Curtis, just to give you an idea of what can go wrong, let me tell you the story of my dog. I adopted him about a year and a half ago, I think he's a border collie mix. His last known owners took him to the beach and let him (he's 50+ pounds) play with someone else's chihuahua. These people thought the dogs were "running around and having a good time together" and next thing they knew, the chi was dead. I don't know the details of what happened, but the bigger dog did kill the chi. After this incident they put him in a shelter, where some good rescue folks tried to get him adopted to a better family. Long story short, he ended up with me, and I would never ever ever take him to a dog park, or let him play with a small dog. He has a wicked prey drive and is obsessed with small animals. He's not so great with bigger dogs either.

So, ignorant owners are not just a "pain in the neck," they can cause serious damage. Be very very wary of the ignorant owner!

Curtis,

Personally, I don't like dog parks. There are just too many lazy, ignorant people there ignoring their dogs and socializing with other people doing the same thing. From my experience, the prevailing reasons most people take their dogs to a dog park is to allow their dogs to play with other dogs (of unknown socialization and temperament) in one "big happy dog play day", or they are "socializing" their dogs by turning them loose in a pack of strange dogs (again of unknown temperament or socialization) in what looks to me like loosely controlled chaos. Like the woman you encountered, many of these people are completely misguided (insane?) in their take on dog behavior, and thus their unruly, unsocialized dogs are allowed to run amok unchecked by common sense. Although some knowledgable people do take their dogs to dog parks to work in a distracting enviornment, I prefer not to with the dog I have now.

Not too long ago, I had an experience similar to yours with my dog at a dog park - of sorts. I had just moved to Wyoming from So. Cal and took my dog to a beach on a riverbank close to my home. We arrived early in the morning and worked on a little tracking and a little OB. Afterwards, we took a long walk upstream followed by a swim. Upon returning, the previously deserted beach was packed full of people and loose dogs. We had to walk through the throngs of people and loose dogs to get to my car, so I put my dog on heel and we picked our way through the crowd. About halfway through the crowd, a large, intact male came up behind my large intact male and before I knew it, was trying to hump him. Needless to say, it was not a good moment. My dog spun around and gave him the ugliest snarl complete with a show of every one of his pearly whites. The other dog backed off a little, but then almost instantly tried to do it again. That time I got in front of him, gave him a loud "No!" and kicked him square in the ribs. That seemed to do it and he went on his way to try to hump another unsuspecting dog. What amazed me is that all the while the owner was standing four feet away - doing nothing. When I confronted the guy, he just shrugged and said, "yeah, that's what he does to all the dogs...". I doubt he would have been so cavalier had my dog maimed or killed his dog.

I should add that it was my responsiblity to keep that incident from happening to begin with, which I failed to do. I was lucky that things didn't escalate into a much uglier confrontation.

The question I have is why take your dog to a dog park for distractions? If you're training and are in the distraction phase there are far more safe and easier ways to create distractions than being at a dog park.

I find it is best if you have dogs that are under control to serve as distractions or who themselves are already obedience trained to ignore distractions. Taking a dog and trying to train them to avoid distractions among a bunch of untrained dogs who are going to go for them the second they get a chance isn't really the best learning environment.

The only advantage I see to dog parks is that some have nice ponds that your dog can swim in and finding a pond that is dog friendly is pretty hard in my neck of the woods. If you can go to a dog park say in the middle of the day or early morning during a work week then maybe go, but at all times use caution.

I love dog parks! It keeps all the people and dogs I want to avoid in one place.

That cracked me up! Thanks for the laugh, Mary! <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

i know ur supposed to chase other dogs off, but dont you feel weird when you do, i try to do it but most dogs dont seem to care they continue over

i mean i try shouting go-away but generally it doesnt work do any of you ever find this?

The part that just kills me, of course, is that while she & her mutant "Mal-Berian" (or whatever it really is) were both being total a-holes, the bitch has enough nerve to insult YOUR well-mannered dog >=(