Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I loved the dog parks when mine was a puppy. The concept is great for the dogs and owners that it fits. But around two, he became less predictable and fussier about which dogs he liked. He's big and bulky, so that made me nervous he could inadvertently hurt a smaller dog, especially if startled.

Also, some owners get how dogs correct each other, but plenty don't know and think the dog is being aggressive when they didn't properly observe the preceding behavior by the pup behaving badly.

This is exactly it. It’s often high strung owners

Anonymous wrote:You thinking poodles are not aggressive or that you can judge this by a look says your opinion on dog behavior or dogs in general is woefully uninformed. That and you thinking you could possibly know a dog better than it's owner. By looking at it.

Anonymous wrote:I love dog parks but it seems that a lot of people on here can’t handle any stress at all, and despite claiming they know so much about dogs, they don’t seem to understand how dogs behave and learn from each other. It is no wonder there are so many reports of reactive dogs by the people on here. If you go to some of the parenting posts on here too, there are also some clearly high anxiety people who post.

Every dog I’ve ever had has done very well in dog parks. But that is partially because I don’t catastrophize every interaction. As example, there’s a dog we see regularly who always tries to hump my dog. Ok, my dog nips at him when she gets tired of it. I don’t flee the park, swearing to never go back because my dog was ‘attacked’. This last week, my dog took another dogs ball and the dog went after my dog fairly aggressively. My dog yelped and dropped the ball. Lesson learned. None of these interactions would make us stop going to a dog park, and my dog (and me) are stable and flexible enough not to be terrified by these normal interactions. It seems that many people on here are egg shell, and they end up with egg shell dogs. It’s unfortunate for their dogs.

The only exception to this I have is pit bulls. I don’t trust them - their kill instinct is too strong- and we avoid playing in parks with them.

Anonymous wrote:Socializing =/= interacting with other dogs.

Appropriate puppy "socialization" should really be named "acclimation". You want your puppy to think seeing other dogs/people/trucks/noises/surfaces/textures is normal and not worthy of any kind of response, positive or negative. It is just normal.

A dog park is not socialization in any good way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You thinking poodles are not aggressive or that you can judge this by a look says your opinion on dog behavior or dogs in general is woefully uninformed. That and you thinking you could possibly know a dog better than it's owner. By looking at it.

?? Who said poodles are never aggressive? I didn’t. Did another poster? Link? My point is that an aggressive poodle does not kill. A pit bull can and will.

And yes, certain breeds have been bred to be aggressive and also bred to kill- versus a retriever who is bred to retrieve and with a soft mouth. I won’t take a chance with those breeds bred to kill. This is common sense and what most people believe.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We adopted a rescue at about 3 years old. He is very reactionary and unpredictable with other dogs. We don’t take him to the dog park because we’re concerned about safety for the other dogs. OP you are very judgy and you don’t know every dog’s story.

I'm not OP but I'm another poster who appreciates dog parks. Do you not see that part of your dog's reactivity is likely because he was never socialized properly?

Anonymous wrote:We adopted a rescue at about 3 years old. He is very reactionary and unpredictable with other dogs. We don’t take him to the dog park because we’re concerned about safety for the other dogs. OP you are very judgy and you don’t know every dog’s story.