dog park problem

[bcalaska]

I have a 14 month old BC (Willie) and a 2 year old BorderJack(Wonka). I have had the BorderJack about 1month now, we adopted him from a rescue place. I take both the dogs to the park frequently. Initially, Wonka had problems with the other dogs and no recall, but can now go offleash becase his recall is reliable. He also goes to daycare 2X per week, where he is around 40-50 other dogs with no problems at all. When Wonka is off leash, he is great with all the other dogs except one---another border collie who is occasionally at the park. Today he saw this BC, bolted off and went into attack mode. Needless to say, my dog and I are not very popular with this owner and I feel really bad. Wonka had a mouth full of the other dogs fur but as far as I know the dog did not get injured.

 

The other BC's owner usually grabs her dog instead of letting her fight back-I think that is part of why it gets as escalated as it does. Any ideas? I love taking him to the park, but I am wondering if we should just avoid it. Is there anyway to get him over his dislike of this particular dog?

 

Thanks!!!!

[mosstheboss2000]

I wouldnt let me dogs fight back...this is how you create problems... I dont want to reinforce fighting and you shouldnt want to reinforce your dogs behaviour regarless of often it doesnt happen, letting them work it out could cause serious injury to either or BOTH dogs. While perhaps the other dog didnt get injured (this time!)think about the other behaviour isses that can be created by being attacked from accross the park! You would not be popular with me either

Perhaps your dog is stimulated by this BC because of its speed or movement. I say take him to the park but keep him on a long line attached to you so you can control him %100 of the time. If he takes off after this dog he recall is not

%100!!!! yet...

[bcalaska]

I am not saying I want them to fight it out, but when Wonka is with other dogs...he can get mouthy at times....when the other dogs stand up to him and put him in his place, he runs and hides behind me. I think this other BC would be fine if she was allowed to do that, but the owner tries to pick her up and shield her when my dog first starts barking and I think that makes it worse. I do pull him back the second he goes to far. Our trainer has urged me to let of off the lead all together-which has helped so much, except with this particular dog. This other BC can be fiesty, she has floored by BC a couple times and sent him away whimpering...

[Alaska]

First, here's another suggestion (the longline is a very good idea too). If the other owner is amenable, maybe you could work on having the two dogs be in each others presence *on leash* but far enough apart that they can both be calm. You should be able to decrease the distance gradually as they each learn that the other will not attack. Eventually, the two of you should be able to have a conversation while your leashed dogs sit at your sides. This may be enough to defuse whatever is causing Wonka to trigger when he sees this dog from a distance.

 

I do want to say that when *your* dog is initiating an aggressive encounter, you need to lose that idea that "if only the other person behaved differently, this wouldn't happen." You may be right, but it is your responsibility to keep your dog from initiating the encounter, not the other person's responsibility to resolve it, and especially not the other person's responsibility to use her dog to train yours.

 

It's possible that this other owner does not want her dog practicing aggressive behavior, and that's why she grabs her dog when Wonka approaches. If a strange dog comes barrelling straight at my BC, she will react with fear aggression, but I strongly prefer that my dog not use aggression to solve that problem, so I take charge and remove her from the situation until the other dog is under control. Because my dog has come to trust that I will prevent harm from coming to her, her fear of new dogs has decreased and she is ever better at handling unusual situations on her own. But to get to this point, I first had to stop her from responding to untoward approaches with aggression.

 

I didn't figure this out on my own, by the way. In one of our early dog park excursions, a small pack of 4-5 lab-types suddenly noticed my dog and came barreling her way. She looked at the bunch headed towards her, looked at me, looked back at them, and them turned to me and spontaneously jumped into my arms. That was a lightbulb moment for me. Oops, I had forgotten that as pack leader it was my responsibility to keep my pack members safe, but she reminded me that day, and things have been improving ever since.

 

There are a lot of good reasons to avoid dog parks, by the way. There are certainly plenty of places in Anchorage to take dogs besides the dog park

 

Dog Parks: Why They are a Bad Idea

 

There is a better article by Trish King called "Dog Parks: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" originally published in the APDT Chronicle of the Dog. It is copyrighted and so I can't provide a link to it, but if you search google for this article, google has a cached version that you can read in html format.

[flrpwr52]

What you described your dog did is exactly what happened to my Zoe, only it was 2 dogs that attacked her.

 

The first time the dogs were on their leads and the owner was able to hold them back, the second time he walked in the gate and let them go and they headed straight for Zoe.

 

I was able to get Ari out of the way as she was only 4 months old at the time and wouldn't have had a chance. Zoe was left for a short time to fend for herself and the fighting back didn't help the 2 attackers to back off.

 

The owner did nothing to stop the fight so I did what I had to do to protect my girl, I kicked the dogs until they backed off. Then I stepped in between Zoe and the other 2 dogs to be able to stop any more advances.

 

I had some friends at the park who came when the fighting started and helped with my pup and also helped me get Zoe to my car. I had to take her to the vet to get stitches on her neck due to the attack.

 

It is NEVER a good idea to let dogs "fight back" at the dog park. In my opinion if you don't have good control over your dog at all times you should never let the dog off leash anywhere.

 

Don't let your dogs become the bad dogs of the dog park. Take control now before things get worse and something bad happens to your dogs or another dog.

[CoRayBee]

Sometimes the simplest solution is the best, IMO....don't go to dog parks.

 

IMO people are asking for trouble if that many loose dogs are in the same area at the same time. A good portion of dog owners don't know the first thing about obedience and 9 out of 10 wouldn't know what to do to prevent a fight. (This isn't aimed at anyone, please understand- it's just an unfortunate truth. Most of us don't ever think we'll be in that sort of situation so it just doesn't cross the average dog owner's mind.)

 

I'm fortunate enough to live in an area with plenty of alternatives to the off-leash parks. We meet up with our share of other dogs and their owners, everybody says hello, and then we're on our way- the dogs are not forced to remain in close quarters with a group of strangers.

 

Rant finished...sorry about that. Just my two anti dog-park cents.

[border colliez]

I would never take my dogs to a dog park. There are too many other places to go. Going to a dog park, is just asking for trouble. If my dog were being attacked, I would pick him/her up as well, and give the attacking dog a swift kick. You wouldn't be very popular with me either, sorry! That's just the way it is. As well as the risk of being attacked, I would worry about disease as well.

[bobh]

I agree no dog parks for my dogs .

bobh

[bcalaska]

Hi All,

 

Thanks for all the good advice...I guess for now I should stick to just taking my well socialized dog to the park, and having Wonka work more on recall and social skills...I don't want him to become one of those "bad dogs" that I always try to avoid...because he really is such an awesome little guy....