dog parks and pet walkers - Page 1

Any opinion about dog parks...off leash..dog walkers ...and introducing your puppy to new dogs on leash in the neighborhood. Thanks in advance.

Giebel, I am not a fan of dog parks. Sounds as though you don't need a dog walker from the earlier post. Dogs in the neigborhood. . . it depends. If you are dealing with a "pack" meaning more than one dog, try to stay away because these dogs will tend to behave differently than if they were without their "support group" and this could be intimidating to your dog. If one-on-one, much easier. Hope this is helpful. Don't worry so much.

Thanks sunshine for your advice..it is well taken and respected by you. take care

Not a big fan of dog parks either... Too much risks of catching stuffs. I don't like the idea of any dog being off lead. As for "The Pack" I wouldn't get to concern over that because you should ALWAYS be the alpha leader, I just wouldn't leave any children with a pack of dogs.

I HATE DOG PARKS I myself have been bitten at one, and when I corrected the dog, the owner yelled at me!!!good thing all the other people around me saw what happend. There are to many dogs and not enough owners watching thier dogs, they go there and then just let them run like wild heathens, and don't know how to correct their dogs and most of them have no training....it will only take one time for your pup to be jumped on atacked ect to have major issues around other dogs....personally I like to take my puppy with a friends dog that I know is in good health and a nice temperment and do my dog socialization that way....Brittany on this situation I have to say that you don't know what you are talking about...I have many clients that will call and tell me that they had their dog get jumped or rolled by a certain breed and from that point on the gsd hates that breed, could be that the owner is putting vibes through the leash that the dog is picking up on who knows....so I don't agree with it.... Dog Walkers...I have a few clients that use them and love them..they are gone for long periods of time and want the dog to have some exercise and interaction with someone during the day..you do have to be careful here also because you puppy will not know how to be alone and will then have seperation issues....but for a young dog, that is left alone for long periods of time I have seen them be a good thing. Hi Sunshine hope all is well with you. Heather

Brittany; Dog parks are accidents waiting to happen. There are many ways to socialize and exercise your dog without the dog park scenario. I agree with you on that point. However, you have also never been in a "pack" situation. You will NEVER be an aplpha around a pack of dogs that do not know you. In fact, there are instances when, even with your very own dogs that you will have a hard time being the alpha. A good example is two or more dogs of the same sex engaging in a dogfight. They lose thier minds! You can use all the corrections in the world, but they neither know you or hear you. You WILL get hurt if you attempt to separate them, and your very own dog might be the one that bites you. A dog park is an environment that is begging for something like this to happen, so don't be misled in thinking that you will have ANY control over the situation because you consider yourself the "alpha".

As someone who does GSD Rescue and therefore receives all kinds of phone calls and emails from people looking to dump their GSD, let me tell you how many times I hear from people who have been in a dog park and had a fight erupt between dogs, someone tries to intervene, gets bitten, the cops get called and all hell breaks loose. This is secondary to the fact that all too many people do not vaccinate their dogs, do not regularly deworm or have stools checked for parasites, and that dog parks are not places where people are fastidious about picking up after their dog, let alone seeing to it that the area in question is periodically disinfected. Dog parks are exactly as Königtum and others write: an accident waiting to happen. I will not respond to Brittany because she does not get it and sadly, never will.

The above observations are all true about Dog Parks. Do however have one hopefully humourous tale about bringing my at the time 5 year old female to the newly opened dog park in our area. She was not interested at all in the other dogs. Just stood by me, when other dogs came over sniffed them and greeted them. To animate her I had to use a toy and throw it. Everytime however when someone leashed their dog and left, she would come up to me and nudge me and point in the direction where they were going. She would move over to the gate and follow the dogs as they walked out of her field of vision. I think she was worried that someone was stealing the dogs. She automatically took responsibility. Those herding dogs. . .

Put a fork in it, this website is DONE!

Perhaps it is a reflection of my particular neighborhood, but dog parks and off-lead areas generally allow very positive interactions between dogs. There are occasional fights, but very rarely real injuries. Every morning I take my dog for an hour off lead in a pack of about 10-15 dogs. The dogs are familiar with each other, the owners keep a regular schedule. One important factor is that i live in a large urban area where nearly all dogs are neutered at a young age, so real aggression is less common. Owners of aggressive dogs don't leave them off lead. And yes, we all clean up after our dogs.