They do not have Dog Parks over here in Belgium
At least i have never seen one, In Fact i have only ever seen one park at all with people in it, and certainly there were no Dogs in there
If People live in the city and walk there dogs then they carry a poop bag, rarely do you see Dog excretment on the paths in a town or city

The most common "accidents" or incidents as they should be known at dog parks I've heard of is a small dog being killed by larger dogs. Usually this involves an owner never even considering that their pet can appear to be a prey animal, hurt badly by rough play, or could make an doggy error of judgement and instead of getting what would be a nick correction by another dog, bones are broken and lungs are crushed. Even a muzzled dog can kill a toy dog or small terrier rather easily.

I personally take my dog's safety in public as a very real danger and mostly my responsibility because I make the judgement of where I take my dogs, who is allowed to interact with them, and what behavior I allow from them. Three of my dogs weigh less than 10 lbs and two of those less than 5lbs. I try to avoid allowing them to mingle with larger dogs at all over 20 lbs including my own lab.

One of my lesson learned moments was a day when I was walking two of my papillons on leashes at my grandfather's beachhouse. Walking past another house I noticed a pit and a lab/husky mix barking up a storm behind a rather short fence while their owners were drinking about 20 feet away. My walk continued another mile and I turned around to head back and as I was walking past that house again the pit jumped the fence and was making a beeline for me and the two pups. I dropped the leashes and stepped on them and caught this pit by the collar as he was rushing for my two dogs. I was standing between this dog and mine and he didn't even hesitate when I yelled at him. This dog didn't even look at me while I hung him from his collar. He was in drive and my little furballs were just confused. This dogs owner walked out and yelled "she's not mean!" and as he took his dog's collar from me said "She's never seen anything that small before, but she's friendly." I just said he needed to tie up his dog or get a taller fence because next time there wouldn't be another chance to.

I said this was a lesson learned moment and I did bear some responsibility in this incident even though much to my joy it didn't result in damage to either of my dogs. My first piece of responsibility was that I was walking two dogs with nothing in hand to defend them with which is my responsibility. I cringe to think of what would have happened if this dog had not been wearing a collar or the second dog jumped the fence. Second was not recognizing a potential threat and personally acting upon it by simply taking another route and instead relying on someone else's dog training or lack thereof and confinement which is unknown to me.

Bringing a small dog to a dog park is playing russian roulette with your dog's life since even when under the best circumstances someone else's big dog can ruin your day. In the end your dog's safety is your responsibility and very rarely is the owner of the dead dog completely without fault.

I used to take George to the dog park every great once in a while. But he doesn't want to play with the other dogs and gets grumpy when they try to take his beloved tennis ball, so now if I go it's at 8 in the morning on a weekday so he can go swimming (which he's obsessed with).

Sounds to me like George has his priorties in order. I like the way he thinks.

I think the idea of a public use space is a really great one. Maybe existing doggy day cares could open their facilities to dog owners in the evenings and make some extra money.
My lab was always on leash around other dogs but I let him off-leash all the time to chase his ball in the park(not dog park). Our area has a little known law that says that you don't have to have a dog on a leash if you are training them to hunt so I wasn't worried about getting ticketed for it. His off leash obedience was perfect as far as the recall went and he didn't care about meeting other people or dogs. I don't know how I ever would have given him enough exercise on a long line.

Reston Virginia has a dog park separated into two fenced sections, one for dogs under 25lbs and one for the bigger guys. It works quite well.

Often, but not always, there is a trained "chaperone" to make sure that dogfights don't get deadly. I know of one case where a German Shepherd attacked a little terrier. The chaperone broke it up and the Shepherd was banned from the park.

Here in Arlington, there is a fenceless park that runs up into the woods and down into a stream. The fact that the stream is polluted is posted and owners take their chances. I don't know of any dog who has gotten sick nor do I know of any serious dog fights. I think the chances of catching something from another dog or getting into a fight is lessened if there is a great deal of territory for the dogs to roam. At any rate, I've been taking my mutt there at least once a week for a couple of years and we're both thriving.

 Quote: marjorie kay

Reston Virginia has a dog park separated into two fenced sections, one for dogs under 25lbs and one for the bigger guys. It works quite well.

Often, but not always, there is a trained "chaperone" to make sure that dogfights don't get deadly. I know of one case where a German Shepherd attacked a little terrier. The chaperone broke it up and the Shepherd was banned from the park.

Marjorie, doesn't sound like the Reston Virginia plan worked "quite well" to me. Not if they needed a trained "chaperone" who wasn't always there, anyway, and most certainly not if a shepherd managed to attack a little terrier.

And keeping dogfights from getting deadly...what can I say to that??
So it's OK if the dogs fight as long as no one gets killed? I can't see that it's OK for dogs to be fighting at all.

You're idea that "more space" makes for a safer dog park is wrong, too. We have an 80 acre farm and I don't walk my min pins on it outside of our fenced in area without a sidearm and a big stick because we ALSO have feral dogs and pet dogs allowed to pack up and run loose in our immediate area. My pistol has saved our bacon twice now.
And I can't believe you let your dog play in a polluted stream. No harm so far doesn't mean no harm at all.

Dog parks are a good idea gone bad and you couldn't pay me to take my dogs to one.

Edited by Janice Jarman (04/29/2008 11:10 AM)
Edit reason: had more stuff to say

Hi Marjorie,

The thing we don't like about dog parks is not that the dog fights are not serious, it's that they happen... in any form.

Dogs growl, posture etc to let the other dogs know THEY want to be top dog. This might be ok in the wild, but since the majority of people take their dogs to parks to make friends, it shows they don't understand how dogs' minds work.

It would be like taking your child to a playground and allowing bullies to pick on him as long as they don't hurt him.

It is neither fun nor healthy for your dog to get into a confrontation with another dog.... for the simple fact that YOU are supposed to be the leader of your pack and by allowing your dog to be put in that position, you are showing weakness to your dog which, in the end, is detrimental to your relationship with your dog.

(you and your being used as a general term, not meaning you directly).

 Quote: Ashley Hiebing

I used to take George to the dog park every great once in a while. But he doesn't want to play with the other dogs and gets grumpy when they try to take his beloved tennis ball, so now if I go it's at 8 in the morning on a weekday so he can go swimming (which he's obsessed with).

This is another thing that is bad in a dog park is people bringing toys it is the perfect thing for starting a fight over resource guarding. I went with a Jolly ball one time and another dog went for it, my dog freaked she went right into resource guarding mode. Gotta keep the toys apart from them!

I've gone early to, but that is usually the time when the people with the non social dogs go thinking they won't have to deal with other like minded animals.

The Dog park where we are is probably 100 acres dotted with trials and multi use for biking and crosscountry skiers. The last time I went early after dropping the kids at school, I brought the chuck-it and was throwing merrily away. Then off in the distance I could hear a woman screaming as her dog was getting the crap beat out of it. I'm thinking this is just not a happy place ... it could be and has been. But for the most part it is a crap shoot and the odds are just to stacked to really mess up your dogs.

Rather than the "official" dog park in my area (about 3 miles or so,) I go by the regular human park, head inside the baseball diamond -- fenced in by 4 foot high chain link -- and let Casey fetch after a tennis ball in there. We go around 5:00 am. First, because nobody is around that time of day (what sort of fool would get up at 4:30 to walk a dog, anyway?) and second because Phoenix summers get mighty warm mighty early. 5:00 am is generally the only time it's not 90+ degrees.

For pure running, she'll happily run beside my bike. For miles.

And miles.