Pit Bulls & Dog Parks - NOT perfect together!

[loverocksalot]

That is exactly my concern and why I have not done it yet.

[sugar]

If your dog gets going after another dog, a good portion of the time saying "enough" may not work because they are in a zone. I don't know, I guess its just better to be overly safe than overly sorry.

[loverocksalot]

Yeah and it aint about stopping my pit bull who does respond to enough it is the other dogs that I am more concerned about starting something. And their stupid arse owners.

[adoptapitbull]

Yeah, exactly right, Sugar, even the most well trained dog may completely ignore an "off" command in that situation.

I even hated taking Mav to Petco yesterday! I drove half way home to meet my mom for lunch and brought Mav. She saw a Petco and wanted to take him in so I said "Fine, but no dog-dog interactions" Luckily he was great and was so tickled to be there. BUT, if another dog got snippy, I know there would've been a scene....not a fight because I'd not have let him get close...but still a "bark bark growl" scene which is just not good. Instantly you are looked down upon as the person with the "bad dog".

[catstina]

When we first got Benny we took him to a dog park. He had some good experiences with the dogs, but that was just luck. Eventually we met some of the regulars and they were not the kind of dogs that I felt safe being around! There were two schnauzers who would attack every dog that entered the park, they bit one dog above the eye and made him bleed. There was a woman who brought her un-spayed, in heat "pure bred" lab (who was a log and shorter than Benny and obese). That, of course, caused a fight between male dogs. That night I did some research* and Tim and I decided we would not take Benny to the dog park when other dogs were there any more. We would still take him early in the mornings and he would play with a specific dog that he got along well with. If any other dog showed up we would leave. Then at nights (a few times a week) we would take him to a fenced in soccer field right by our apartment where he could do zoomies, chase balls and do fun things like that (He also got two-three half hour walks a day and we'd play find the treat games and do training for mental stimulation). We were much happier not having to worry about other people's dogs!

*This was the site that ultimately convinced us: www.ourpack.org/dogparks.html