Thoughts on Off- leash parks - Page 2

Dog parks are terrible places. Dog parks are usually full of out of control dogs and lazy, uneducated owners. I would never bring Hunter there, I feel it would ruin his wonderful temperament.

"They are the invention of the devil and so are flexileads."

Let's not forget so-called "gentle" leaders.

workingdogz - exactly correct!

i take my for obedience work, they learn to focus with a distraction.....from outside the fence.

Ditto. Everything Keith said.

In a profound moment of stupidity, I brought my female GSD to a dog park once when we first bought her. We were there for under 10 minutes and we left with a giant vet bill. Dogs that are park regulars can gang up on and attack new dogs upon entering. I was very lucky that I wasn't seriously injured when I pulled off a huge male GSD that had pinned my dog and was delivering a beat down to end all beat downs. The male GSD's owner stood by and did nothing- at a complete loss to control his dog. My husband very nearly punched the GSD's owner out. Gah! Avoid dog parks.

Absolutely agree with all the above; terrible places that can undo months of training in minutes, and potentially you might be tempted to murder another dog owner!

Ronin

You couldn't pay me to take my dogs to one of those places. Festering pools of ignorance and irresponsibility. 

I don't take my dogs to urban dog parks.  But when I lived in central NY, there was a nice rural dog park I took my dogs to because there was rarely anyone there.  I was living in an apartment at the time without a back yard, so it was the only safe, fenced in area I could take them for exercise.

You cant really make blanket statements that all dog parks are bad, just the busy ones (which in hindsight is probably most of them).

if anyone did consider a park tho they would do it when the dog is an adult not when it is a pup i wouldnt take a pup near adult dogs as a puppy unless the adult dog is well known

We have a large dog park by my house and despite constant critisism from the people I train with I think they are great places to socialize.  I usually ride my bike there and by the time we arrive my dogs are tired.  They run around with the other dogs but alway follow me.  I have have very little troube with fighting or anything else.  I think both myself and the dogs enjoy our trips.  This discussion seemed to be a little one sided. 

yeah everytime i walk by i never see any fighting just a bunch of happy dogs having a blast but still i would not risk it with my dog i think some dogs have the dog park mentality and some dont my dog just isnt the type for it.  I think most gsd in general arent the type of breed for that kind of setting they get serious way to easy, they also seem to be way too rough. JMHO. Most dogs i see in those places are big mutts labs, boxers, goldens. They seem to be social with each other running around like big goofs. There is a warning sign enter at your own risk also.


Training around the fence outside the park is great idea which i am going to do lol