Dog parks or any area where off lead dogs congregate in the same place can always be a risky place to take your dog.
The reality is, a lot of dog owners can’t read their own dogs body language and incidents can and do happen.
The problem is, many times, there is a fine line between play and bullying and if it goes unnoticed often it can lead to big problems in the future.
The other reason they can be a problem is, a lot of friendly dogs that go to dog parks are not trained and to friendly, that’s right, there is such a thing as to friendly. Ever seen the dog that jumps all over your dog, won’t leave them alone, bouncing around like a luny? That’s a dog that’s to friendly and has no manners.
The majority of these dogs will run over to any dog they see and it’s followed by the owner, shouting across the field ‘it’s ok he is friendly’.
The majority of my clients who come to me, who’s dogs have issues with other dogs, started as a pup, going to dog parks, interacting with dogs every day and playing.
Now I don’t want to put you off dog parks. If you can read your dog, if you can confidently advocate for your dog when it’s needed and know what dogs to avoid and the difference between play and bullying, if you can bring your dog down from being to excited to calm, then dog parks might work for you and if they’re are working for you, then great.
This video highlights a very common scenario you can see in most dog parks, a common scenario that’s easy to misinterpret and a common scenario, that, if t continues to happen on a daily basis, can lead to serious issues with your dog.
Please share this far and wide.
DISCLAIMER:
I let the scenario in this video go on for a bit, the reason being is because stress exists everywhere and dogs will inevitably have to deal with it at some point in their life. Stress can often lead to more positive things as a result. In this case, by allowing the scenario to play out and then stopping it, it can and does build confidence and patience in a dog, so they become more tolerant later on.
It’s about knowing when enough is enough and when to push a little and when to stop pushing.
