Bad Dog Park Experience

[Karen P]

I decided today was the day that I was going to take Chewie to his first indoor dog park. He has been to doggie daycare a couple of times and loved it. So I thought we were ready for the next social outing. I was wrong. Chewie is 5 months old and weighs 25 lbs. So really he was too little for the big dog room. All of the dogs were German Shepard size or larger !! So we went to the small dog room. Well there was this little Shitz Zu (sp?) that he would not leave alone. He was just playing but her owners thought he was too big and might hurt her. So they kept correcting him while I was trying to and it did not go well. He was so excited that he was not listening to me when I would call him. He listens to commands really well at home. We are taking puppy classes right now and train everyday at home. Is he too immature at 5 months to take to the dog park?

[Lorraine Bromley]

I took Neely when he was young as it is a great place to work on recall especially. You can keep him on lead for the first while too. I always made Neely sit and wait when we entered. Then did a walk around on leash to say hi make him sit, come ect. Trying to keep focus on you and what you are trying to command. Then release him on a long lead so that you can use the recall at anytime and correct him if he doesn't automatically respond to come. Wait is also a great one to work on there. Off is a good one too. Leave it is another one especially with other dogs who are protective of their toys. If they can learn to follow commands while extremely exited there you can be pretty sure they will listen to you in an emergancy situation or just all the time. Its hard and you havve to work for a little bit at a time then play.

[Linda,Yankee & Finn]

He is not too young or immature to take to the dog park. I took mine as soon as they had all their shots at 4 months old. Different experiences all the time, some good, some bad . You learn to deal with them as they happen. It's important for your dog to meet many dogs and interact.

I've run into owners like that. They don't know how dogs play so they freak when another dog comes near theirs. Don't worry about it.

[Tammy & Gracie]

It very well might have been just that dog or his overconcerned owners. As a puppy I found Gracie always did better with the larger dogs because she just plays really rough. Even now, there is a standard LD that is not allowed to play with Gracie by his owner because they think Gracie is too rough. Gracie is a mini, half his size! He is just a little too protected by his owners. As a 60 pounder he goes to the small dog side! Keep at it, next visit you may meet a totally diffetent crowd!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I don't think he's too immature at five months for the dog park. I know they sometimes play rough, but they're dogs. If they aren't being aggressive and they're just playing, that seems okay to me. Maybe it was the other owners that overreacted??? Guinness goes to an indoor dog park where the big and little dogs are mixed. Sometimes things look like they're getting rough, but there is always a trainer in the room, so I really don't worry. She looks for signs of aggression from the dogs, and if she sees that, they have to leave. I have only seen that happen once. She carries a water bottle, and puts a quick stop to mounting or other signs of dominance. Other than that they jump, smell, and chase each other and have a great time. He's been going since he was four months old. Once he's off lead in the dog park I pretty much let him do his own thing as long as he comes to me when I call him (and so far he has). Maybe we've just had good experiences. I do not take him to the regular dog park, because there is no monitoring or control, and there are unstable dogs who I would rather avoid.

[Joe R.]

How big are the dogs he's with in the daycare? Might have just been this particular dog. I would had to say something to the owners of the other dog about not correcting him while you were doing it also. It would have been different if you did nothing.