Help - Becoming Aggressive at the Dog Park

[BarbaraWNJ]

Thank You Again

Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences. It seems the problem is simply that boxers play rough and tumble and are such high energy dogs that it's tough to keep them from over doing it at the dog park. My problem is not only that Samantha can be a holy terror - and yes, she does go after the retrievers and dominates them - but walks are useless. She doesn't expend any energy with even a very long walk. She might be entertained and amused as she sniffs her way and even with a brisk walk of good length she's still not tired out at all. On Dec 11th she'll be 1 year old and from what I've been told by other boxer owners, it's another 1 year of this before she begins to calm down.

For those of us who have to work long hours, dog parks are indeed the place for our pups to exercise and expend their energy. There just isn't any other choice. With a dog that plays rough, it's a problem and when I take her out of the park because she's been a bad girl, I truly feel sorry for her which, I suppose, is not the right attitude. Oh well.

 

[CosmoH]

Hi

I'm glad you posted this. We have 2 puppies - Murphy (7 month old golden retriever) and Lance (6 month old boxer). There's a great dog park about a mile from us and we try to take them every day, for at least 45 minutes. Murphy loves to fetch and Lance is mr. social.

The issue we have is more with Murphy. But both have a thing for timid dogs. Lance gets OCD about them, and is all over them but in a playful way. Though for a timid dog this just makes them more neurotic, having this 50lb boxer puppy bouncing all over and nipping at them. Then enter Murphy, 60+ lb golden who goes from 0 to 60 when he sees this, but is beyond just playing. He goes after the dog pretty hard, scaring the crap out of them basically. He's never injured a dog and I think it's mostly just being vocal and scary versus vicious. But to the owners of the scared dog, well it just comes off slightly bad :D Then the owner picks the scared dog up, and Lance is jumping up to get at it. And I'm getting the stink eye.

After a few incidents, we're doing the following with Murphy. Whenever a new dog shows up, we hold onto his collar and gauge the new dogs level of nervousness. If it shows any signs of being scared, I ask the owner if their dog is shy/submissive. Most of the time it's just in the first few minutes after arrival, then the dog warms up. I tell them up front about his not liking timid dogs, just in case something happens they're not shocked. So I just hold onto Murphy until the other dog calms down. If he just sits there and is calm, lots of praise. Any signs of aggression/excitement then we correct and distract him. If I don't feel comfortable with letting him go play, I put his leash on and explain his "issue" to the owner of the other dog and ask if I can have him check their dog out while on his leash. Most people are fine with it. After he's had the chance to do that, he's been fine. If for some reason he does get riled up we immediately correct him, then give him a time out in the car.

I'm with you, if they couldn't go to the park they'd never get enough exercise. When it's nice and the park is crowded we can stay there for over an hour.

Good luck!

 

[jimseabee]

It might distract them but if they are really ramped up it might not make any difference at all. My girl is very scappy and I have trained her to come to a whistle but I need to get her to come before a fight-once she is in it forget it :( I really avoid dog parks for the very reason everyone is talking about. They tend to be used for exersize so all the dogs are pretty wired going in. For my boy that is fine as he has no interest in "trouble" but my girl just does not belong there. She has arranged playdates with certain dogs she gets along with. As far as breaking it up once they start sometimes throwing a blanket over them will startle them or blast them with a hose-but good luck having those handy in the dog park. With my girl as she does not bite I can usually get her off but if the other dog is retaliating I have to be sure the other owner will get a hold of their dog-and that should always be done from the rear of the dog.

This is exactly why dog parks are not a good Idea.