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Dominance In The Dog Park


AlanMatic
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To the OP= your first post made it sound like had been an ongoing problem, not just a once off. BUt perhaps I misinterpreted it?

If he's only done it once or twice, then tell him off, remove him from the situation (I would take him home, or at a minimum leash him) and consult a trainer if it gets worse.

Agree with the other advice- lots of recall practice at home, take him on a long line at the park if he has no recall etc.

I think you'll find this situation can be relatively easily fixed :)

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people take shit way too serious like it's the end of the world because the dog made a mistake of being "rude" by humping another dog, shit happens and you learn from it to correct it.

LMR you would probably take it seriously as well if you had just had to spend years working with a dog that had been the subject of out of control dogs making mistakes. I made a mistake and learned from it - we don't go to dog parks any more and haven't since the third time my boy lashed out after being tormented by other dogs. (He has never injured another dog, but does not tolerate physical rudeness and will tell off other dogs. I'm not prepared to put him in a situation where he feels the need to do this and is at risk of the other dog retaliating to his telling them off.)

Mistakes happen, that's fine, but its when people don't learn from them that I have an issue and I am going to take shit (at least we agree on that point) like this seriously and speak my mind in the hope that at some point someone actually realises that for some dogs it is not all over when they walk out of the dog park.

The OP said their dog 'has a go at everyone' - that implies a pattern of behaviour they have not learned from and are prepared to tolerate or at the very least just hope goes away without really doing much about it. If the behaviour has only happened once then I am happy to stand corrected and hope they take the advice that has been offered. Otherwise I stand by everything I've said.

Edited by Agility Dogs
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people take shit way too serious like it's the end of the world because the dog made a mistake of being "rude" by humping another dog, shit happens and you learn from it to correct it.

LMR you would probably take it seriously as well if you had just had to spend years working with a dog that had been the subject of out of control dogs making mistakes. I made a mistake and learned from it - we don't go to dog parks any more and haven't since the third time my boy lashed out after being tormented by other dogs. (He has never injured another dog, but does not tolerate physical rudeness and will tell off other dogs. I'm not prepared to put him in a situation where he feels the need to do this and is at risk of the other dog retaliating to his telling them off.)

Mistakes happen, that's fine, but its when people don't learn from them that I have an issue and I am going to take shit (at least we agree on that point) like this seriously and speak my mind in the hope that at some point someone actually realises that for some dogs it is not all over when they walk out of the dog park.

The OP said their dog 'has a go at everyone' - that implies a pattern of behaviour they have not learned from and are prepared to tolerate or at the very least just hope goes away without really doing much about it. If the behaviour has only happened once then I am happy to stand corrected and hope they take the advice that has been offered. Otherwise I stand by everything I've said.

that's totally understandable and fair enough.

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Tormented?

I'm trying to leave a dog off lead area and have just put my dog on lead - and some big slobbery clumbsy over enthusiastic hefalump of an out of control dog comes and invites my dog to play - and she pretend she wants to cos that used to get her released until I wised up (she goes and sniffs and ignores the annoying dog).

The hefalump jumps all over us, gets tangled up in the lead, tries to eat my treat bag, slobbers all over me and my dog (yuck). It's heavy and it hurts when it jumps on us and even my dog objects now and starts to give back off signals - which it ignores. I yell at the owner to get their dog off us and nothing happens. I get my spare lead out and tie their dog up. Usually gets some sort of "oh I'm sorry I didn't notice". By now I'm ANGRY. It's not my job to control your obnoxious dog.

Fortunately for us - once the hefalumps get like this - it's made clear by everyone who uses the dog park that they're not welcome. Though one particularily persistant and stupid owner failed to notice her dog attacking another dog and when she finally came and got it it and pulled it away - she let it go again and it repeated the attack. Drew blood - got blood all over its face - the other dog was in a submit position having its butt savaged by this truly ruined Golden Retriever. The dog being attacked required stiches. And the GR and owner haven't been back and I blame the owner entirely - she blamed us for not getting her dog off the other dog. Urm. I was too busy saving my own dog - who had gone into "cheer squad mode". I don't have the strength to deal with her dog which probably weighed as much as I do. And this was the third time that GR had attacked dogs at that park. Some owners are slow learners.

Edited by Mrs Rusty Bucket
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My dog often gets followed by younger dogs, trying to get her to play. She is quite antisocial now :( and generally only wants to play with her ball.

As annoying as it is for her, the other dogs aren't trying to be harmful, only to get her to play. I honestly would feel bad if I intervened and told the other dog off or tried to stop it (although I know I shouldn't).

She doesn't seem to mind (totally ignores the behaviour) and on the odd occaison the other dog is successful and she will succumb to a game of bitey face or chasey.

I do pull any dogs off that hump her, one time she rolled over to her back and the owner of the humper said "look she wants it" :eek:

I wasn't sure whether they were serious...

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Yep, he had a go at every dog he met at the dog park, two days ago. Prior to this our visits to the dog park had no hump happy behaviour - I'm guessing it's something he's grown into (like wanking...)! And his only other real chance to socialize has been puppy school as a wee thing - nope, no humping - and occasional off lead runs with friend's dogs. No humping there either.

I'm guessing it's a teenage thing.

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The OP said their dog 'has a go at everyone' - that implies a pattern of behaviour they have not learned from and are prepared to tolerate or at the very least just hope goes away without really doing much about it. If the behaviour has only happened once then I am happy to stand corrected and hope they take the advice that has been offered. Otherwise I stand by everything I've said.

You're obviously very personally affected by this issue and have read things into my post that are simply not there. Why would I post a topic asking for help with the matter if I were hoping it would "just go away without my really doing much"? That's quite an assumption.

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what do you mean by tormented by other dogs Agilitydogs?

Tormented?

1. Jumped all over and hurt by an over exuberant dog twice his size.

2. Dog just wants to say hello - 5 or 6 times in a 10 minute period. Fair enough, we are in a dog park but sorry, peeing on my dog is not just saying hello.

3. Being humped by a dog that he doesn't know and has not approached.

A more experienced owner than I was when all this happened could possibly have prevented a lot of it, but the dogs that did this were all being rude and I don't think that it is fair to ask any dog to tolerate this sort of behaviour. In hind sight I have to admit that I probably contributed to CK's problems by over-reacting at the time :o and when things go wrong these days I approach the problem in a much different matter.

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Yep, he had a go at every dog he met at the dog park, two days ago. Prior to this our visits to the dog park had no hump happy behaviour - I'm guessing it's something he's grown into (like wanking...)! And his only other real chance to socialize has been puppy school as a wee thing - nope, no humping - and occasional off lead runs with friend's dogs. No humping there either.

I'm guessing it's a teenage thing.

Might just be my dog, but he did go through a bit of an awkward period when he was 7-8 months old - even tried to start fights with other aggressive dogs that until then, he had avoided. We came down on him like a tonne of bricks, really made it known how much we disapproved and fortunately by the time he was 9 months old he was like he is now - energetic but no longer aggressive. But we really did come down hard, I mean, I used to grab him by the side of the neck and really tell him off and I know a lot of people here wouldn't condone that strategy but we didn't hit him or anything and now whilst still proud and dominant, he won't fight, and he is back to avoiding other dogs that do want a fight.

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pretty sure i'm going to stop going to the dog park cause there's the people there that are way too uptight and get shitty just cause my dog goes up to sniff theirs and their response would be something like "my dog's a show dog and i can't get any marks on him cause he's got a show on tomorrow" :rolleyes: then there's the people that picnic on the other side of the oval while their dog just won't leave us alone and then there's the people that bring their dogs there to watch and cheers them on as they fight each other! oh, and there's more.

so i see why a lot of people are against dog parks but i thought i'd try it as i don't have many mates with dogs to socialize mine with so i guess i'll leave it for the extra spare time i get before obedience classes.

sorry to go off topic! but alanmatic, wish you all the best in fixing the problem :)

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Yep, he had a go at every dog he met at the dog park, two days ago. Prior to this our visits to the dog park had no hump happy behaviour - I'm guessing it's something he's grown into (like wanking...)! And his only other real chance to socialize has been puppy school as a wee thing - nope, no humping - and occasional off lead runs with friend's dogs. No humping there either.

I'm guessing it's a teenage thing.

Oh, sorry, I didn't realise it was a new thing. Disregard most of what I said before. I thought it was an ongoing problem. I think it's fair to just monitor at the moment and see what happens. I find it quite hard to identify triggers for humping sometimes, depending on why they are humping. Without an identified trigger it's hard to treat it. I think if he does it again, put him back on leash and get some distance like I said before and see how he behaves once his head is back together. It might make it easier to work out what he's on about. Humping can be a part of natural play, and it can be displacement for social anxiety or over-arousal, and it can be an information-seeking exercise, and it can be bullying behaviour, and genuine sexual behaviour.

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