Do you take your dog to the dog park? Ever had any problems? Does your dog have canine friends other than the ones who live in your house? Do you go to the dog park for your dog, or for yourself? (I need a puppy fix every so often or I start to get sad.)

-- Anonymous, February 05, 2001

Answers

i get my puppy fix at work every day, but my dogs love to go out to socialise with other dogs. many people are afraid of rottweilers but all my kennel club friends know my dogs are fine and they socialise well with most dogs. my adult male does not like other large adult male dogs who try to dominate him, but i am well aware of this and wouldn't ever put him into that situation. he is fine with smaller and non dominant males and all puppies and females.

my friend has two of my 'beauty school dropout' dogs (didn't make it as show dogs), a miniature bull terrier and a standard poodle and they come over all the time to play. we take them out in the field (20 acres) and let them run and swim and chase the cows through the fence and it's great!

no dog park in rural northern ontario unfortunately...

-- Anonymous, February 05, 2001

My dog Zuli loves the dog park...goes insane as soon as she can tell we are going in that direction. She's not too interested in most of the dogs, unless they like to chase. I love to go there probably more than her. I pick out the next breed of dog I'm going to get, talk about dogs unashamedly with the other people and pet all the puppies. We rarely have problems althought last time, Zuli got snarled at by a whippet, which was quite silly since she's a 70 pound shepherd. That doesn't bother me as much as the owner...grrr...."is that dog bothering you?" Hmm, considering your dog came up to mine, I think your dog's just bitchy. Zuli has tons of other doggie buds, like Team Ridgeback (two crazy running Rhodesian Ridgebacks) and Mick, her heeler boyfriend. Nothing better to make you grin that too dog jumping, running and acting like fools.

-- Anonymous, February 05, 2001

My 16 year old dog is a suburban terrier who was transplanted to the city 2 years ago. We started going to the dog park so I could make friends and so he could romp in the grass. At this point, he's completely blind and mostly deaf. It makes me sad to see him wandering blindly around the park, but at the same time, he's at his best when he's there. He loves the attention he gets from the other humans and it makes him feel like a tough guy when he snarls at the other dogs who sniff his butt too vigilantly.

-- Anonymous, February 05, 2001

I haven't discovered any dogs parks here. Oh, sure, there are places where people let their dogs run off-leash, but I don't know of anywhere where its legal. I don't think it's fair to the non-dog humans to let the big gregarious thing off the leash.

But I loved 'em when I lived in Minnesota. The best was when a big pack would gather and run huge circles 'round the circumphrence of the park. They all looked so in the moment, racing in a pack.

And I like the owners, and the way people remember you by your dog. And the way you learn stuff about your pooch by the way other dogs and people make friends with him.

Howard, by the way, is the dog that all other dogs want to hump. It doesn't bother me (nor him) but the other owners get nervous and apologetic.

-- Anonymous, February 05, 2001

Yeah, the other dogs like to hump Doc, too. He's good natured about it when it's a puppy, because he knows how to deal with it -- he kneels down, lets the puppy hump away at his back, and then stands up, causing the puppy to fall off on the other side. Then he laughs. (Trust me.) He did that to Keaton on Saturday, and he used to do it to Mochi all the time.

He runs away if an older dog tries to do it, though. Or tries to hide behind me.

I want to clarify so that Cathy doesn't think her breed has been maligned: I like Rottweilers and we haven't had problems with them at the dog park. These particular ones, and their owners, just looked a little sketchy. The shock collars did nothing to make me feel better.

-- Anonymous, February 05, 2001

There aren't nearly as many Rottweilers at Glen Hall as there are at Howe. In fact, our dog is the meanest dog I've ever seen at Glen Hall. THere's a bull mastiff that hangs out down there named Zeus, but he's pretty much harmless.

-- Anonymous, February 05, 2001

Oh, yeah, we've never seen any mean dogs over there. We don't go there very often because Mochi would run away (we need a way to confine her) and Doc hates water, so it's not much fun for him.

Have you been to the one on South Land Park/Fruitridge yet, Stasi? It's definitely the nicest one in Sacramento.

-- Anonymous, February 05, 2001

There's a wonderful dog park in Sydney - Centennial Park, which is just enormous. People come from all over to walk their dogs there. There's a big group of people who just sit and chat, and they're all incredibly eccentric with eccentric dogs (a bloodhound, a boston terrier, etc). Then there's the people who walk briskly, the people who are forever digging jack russells out of rabbit holes, and the ubiquitous idiots (most of whom, I'm sorry to say, own either Shar Peis or Samoyeds. Why is this so?)

We love it - we go from one end of the dog-infested bit to the other, and the puppy, who is as fast as a miniature poodle but not quite as fast as a whippet, so he likes to find similarly quick little terriers and play chasings with them for HOURS.

I took some photos of the regular Saturday doggie gathering - here.

-- Anonymous, February 05, 2001

OH MY GOD THAT IS THE CUTEST PUPPY EVER!!

Anna, could I convince you to ship him over here? I wonder how long he'd have to be quarantined...

Augh. Need puppy. Beth, stop me. Need puppy. Neeeeeeeeeed pupppppyyyyyyyy...

-- Anonymous, February 06, 2001

Yeah, but I'm a puppy enabler, remember?

But you can't have a Manchester Terrier. Little dogs -- even feisty ones -- get run over at the new dog park. It's a simple matter of gravity; the big dogs work up speed on those hills, and just smash right into the Jack Russells and what not. You need a nice big dog so we can go there and meet boys.

Oh, uh, did I say that out loud? I mean, so our dogs can romp and play in the sunshine. That's what I meant.

-- Anonymous, February 06, 2001

Man, I'm already contemplating my answers for the adoption questionnaire at http://www.doberescue.com

I need help. Is there such thing as Puppies Anonymous?

-- Anonymous, February 06, 2001

Beth--last night, Ian mentioned that Keaton looks a bit like a salamander. That would explain his creepy-cute dinosaur head.

Mar--if you have puppy fever, steel yourself for the dog park. I left wanting a ridgeback, a middling mutt, and god help me, a standard poodle. Even the Old English sheepdog was appealing. You can play with our puppy soon enough (in the next few months?).

-- Anonymous, February 06, 2001

Mar, thanks - actually *ahem* I've applied to do a Masters degree at UC Davis and we'd be bringing the little guy with us, probably - apparently it's only an inspection at the airport on the way over, and 30 days quarantine on the way back. So it may actually happen! I could bring him to the dog park as long as he's not going to get eaten by attack dogs or rabid squirrels or anything.

Beth, our little MT is a boy magnet. My brother LOVES taking him for walks because of all the attention - he's a little dog but he looks like a little toughie, so guys like him. And my bro. likes guys ... *snicker*

-- Anonymous, February 06, 2001

Oh man! I want a dog park!

We have almost an acre and a half of property, so I let the dogs just play there together and it's just like a park. But I would love to be able to play with other dogs and I know Ginger would too.

Ginger is the youngest of my three dogs, at almost 2 yrs old (I can't believe she's that old already! It seems like we just got her yesterday). She absolutely LOVES to play, especially if there's snow outside (she's half husky). But the other two dogs, Brandy (4 yrs) and Mack (7 yrs) don't love to play as much as her. If it's cold Brandy doesn't even want to go out. If it's snowy Mack just wants to do his business and come back in.

Everyone in my area has as least as much land as me, so no one really needs a dog park. But *I* need a dog park.

-- Anonymous, February 06, 2001

*reading on* Mar, he's a Manchester Terrier as Beth said, not a dobermann - that's probably the most answered question in my entire existence. We want to get a printed card saying:-

Question 1 - No. Question 2 - This is as big as they get. Question 3 - Yes, I'm sure.

(the questions being - Is he a dobermann? How big will he get? Are you sure?)

The most amusing thing anyone ever asked was was he a dachshund? Someone else asked me if he were a ridgeback/dobermann cross, based on the colour/a little swirl of hair on his back. Hee.

-- Anonymous, February 06, 2001

Well, it's kind of hard to tell his size from those pictures. He does look an awful lot like a Doberman pup - of course I could be projecting because I had one when I was a little girl.

He's cute either way, though I'm less apt to like him because he's so small. ;)

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2001

Drawback number one of the dog park: your dog can pick up really disgusting stomach ailments. Boy, howdy.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2001

Wow, Beth. Do you really think that's how your dogs got sick? I mean, I guess it sounds plausible, but has your vet said as much? I ask cuz we take our dogs to that park most weekends, and I'd hate for them to go through what your's are.

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2001

There were sick dogs all over the park both days. Bad diarrhea issues. They aren't really around other dogs except at the dog park, and whatever they got was obviously contagious since Mochi seemed to catch it from Doc.

When you talk to a vet about the dog park, you'll probably get that little head shake and a reminder to make sure they're up to date on their shots. Our last vet really hated dog parks for this very reason.

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2001

Damn, that's really too bad. But forewarned is forearmed, so thanks for the heads-up. Sorry your guys had to learn the hard way.

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2001

My vet says that the best way to pick up any infection is to let your dog use a communal drinking bowl. Our dog park doesn't have drinking facilities for dogs, but the cafe in the park which a lot of people with dogs go to does, and people look at me as if I'm cruel for not letting my dog drink from the bowls provided with the dinky individual dog tie-out things (there's got to be a word for that).

-- Anonymous, February 09, 2001

Ok, I'm new to the dog park experience and I just have a question.

A few days ago, I took my dog, Oscar (a Basset-Catahoula Kur mix) to the dog park. Now, when Oscar gets overly excited, he has the tendency to bark. Quite emphatically, at that. I kept trying to shush him and a mix of people told me not to worry, that he was just happy to be running around and that the barking just meant he was a happy dog. Happy dog, happy owner. Plus, the only time he barked was when other dogs were rough housing and he would run to them and bark at them until they stopped. The other owners found this very amusing and started calling Oscar the "referee" of the park. They thought it was adorable that he would run to "fighting" dogs, bark until they stopped, then run off and do his own thing.

So, yesterday I took him back to the park. A boxer was there playing VERY aggressively with some sort of mutt and the mutt didn't particularly seem to be enjoying it. The boxer had the mutt pinned on the ground and was snapping at its neck. Although it was quite obvious the boxer was just playing (no snarling or the like), the boxer seemed to be playing much rougher than the mutt was capable. The mutt's owner kept telling the boxer's owner to get the boxer off the mutt and the boxer's owner just kept telling her that the boxer wasn't going to hurt her dog, that he was just playing. The entire time this was going on, Oscar was chasing and barking at the boxer. We had been at the park for about 45 minutes at this point and Oscar hadn't barked at all before the boxer-mutt incident. THEN, some random lady (a pug owner, I think, not that that's important to the story) came up and told me that I needed to shut my dog up because the barking was going to cause the park to be shut down and ruin it for everyone else. A few questions:

(1) This was at 3 o'clock on a Friday afternoon and the closest houses were at least 200 yards away. Could that possibly be a cause to shut the park down for a dog that had been barking for about 10 minutes max?

(2) Am I ridiculous to think that the idea of shutting a DOG park down because there are DOGS BARKING is ridiculous in itself?

(3) Wasn't it the responsibility of the boxer's owner to respect the wishes of the mutt's owner and get her dog off the mutt? The mutt's owner finally ended up leashing her dog (which had been thoroughly rolled around in mud from being pinned by the boxer) and left. Is there some sort of general rule about overly aggressive dogs at dog parks, even if they just play too rough?

I tried calling the people who volunteer to maintain the dog parks but I just got an answering machine. I don't particularly feel comfortable taking Oscar there again if his barking were to cause a problem. Like I said, he only does it when other dogs seem to be playing rough and the people from the first day (who had been coming to the park for a few years) said that it was cute and not a problem.

Any advice? Words of wisdom? What about that boxer?

-- Anonymous, February 11, 2001

Erin, you're right about the boxer - part of Dog Park Etiquette is keeping your dog playing "nice". I'm immediately over to pick up our puppy if he gets annoying.

And I've found that dog parks attract lunatics. There's a woman in our park who leaves *chicken bones* in little piles for dogs. I'd ignore her, but I think you've done the right thing in asking the volunteer about it. I wouldn't know about the States, but here in New South Wales (Aust.) there's an Act of Parliament which requires each local council area to have an off-leash area for dogs. Wheeeheee!

-- Anonymous, February 11, 2001

Dog parks are very unpopular in some US cities. Trying to get one established in Sacramento was a long hard process. There has been a proposal for a dog park near my house, over a former landfill that is currently not being used for anything, and our neighborhood association is vehemently opposed to it. So yeah, Erin, I could imagine a situation in which the city council (or whoever approved the dog park) told the dog people that excessive barking would not be tolerated, and that any noise complaints would result in the park being closed. Believe me, the folks in charge might not be entirely reasonable.

I'm not sure I'd go back there if I were you. If that boxer's owner wouldn't control it, and the other owners there didn't see anything wrong with it, you might have a crowd of bad owners, and that could mean problems later on. We used to go to a different dog park, where people would bring aggressive pit bulls and many people didn't control their dogs. At the new park, there are some bad dogs, but the park is so big and most of the owners are responsible, so it seems to be okay.

-- Anonymous, February 11, 2001

Thanks for the advice and sorry about the novella up there. I'm going to try to get in touch with the dog park people tomorrow. The boxer, incidentally, had been there the first time I went and had been doing the same thing. Such a pretty dog but he's into roughhousing.

Oh, I don't know how to link it but I posted Oscar on the How Pretty is my Pet website (he's doing pretty well so far although he's only gotten one vote) but the url is http://www.care2.com/prettypets/new/10. Check him out.

-- Anonymous, February 11, 2001

The dog park I go to isn't exactly as such. It's just a park where the urbanites congregate with their dogs and let them off lead.

Montego loves it. She's definitely the preferred "humpee" of the park and only tolerates it when her boyfriend Puppet does it. And I think that's only because he's one of the few dogs there smaller than her. But it makes me nuts when folks just let their dogs hump her willy nilly or play rough. I've had to leash her because of over-rough dogs before. She just likes to go there and run anyhow. She's not overly-interested in the other canines, unless they want to chase her. Then she just smacks them down with her speed.

The park actually has a leash law, but it's not enforced at all. The only reason I know this is because the bike cops stop there and chat with neighbors and pet the dogs. I have to admit, it would make me a little crazy if I was a non-dog human who went there to jog, picnic etc. It's been a bone of contention in the community for awhile, so hopefully they'll give the park a dog "section" or create a new official dog park .

And there's a crazy chicken bone lady at my park too!

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2001

I am looking for a dog park in Sacramento. I was going to the one by the UCD med center a while back, then the hospital expanded. I would love someone to e-mail me and let me know of any dog parks in Sacramenot. Off the subject a little, I have a 4 yr. old male rotweiller, I NEED to find a place to live, how do I go about it. If anyone has an idea please help. I am lost

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2001

Ooh, ooh, when I come to visit Sacramento this Spring/Summer can I play with your dog? Rotties are my favoritest.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2001

Is there really someone out there that knows enough to find this board and post to it, but can't enter +"dog park" +sacramento into Yahoo? Something's fishy.

-- Anonymous, April 19, 2001