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Would You Feed Treats A Random Dog At The Dog Park?


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Today we took our 2 sibe's to the dog park they love it run around and have a ball like most dogs do :laugh: Mishka our recently adopted husky kept sniffing at this lady who was patting her and I noticed and said to OH she must have food. We started making our way over there to the other end to get her away. Before we knew it Misty our other sibe was there and another dog and this lady has pulled out this bag of treats and gave them some :eek: I don't know if it's just me but I don't find that ok. For one the newly adopted husky is food aggressive which is slowly improving there could have been a fight though, but also what if they had allergies to some treats or on a diet for an illness? OH got pissed I just took the dogs away before he said anything. I wouldn't feed anyone else's dogs at the park apart from my own.

What do you guys think about it?

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God no. I also wouldn't offer a strangers child lollies. Maybe you should have run up dragged the dog away to the car and yelled 'she is allergic, I hope I get her to the vet before she dies'. Might stop the lady from doing this.

Today we took our 2 sibe's to the dog park they love it run around and have a ball like most dogs do :laugh: Mishka our recently adopted husky kept sniffing at this lady who was patting her and I noticed and said to OH she must have food. We started making our way over there to the other end to get her away. Before we knew it Misty our other sibe was there and another dog and this lady has pulled out this bag of treats and gave them some :eek: I don't know if it's just me but I don't find that ok. For one the newly adopted husky is food aggressive which is slowly improving there could have been a fight though, but also what if they had allergies to some treats or on a diet for an illness? OH got pissed I just took the dogs away before he said anything. I wouldn't feed anyone else's dogs at the park apart from my own.

What do you guys think about it?

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Knowing my little guy is allergic to chicken (and still trying to figure out what else he cannot eat, on a diet right now) I'd say it is definately very irresponsible. I would've just told her that and kept the dogs away from her.

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I'm exactly the same. I carry treats in a treat bag as I'm still working on Zeus's recall, however, I would NEVER feed anyone else's dog. Even though I know all the owners (we're a group of regular park goers) I only ever slip Zeus and Kirah treats when the other dogs aren't nearby.

I know my two aren't food aggressive but I don't see it my job to be rewarding other people's dogs.

There was one instance where Zeus ran off and didn't come back. I found him sitting at a fence being fed hot chips by someone eating his lunch there. ARE YOU SERIOUS!! How could I even hope to get my dog's attention with liver treats if you're feeding him hot chips?!

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I always ask if a stranger's dog is allowed treats - then I make them sit for it if they are allowed.

Love your suggestion pepe001... that's gold!

T.

They both were just sitting there with heads up looking at her no jumping. If she asked I wouldn't have been as angry. It's only we've had Mishka a few months and are very cautious with the food thing after one fight and if Mishka snapped at the other dogs because of the food and caused a fight we'd be in a lot of strife!

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I feed a couple of the dogs I see regularly but I've cleared it with the owners first. With one dog I have even taught her a "drop it" command using treats because she kept stealing my girl's ball and it was just easier :laugh: I also encourage one regular dog-walker to feed Weez because he's wary of people and it's good for him to make a friend :)

But if any other dog comes begging I just tell them all I've got for them is pats. It's surprising how many are happy with that!

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I had a dog that was diabetic and on VERY strict diet, with no treats allowed, and I was forever having to tell people not to feed my dog.They never asked. She was garbage guts and would eat road kill if given the chance, so a treat was heaven on a stick to her.

It annoyed me, as I would never dream of doing that.

If I wanted add calories, it would be in the form of something nutritious, not things full of fat or chemicals.

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I was followed around at the park the other day by this dog.

He was so insistent, jumping on me, following me round, doing every trick.

I refused to feed him, and his owner came and took him away.

Repeat 5 times.

I was sitting on the ground he managed to come up to me and chomp straight through the bag of treats I had, ate some of the plastic and all of the treats in one go! :eek:

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I always have treats on me at the park, results in really quite good recall from my 3 but often also attention from other dogs. I don't feed other people's dogs, unless I occasionally ask first, then I say can Xxx have some liver/chicken/cheese/whatever.

However Saxon is the biggest treat hussy ever, he sniffs them out from across the park amd does all his cute little tricks to get something from people, he has people sussed! I watch him and call out to him to leave people alone, sometimes people do ask if they can give him a treat, I say yes but tell them that seriously he will not leave you alone

so you don't have to!

I guess I feel like it is my responsibility to keep my dogs away from people if I don't want them eating stuff from other people. In theory no people shouldn't give food to other people's dogs because of all the reasons already posted, but in general I think they mean well and just don't know better, so if I don't want my dogs in that position then I need to keep them out of it.

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I really hate when people do this. It drives me nuts. There are 2 main reasons. What if my dog has allergies? How do you know what someone elses dog can and cannot eat?

When Riddick was younger he reacted really badly to anything that wasn't fresh. So no dried treats of any sort. I always kept a close eye but people still managed to feed him on occasion :mad . I was walking through a fairly crowded dog event and as we passed close to this dog trainers stand, riddick sniffed the female trainers hand. I sort of noticed but wasn't too worried. About 10 minutes later he was vomiting. I went back to the women and asked her, she said yes she had fed him some "Dried bacon liver". I had a big go at her, Riddick actually vomited in front of her and she looked really shocked. I guess it never occurred to her that her "dried bacon liver, made in china" wasn't good for every dog.

The other side is one anyone who goes to dog parks will see, if you take treats in and get harassed. I don't just mean a cute sniff of your treat bag, I mean you have dogs who will injure you trying to get your treats. I had a staffy leaping on my leg at the beach. I still have 3 deep scratches healing on my leg and this was over 2 weeks ago. The owner laughed, thought it was hilarious that I was bleeding all over the place. I have had to leave parks because I cannot stand having a dog BARK at me for 10 minutes straight. Its not cute, its not funny. Its downright dangerous in some cases. Ive seen children in parks with food that have been knocked over by dogs.

So to answer your question, no I do not feed random dogs EVER. I don't even throw other dogs toys. I take my dogs out to play with them, its not my job to throw your dogs ball.

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I was followed around at the park the other day by this dog.

He was so insistent, jumping on me, following me round, doing every trick.

I refused to feed him, and his owner came and took him away.

Repeat 5 times.

I was sitting on the ground he managed to come up to me and chomp straight through the bag of treats I had, ate some of the plastic and all of the treats in one go! :eek:

Oh my the dog won that round! :laugh:

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I don't find it acceptable but at the same time, I think people should control their dogs so that they don't run up to other people begging for treats. If you allow your dog to do that, you can hardly whinge about people giving treats to your dog!

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No I dont think it's o.k to feed another's dog.

But I think that the lady was probably just being kind, just a bit uneducated. Probably just needs explaining to her why it's not a good idea without asking first.

Although if I'm out and there is a dog loose thats harassing us I will use treats to distract it away from us, if necessary.

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I don't find it acceptable but at the same time, I think people should control their dogs so that they don't run up to other people begging for treats. If you allow your dog to do that, you can hardly whinge about people giving treats to your dog!

Therein lies the core of the problem. Control your dog so it doesn't bother others and everyone should be happy!! I wouldn't feed others to feed my boy treats as I wouldn't feed others treats, pure and simple.

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I don't find it acceptable but at the same time, I think people should control their dogs so that they don't run up to other people begging for treats. If you allow your dog to do that, you can hardly whinge about people giving treats to your dog!

Teaching your dog to come away from someone else with treats is one of the things we practiced at basic obedience. I know it's a difficult one (especially with some particularly sociable & food-oriented dogs!) but I think it's definitely a behaviour worth striving for. Also a good "leave it"/recall if they are heading towards someone you don't know :) (Of course again, easier said than done!)

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