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.

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.

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:

Anonymous wrote:As a dog trainer specializing in fearful dogs, I guess I should thank dog parks for giving me a never ending supply of reactive, fear aggressive dogs to rehab after poor experiences in dog parks...

...but as a lover of dogs, I'd tell anyone who asked to never go. The massive risks far outweigh any minute benefits.

Lolz. Any normal person knows dog parks are fine for many dogs except those dogs burdened with the mentally ill, overly sensitive weirdo owners who lurk on this forum, worry about dog flu, and rant about how sweet pitties are misunderstood and it’s simply ‘moronic owners’ who aren’t ‘licensed’ to blame. Of course these owners aren’t smart, but it’s the PB advocates who are the true idiots because they should know better. They refuse to accept facts.

Imagine being this poster and thinking you sounded smart when posting wackadoodle non-sequiturs and nonsense like this. What a clown!

PP, not every thread is about "sweet pitties"... until you show your ass (again) and try to corrupt another thread. We all see you, and you don't sound sane.

Anonymous wrote:As a dog trainer specializing in fearful dogs, I guess I should thank dog parks for giving me a never ending supply of reactive, fear aggressive dogs to rehab after poor experiences in dog parks...

...but as a lover of dogs, I'd tell anyone who asked to never go. The massive risks far outweigh any minute benefits.

Lolz. Any normal person knows dog parks are fine for many dogs except those dogs burdened with the mentally ill, overly sensitive weirdo owners who lurk on this forum, worry about dog flu, and rant about how sweet pitties are misunderstood and it’s simply ‘moronic owners’ who aren’t ‘licensed’ to blame. Of course these owners aren’t smart, but it’s the PB advocates who are the true idiots because they should know better. They refuse to accept facts.

My dog only loves the people, not the dogs so much. Is an introvert.

Dog flu is another reason

As a dog trainer specializing in fearful dogs, I guess I should thank dog parks for giving me a never ending supply of reactive, fear aggressive dogs to rehab after poor experiences in dog parks...

...but as a lover of dogs, I'd tell anyone who asked to never go. The massive risks far outweigh any minute benefits.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our veterinarian and dog trainer think that dog parks are a terrible idea and we agree.

https://www.courteouscanine.com/say-no-to-dog-parks/

This is a random blog post by a dog trainer who conveniently also happens to be marketing her own (paid) socialization classes for dogs.

Anything else?

There are lots of dog behaviorists and trainers who post on the Internet about their negative views on dog parks. Is there some other expert out there whose advice would be meaningful to you? As far as I know there is no national association of such experts but if there is one I'd be interested to know about it.

In any case, our veterinarian and dog trainer are experts for our purposes and we follow their guidance.

Well here’s one study explaining that overall there is a benefit

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9455081/

That is a study about the design of dog parks.

The objective of this study is to synthesize and analyze various aspects of dog park design and management and to assess identified strategies for enhancing their benefits while mitigating their drawbacks. Following the PRISMA guidelines, a systematic study was conducted to synthesize the benefits, conflicts, and management strategies of dog parks, supported by Citespace.

Anonymous wrote:I took our rescue dog to various dog parks for years. She never really liked it. Would play sometime but mostly was only happy when she was there alone. Often she would just watch the other dogs play and wait to go home. She was a people dog, not a dog-dog. Eventually we stopped.

Most properly-trained dogs are "people dogs". This whole "dogs need other dogs" thing comes from a warped, species-specific idea of pack dynamics and "socialization". Socialization isn't playdates for your dog. It's socializing the dog to be a good canine citizen among humans.

I took our rescue dog to various dog parks for years. She never really liked it. Would play sometime but mostly was only happy when she was there alone. Often she would just watch the other dogs play and wait to go home. She was a people dog, not a dog-dog. Eventually we stopped.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because I don’t trust any dog outside of mine. I’m not risking my dog so your 70lb mut can mount her

So angry! Is your dog not spayed? Obviously you wouldn’t be welcomed in a dog park- your personality is not appropriate.

You need to train your dog. I get tired of it too. My dog is spayed but she doesn't deserve to be attacked by your humper dog who isn't or cannot control themselves and you refuse to step in.

DP. One of the problems today is just overall excessive anxiety that people and now their dogs exhibit. People are far too anxious to let their dogs be dogs and learn socializing from each other. Left with some freedom, a dog trying to hump another dog would quickly learn its lesson by being nipped. But that can’t happen because you have anxious people like Pp and others on this chain saying their dog is being ‘attacked’ and intervening instead of letting dogs learn from each other. People now crate their dogs, and keep them away from all other dogs except in special paid socialization classes etc. (Which is fine by all the pet behaviorists and trainers who make $ for this). Dogs are more neurotic than ever before. Plus because of all the rescue/pit bull savior types who refuse to put down dogs that clearly aren’t good family pets, the push to ‘adopt don’t shop’ and to spay/neuter early, you actually do have more inappropriately aggressive dogs out in the world today, and fewer good pets.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because I don’t trust any dog outside of mine. I’m not risking my dog so your 70lb mut can mount her

So angry! Is your dog not spayed? Obviously you wouldn’t be welcomed in a dog park- your personality is not appropriate.

You need to train your dog. I get tired of it too. My dog is spayed but she doesn't deserve to be attacked by your humper dog who isn't or cannot control themselves and you refuse to step in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.dogster.com/dog-health-care/benefits-of-having-dog-park-in-community

There are so many benefits to dog parks obviously. I often wonder if the same people who object to them so strenuously would also consider playgrounds for children a bad idea. The same arguments can be made for why these are a bad idea for children, but obviously no sane person would think to keep kids away from them!

It strikes me as part of the continued commercialization and humanization of dog ownership. It’s not all bad, but it is odd to see people running to say they need to enroll their dogs in socialization classes, hire dog behaviorists, etc. A little crazy imho

This is just some random article written by some random person.

Here's a different article written by a random person who happens to a certified dog behaviorist: https://www.mghcanineconsulting.com/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-the-truth-about-dog-parks.html

Like most things in life - there are good things and bad things about dog parks and we don't need to judge others for the decisions they make that have no impact on our own lifes.

End of thread.

Wait, aren’t you the one getting angry about dog owners and calling people morons etc?

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