Is it normal behavior for my dog to get to down in a crouch as another dog approaches? Am I ruining him by bringing him to the dog park?

Question

I have a nine month old Boxer-Lab mix, Zachary. He is fun loving - loves dogs and people, but I am wondering if I am making mistakes with him. I have been taking him to a local dog park since he was 4 months old. He loves it. This dog is fun loving and loves to play and romp with all dogs. But he is full of energy and he is very strong and some dogs don't want to be bothered. He will usually learn which dogs want to play and run and wrestle with him, but occasionally he will be too much for a given dog. At these times I will get his attention and put him back on leash to calm him down.

    Recently one dog at the park became quite aggressive with Zachary, not once but two or three times the dog came after Zachary and growled and lunged towards him. I immediately put Zachary on leash and took him home. Then another day at the park we ran into a Husky that was aggressive towards Zachary, growling and snapping. I immediately put Zachary on leash, informed the owner of the Husky of his dog's behavior, and took Zachary home.

    Now I have noticed that Zachary has a new behavior. Whenever I am walking him on leash and we see another dog up ahead, Zachary will go down in a crouch position and watch intently as the other dog approaches us. Since he doesn't want to move from this position I let Zachary stay like this. When the other dog gets near us, Zachary will get up to sniff the other dog and then he wants to play. One time it was two dogs and Zachary immediately rolled over on his back and exposed his undersides and belly in a very submissive position while he allowed the dogs to sniffed him up. When Zachary got up and we were leaving one of the other dogs snarled aggressively at Zachary.

    Here are my questions: Is it normal behavior for Zachary to get to down in a crouch as another dog approaches? Is it normal for Zachary to get in such a submissive posture for other dogs? Am I ruining Zachary by brining him to the dog park? He gets great exercise off leash there and he loves to go there, but I don't want to continue if it is harming him either psychologically or otherwise.

    Thanks
Joe

Accepted Answer

I wouldn't be taking him to a dog park; we don't feel they are healthy for most dogs. Sooner or later, your dog will be involved in fight. It's not IF, it's WHEN. He's becoming a young adult and as he becomes more mentally and physically mature I would expect more conflicts with other dogs as he tries to establish his rank.

We will take our dogs to a park ONLY to work our obedience with the distractions of the other dogs. We do not allow our dogs to interact with the dogs there at all, and if a dog were to approach us we would drive them away. This is only when we have a dog fully trained and we need to proof with distractions. Taking dogs to a dog park for exercise is not something we agree with. Dogs don't 'need' to play with dogs outside their family pack, and the time would be better spent playing with your dog yourself and working on training.

Read this article on Dog Parks.

Cindy