A Little Visit to the Dog Park

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

Okay, so most of you know my feelings about dog parks in general although I admit there are some out there that are good. Today DH, Tara and I ended up stopping by our local dog park just mostly out of curiosity. It has been some time since we were last there and have actually never gone inside.  We didn't go inside today either but stayed outside and observed.When we arrived the park was empty but soon they started showing up!!

Here is how things went:

1. Airedale.arrives with owner. They go into the little pre-park pen and she unleashes him. Opens the gate to the main park. Calls dog. He ignores her and stares at Tara. She continues to call him while complaining that he has been peeing on everything today. He continues to ignore her.  Finally she grabs him by the collar and drags him into the park.

 

2. Next up a Rott/Shepherd mix and his owner who is literally being dragged to the park by the dog. She is swearing and yelling at him to stop pulling and they enter the main park. The airedale runs to inspect the new dog and assumes a very dominant posture with him: standing tall, tail erect, ears erect, etc.  It was beyond a friendly posture. The Rott/Shep ignores the Airedale until finally the Airedale pees on him. This sets off the Rott/Shepard's owner and there is a minor skirmish between the owners but they calm down without biting each other.

 

3. In comes a GORGEOUS Labradoodle!! Woo Hoo!!   Well behaved and fixated on his owner and the chuck it ball the owner is holding. They enter the park and the other dogs flock to him although he shows no interest in them. They continue to try to inspect him until he gives them a loud growl which I interpreted to mean "get out of my face".

 

4. Suddenly there appears before us 2 unleashed pit bulls (we are still in the leash only area outside of the dog park) with no owner in sight. DH scoops up Tara not knowing if there is danger. One pit approaches DH curious about Tara but no problems occur. FINALLY the owner arrives and nonchalantly takes the dogs into the park once she finally convinces the larger one to come when she calls it.

 

I'm afraid the pit bulls running loose didn't set too well with DH and I could see he was about to get confrontational with the owner! NOT a good idea!!!  We made a hasty exit!!

 

So, I suppose you will not be surprised to hear that I'm still holding fast to my convictions about dog parks, especially my local park!! OMD!! 

[Sue, Murphy and Bella ()*o*()]

I know that everyone's experiences and opinions of Dog Parks are different, and I certainly am not going to change anyone's mind, but I have to share that our dog park is very nice, on top of a very large hill that overlooks the neighborhood and has pergoda's and seating and dog and people water fountains. I hold our monthly Arizona Doodle Romps there and we have a dozen or more doodles at a time with many other dogs and breeds and have never had a serious issue. During the winter we go several times a week and again have never had a problem with just our two.

The doods seem to have a blast most of the time, although they tend to stay together a lot and watch out for eachother. If another dog gets too close or looks wrong at Bella, Murphy is right in it's face. But more a "She's mine, so back off" kind of bark.

There are two seperate fenced parks and they alternate closing one and opening another while they clean and rest the grass for a week, so it's always kept nice. I have met some very nice people there and there are certainly "regulars" that seem to live there and know everybody's dogs and they seem to be the honorary neighborhood dog park "watchdogs" as they refill the donated grocery bag dispensers and just seem to know what's going on with everyone. 

I have seen many people pick up their own dogs poop and then pick up others also and it's become a trend for many to not ignore poop if you happen to walk by it. I never hear anyone complain about it, they just pick it up. One person even said she was sure she has missed a poop or two from her dogs, so she's making up for it by picking up extra.

In general there are "those people" everywhere and "those dogs" that just don't behave, but for the most part everyone seems to be very watchful and attentive of their own dogs. I hope it continues to be a positive experience for us and wish it was like this everywhere.

[F, Calla & Luca]

TG for the backyard! What an adventure fortunately without mishap.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

J & Luna- Yes, it is one of those small fenced in parks and it is right at a VERY busy intersection so you get the added bonus of inhaling car exhaust at the same time that you exercise your dog. Very well planned out-NOT!!

 

I don't know if there IS hope for this area to ever have a decent park. But we are fairly close to the wilderness so we hike forest trails.  But then you have cougars and bears to contend with so Tara still doesn't get off leash. :( It sounds like Luna had a great time! I'm happy you have a safe place to take her where she can have so much fun! Here are a couple pics of our park:

 

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

 

Donna-I hear ya!!

Jane- That would be one of my nightmare scenarios!!! LOL!

Lisa- I love that Daisy lets YOU know when it is time to go!! Takes some of the guess work out of it!! It sounds like she is a take charge kinda gal!! Takes after her mom!! LOL!

Karen:  LOL!  The only way I knew that doodle wasn't JD was because it was brown!! It could have been Daisy but it had LOOONG hair!!   I was surprised that the Airedale seemed to be the most dominant/borderline aggressive dog at the park! What you say makes sense though about the terrier attitude!

 

Jennifer- I was SO happy we were on the outside!  Until the Pits showed up!!OMD!!!

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

Sounds just like us. DH hates them. If that would have happened to us he wouldn't let them outdoors!!! LOL!

Good thing you observed from the outside!?!?!?

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

I wouldn't visit one of those smaller, fenced-in dog parks (if that's what you're talking about).  Luna is very submissive and could easily be cornered.

 

To give you some hope - we visited our regular off-leash park today and had a blast! 

 

Luna met another mini GD, they played chase around a big bush with a well-worn circular "track" from all the chase games that get played around it. A fiesty doberman tried to get Luna to chase, but Luna was having none of it because he was too big for her.  She came and sat on my feet, so he got frustrated and decided to run around in circles by himself instead. 

 

Luna came home happy and exhausted and slept for 3 hours!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I know it really isn't funny, but this did make me laugh. I'm glad the owners were able to settle things without biting, lol!

What you described is so typical, not just of dog parks and some dog owners, but also of the breeds themselves. What's really interesting is that while many of us are alert when we see Rotts, GSDs and pitts at the dog park, hardly anyone gets their guard up when they see an Airedale; but in fact, Airedales are notorious dog fighters. The "King of the Terriers" has all of the feistiness of the typical terier, with the size to back it up.

(FYI: Watch out for Kerry Blue Terriers; they're fairly rare, but many of them are not at all good around other dogs. There's one who goes to my vet, and he has to use the side entrance and be isolated from other animals while he's waiting to be seen.) So you can't always judge a dog by his cover   breed.

And if I didn't know better, I'd swear JD was at your dog park today:

"...a GORGEOUS Labradoodle! Well behaved and fixated on his owner and the chuck it ball the owner is holding. They enter the park and the other dogs flock to him although he shows no interest in them."

Yep, that's JD.

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

Ricki you just described to a T the way it goes at our dog park....Daisy would be #3 right down to the chuck it ball, although Daisy does not growl, she goes "BARK BARK BARK" right in their faces....most of the time they will back off but some do not and that is when we exit.

We haven't been since April when we met Ann, Mike, Joanne and Roger with all their dogs. It was raining and nasty out so the park was ours for the most part. Daisy did the "BARK BARK BARK" at our parties doodles towards the end signaling to us that it was time to go.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Wow, can you even imagine letting Tara loose with that bunch?  OMD is right.

[Donna K & Quincy]

Ricki, those are some pretty interesting observations. We have gone to the dog park a couple of times and while there haven't been any issues, I didn't feel very comfortable. My friend who has two choc labs takes her dogs all the time and has never had any problems, I am not willing to take the chance.