save him from any possible threat. When he is hurt and doesn't feel well he comes to me. When someone or something threatens him he relies on me to take care of it for him which I always do.
Yeah, you gotta watch those poodles too & those little yappy dogs. lol... I completely feel the same way, don't you dare try to hurt the one I love, as much as she protects me. I protect her more & she depends on me. No doubt, we are strong woman to have such massive dogs. Just sayin.... ;) I will continue to take her to the dog park, she enjoys it. It was just freaky how much she screamed. I just don't want her to get afraid of other dogs & nor do I want her to get bit, always have my eye on her as she does on me.
 

Jarena

Well-Known Member
When Lettie was a pup we were “tested” as well. It wasn’t in a dog park, just down the road from home. A boxer charged across the street at us. In half a second Matt snatched up Lettie and I got low and braced myself ready to tackle the dog. I grabbed the boxers collar and blocked him from Matt and Lettie with my body. Matt yelled “your dogs out” in an angry booming voice I hadn’t heard before. Matt is afraid of dogs (he’s been bit several times), and Lettie was just a baby. Everything was ok, the boxer came in hot but just wanted to sniff. I learned a little about myself that day. Before that, I didn’t know how I would automatically react to a threat.
 

Nik

Well-Known Member
Yeah, you gotta watch those poodles too & those little yappy dogs. lol... I completely feel the same way, don't you dare try to hurt the one I love, as much as she protects me. I protect her more & she depends on me. No doubt, we are strong woman to have such massive dogs. Just sayin.... ;) I will continue to take her to the dog park, she enjoys it. It was just freaky how much she screamed. I just don't want her to get afraid of other dogs & nor do I want her to get bit, always have my eye on her as she does on me.

I swear yappy tiny dogs are always the meanest. But, this was a standard poodle and probably still bigger than Diesel even with him now full grown. We used to have a standard poodle as well but our standard was the sweetest most loving dog in the world. In his entire life I only heard him growl once and it was just a warning growl at Diesel for stealing his bone one too many times as a pup (it actually shocked both me and my husband since he had never ever growled in his life. I was disappointed I didn't catch it in video because nobody believed us after that Cerberus had actually growled). The smallest dog I have (my Kahlua) is also the only one that has an ounce of aggression issues (fear based) but I watch her like a hawk and work with her all the time.

My husband was so upset with me for tackling that poodle though. He was worried I would get bit and it wasn't even something that crossed my mind. I saw my baby in trouble and I was on the threat in a heart beat. I imagine Zeela's scream was terrifying and set you off into total mamma bear mode.

As for massive dogs sometimes I think being so short makes me want to surround myself with bigger creatures and people. My husband is a whole foot taller than me and all my closest friends are at least 6 inches taller with most also being a foot taller than I am. Maybe it is some odd version of a Napolean complex. lol
 

Zeela

Well-Known Member
I swear yappy tiny dogs are always the meanest. But, this was a standard poodle and probably still bigger than Diesel even with him now full grown. We used to have a standard poodle as well but our standard was the sweetest most loving dog in the world. In his entire life I only heard him growl once and it was just a warning growl at Diesel for stealing his bone one too many times as a pup (it actually shocked both me and my husband since he had never ever growled in his life. I was disappointed I didn't catch it in video because nobody believed us after that Cerberus had actually growled). The smallest dog I have (my Kahlua) is also the only one that has an ounce of aggression issues (fear based) but I watch her like a hawk and work with her all the time.

My husband was so upset with me for tackling that poodle though. He was worried I would get bit and it wasn't even something that crossed my mind. I saw my baby in trouble and I was on the threat in a heart beat. I imagine Zeela's scream was terrifying and set you off into total mamma bear mode.

As for massive dogs sometimes I think being so short makes me want to surround myself with bigger creatures and people. My husband is a whole foot taller than me and all my closest friends are at least 6 inches taller with most also being a foot taller than I am. Maybe it is some odd version of a Napolean complex. lol
My Pekignese was nasty towards larger dogs. I never took him to the dog park. lol. I think sometimes the small yappy ones are just trying to show them don't mess with me, Zeela gets freaked out by them like the same as when I get freaked out by a spider that I could crush in a heart beat. lol.
 

glen

Super Moderator
Staff member
Im so pleased neither of you got hurt. This is why i dont do dog parks, it only takes 1 incident that turns bad. Where i am i call them untrained owners, theybthink its ok to let there yappy dogs charge my boys and then its my fault if my boys even snarl so to protect them i keep away. And the other side is if our beautiful big breeds get started on too many times they wont tolerate any strange dog and thats very hard to handle.
 

Nik

Well-Known Member
Im so pleased neither of you got hurt. This is why i dont do dog parks, it only takes 1 incident that turns bad. Where i am i call them untrained owners, theybthink its ok to let there yappy dogs charge my boys and then its my fault if my boys even snarl so to protect them i keep away. And the other side is if our beautiful big breeds get started on too many times they wont tolerate any strange dog and thats very hard to handle.

I personally only like off leash larger areas where it is easy to avoid the other dogs (beaches that are off leash and lake areas for example). My husband disagrees with me because he has some happy vision of our dogs playing with other people's dogs and being happier and for Diesel this would almost always be the case (it would never be the case for Kahlua as she is not a social butterfly). I, however, don't like the smaller parks because of both the untrained dogs that can be problems and also because even if you are fully vaccinated it is easy for your dog to pick up a bug from someone else's dog. I've even seen people in those smaller dog parks that really don't belong there (people with teeny children and no dogs, elderly frail looking people etc.) Seeing some of those people terrifies me because all it takes is one pack of rowdy playing dogs not looking where they are going to accidentally run them down and then some bad luck to make that a sue happy person. I have mentioned I have clinical anxiety? So with small dog parks all I see is the million of things that can go wrong and too many elements outside of my control. I don't like anything to be out of my control ever.
 

glen

Super Moderator
Staff member
I personally only like off leash larger areas where it is easy to avoid the other dogs (beaches that are off leash and lake areas for example). My husband disagrees with me because he has some happy vision of our dogs playing with other people's dogs and being happier and for Diesel this would almost always be the case (it would never be the case for Kahlua as she is not a social butterfly). I, however, don't like the smaller parks because of both the untrained dogs that can be problems and also because even if you are fully vaccinated it is easy for your dog to pick up a bug from someone else's dog. I've even seen people in those smaller dog parks that really don't belong there (people with teeny children and no dogs, elderly frail looking people etc.) Seeing some of those people terrifies me because all it takes is one pack of rowdy playing dogs not looking where they are going to accidentally run them down and then some bad luck to make that a sue happy person. I have mentioned I have clinical anxiety? So with small dog parks all I see is the million of things that can go wrong and too many elements outside of my control. I don't like anything to be out of my control ever.
I agree with you, i see all the dangers, we take our bouys to places where no one can go, we go on private land with permission so they are safe,
My son see a little girl on a dog park with her dad she got knocked over by big dogs, it knocked the breath out of her, she came round but it was in the papers she had broken ribs and 1 broken leg. The fathers statement was too many large dogs off leash,
 

Nik

Well-Known Member
I agree with you, i see all the dangers, we take our bouys to places where no one can go, we go on private land with permission so they are safe,
My son see a little girl on a dog park with her dad she got knocked over by big dogs, it knocked the breath out of her, she came round but it was in the papers she had broken ribs and 1 broken leg. The fathers statement was too many large dogs off leash,

Ya that is just ridiculous. The dog park is for the dogs. If your child is too small to be around a bunch of off leash dogs including large ones then your child just doesn't belong there.

It reminds me of when I lived in San Diego and there was this great seal beach. The seals naturally hung out on this beach and there was this giant dock you could walk out on and watch them. It was really nice. And then some parent/ family group through a big stink and set in motion a plan to turn the seal beach into a children's beach. There are a million people friendly and child friendly beaches in San Diego. There was no reason to take the seal's natural area from them. And these families wanted the seals driven off because the danger they posed to their children. I know not all parents are so terrible but it seems like so many are so very entitled and have no common sense it really is one of my largest pet peeves. There are areas that are great for children and areas that aren't. And the really ridiculous thing is anyone with an ounce of common sense or intelligence would realize that the dock is a great learning opportunity and view point for teaching children about wildlife. Why ruin that opportunity for their own children along with everyone else? I used to go and glare at the families with children trying to infiltrate the seal beach area and then I would say rude things loudly about them hoping they would overhear me sometimes including colorful language purposefully so they wouldn't want their children on the beach near me. As I said my dog may be sweet and friendly. But, me... not so much.
 

Smokeycat

Well-Known Member
This dog was not large, much smaller than Zeela. I always say, nothing against pit bulls but they seem to be the only ones who causes us problems. This was a lab/pitbull mix. anyway, yes, adrenaline works wonders. It's a crap shoot when you go to the park as far as who will be there. Don't get me wrong, I've seen her get a little aggressive with dogs, however, I watch her & intervene.
Here the big dogs aren't the ones you need to look out for at the off leash areas I've gone to, with a couple exceptions, now that Kryten has passed thru puppyhood. Large Male German Shepherds were a problem when he was a puppy and their size. The dogs to watch out for tend to be under 10 lbs, they may not cause much damage but they try to start s*** and their owners tend not to realize just how lucky that tiny terror is so don't try and control the behavior. I'm lucky in that Kryten's reaction is to lift the front paw near it and pull away in confusion. Jiggers will snap back but usually a "leave the ill behaved rat alone" annoys the owner enough that they take the dog away.
 

Smokeycat

Well-Known Member
I agree with you, i see all the dangers, we take our bouys to places where no one can go, we go on private land with permission so they are safe,
My son see a little girl on a dog park with her dad she got knocked over by big dogs, it knocked the breath out of her, she came round but it was in the papers she had broken ribs and 1 broken leg. The fathers statement was too many large dogs off leash,

That reminds me of a time I witnessed a trail runner screaming at people to put their dogs on leashes because she was afraid of dogs. She choose a path that went thru an off leash dog area and really didn't like it when I pointed that out. On the flip side I have also witnessed a dog owner screaming at a runner for running thru the area. The woman had just passed me and it was obvious that she knew the dogs would be there and how to pass an off leash dog without problems.
Both of these occurred at the same off leash area. It's not a dog park, there are no fences and it defined by signs on the trails saying "leash required beyond this point" or "off leash area". Both cases were an example of misplaced entitlement.
 

glen

Super Moderator
Staff member
That reminds me of a time I witnessed a trail runner screaming at people to put their dogs on leashes because she was afraid of dogs. She choose a path that went thru an off leash dog area and really didn't like it when I pointed that out. On the flip side I have also witnessed a dog owner screaming at a runner for running thru the area. The woman had just passed me and it was obvious that she knew the dogs would be there and how to pass an off leash dog without problems.
Both of these occurred at the same off leash area. It's not a dog park, there are no fences and it defined by signs on the trails saying "leash required beyond this point" or "off leash area". Both cases were an example of misplaced entitlement.
Exactly misplaced entitlement, some people as i say have a bee in there bonnet and think they can just do as they like, then when an incident happens they blame everyone else.
I live in the countryside the road is narrow, it still gets quite busy with farm machinery ,horses ect, i walk my dogs on leash to the agility field our friends own, you would think this would be simple, we have people park cars at top of road open the door and let there dogs run off leash, mine are excellent on a leash thankfully, but the amount of arguments i have with these owners,
1. There dogs will get run over eventually
2. My dogs especially budcuss will not tolerate an over active aggressive dog chomping at them,
So when i say this to these owners and try to get them to understand this i often get the reply that my big dogs should be muzzled anyway. You can imagine my choice of words to these owners.
 

Zeela

Well-Known Member
I wish I had more places around to let her run free off the leash but where we live it is hard to find & NJ has alot of rules...too many!!! :mad:
 

April Nicole

Well-Known Member
Ya that is just ridiculous. The dog park is for the dogs. If your child is too small to be around a bunch of off leash dogs including large ones then your child just doesn't belong there.

It reminds me of when I lived in San Diego and there was this great seal beach. The seals naturally hung out on this beach and there was this giant dock you could walk out on and watch them. It was really nice. And then some parent/ family group through a big stink and set in motion a plan to turn the seal beach into a children's beach. There are a million people friendly and child friendly beaches in San Diego. There was no reason to take the seal's natural area from them. And these families wanted the seals driven off because the danger they posed to their children. I know not all parents are so terrible but it seems like so many are so very entitled and have no common sense it really is one of my largest pet peeves. There are areas that are great for children and areas that aren't. And the really ridiculous thing is anyone with an ounce of common sense or intelligence would realize that the dock is a great learning opportunity and view point for teaching children about wildlife. Why ruin that opportunity for their own children along with everyone else? I used to go and glare at the families with children trying to infiltrate the seal beach area and then I would say rude things loudly about them hoping they would overhear me sometimes including colorful language purposefully so they wouldn't want their children on the beach near me. As I said my dog may be sweet and friendly. But, me... not so much.

That's too bad about the seal beach. I would rather take my children there to see and learn about the seals than to have a children's beach. And I agree about a lot of parents feeling as though they are entitled. I always watch my kids and we constantly try to consider other people and other people's property. We have come in contact w soooo many parents that try to ditch their kids on us, I guess cause they see our children are well behaved, and think, " well she's got 6, what's 1 more." My girls have also stepped in plenty of times when parents were being neglectful, and prevented other children from getting hurt. All the while we are looking at the parents like," are u going to tend to your kid?" Also most of the neighborhood kids come to our house, which I'm fine with , cause I know my kids are safe w me. We had one young man come over w my son years ago, and he couldn't believe I would go in my kids room and have conversations w them. We sat down to dinner to eat, and the boy was amazed. He loved having a home cooked meal and sitting around a table. Funny thing is the kids parents are loaded! His dad is a radiologist and owns a jet. They have a huge house, fancy cars. The kid would have given up all that to have what we had. Quality time. He said his dad worked all the time, and his mom shopped all the time. He comes home to an empty house and a can of ravioli everyday. I felt so bad for him....Sadly people are just looking for some "safe" place to dump their kids off, so that they don't have to deal w them. That's why they didn't want the "unsafe" seal beach. They would then have to get off their a** and watch their kids!
 

Zeela

Well-Known Member
Good thing, this past weekend at the dog park, a pit bull came after me & Zeela was not having it, she got my back. That dog backed off...
 

EmelitaKuni

New Member
As many other owners said above, I don't trust the other owners, and it doesn't have to do anything with their dogs! I love my dog, and I don't want him to get into trouble and so forth. That's why I never take him to these sorts of parks. Besides all that, despite that, my dog understands me pretty well, and he is very obedient, but he is very impulsive. When something that he doesn't like is happening around him, he cannot ignore that. Honestly, when I was registering on truly thought that a Mastiff would be the best option for an emotional support pet.
 
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Cashel

Member
I stopped bringing my Bullmastiff to the dog park when he reached about 10 months in age. He was just a jolly guy who liked rolling around and running with other dogs but I sensed that he started to become a target for some breeds. Likely because he was/still is intact. The owners of the aggressive dogs always remained anonymous and just stayed in the background and let things happen. As my breeder once told me when I mentioned dog parks to her that one of these days the personality of my Bullmastiff could change and he could end up doing serious damage to a dog that is looking for trouble. It ends up being the owner's fault of the bigger dog no matter which dog started the trouble.
 

Bolushi

Well-Known Member
Don't know why people are using anecdotes of other breeds when a Dogo is a completely different thing lacking dog aggression. If they do get into a fight (And they usually don't instigate seriously) it's very gentlemen-like.
The Dogo is a boarhound, not a bulldog like a Pitbull or Corso or Boerboel etc. that would likely put their all into a fight and clobber another dog at the slightest provocation.
There is nothing to worry about with a Dogo at a dog park.