Would this Bug You?

sillysally

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#1
This evening I took Jack to a new indoor dog park/day care facility. They seemed to be very into safety--made me take off Jack's collar and put on a velcro collar, had me enter by putting Jack in a dog holding area with a door into the park that he was supposed to push open himself while I entered through another gate....

There were a couple of things that bothered me, buuut I can be a little weird about things sometimes, so I was curious if they bugged anyone else, or if it's just me....

-There was a pug/french bulldog mix there that was just a nasty little thing. Anytime a dog got near an object she wanted, a person she was interested in, or just plain got too close she would do this growling/screaming/yapping thing and go after the dog, chasing them even, until the owner grabbed her and made her stop. I didn't see her actually bit anyone, but she wouldn't back down even if the other dog was defering to her or trying to get away from her. We were not even there for an hour and this happened roughly 10 times--twice to Jack--the first time for trying to greet her and the second time for trying to greet a little girl the pug X considered "hers" I supposed. The owner of the facility and several staff members witnessed this and didn't do anything about it. One of the staff members commented that at least the dog "couldn't really hurt anyone," but I feel like that's kind of missing the point.....

-Kids older than 6 or 7 were allowed, which I'm OK with--Jack likes kids. However, it didn't seem like they were watched very carefully--they were allowed to lay on the dog beds, sit on the floor with the dogs milling around/stepping over them (Jack and a couple other dogs were there for the first time ever, so the staff really has no idea how they are with kids), one kid accidentally let one dog out while leaving the play area, etc....

Anyhoo, I'm curious to hear others opinions....
 

Lizmo

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#2
I don't use DP anyways (mainly for the first reason you stated, the risk of something happening is too high for me personally)....but those would be pretty big turn offs for me if I did.
 

Snark

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#3
Yeah, that would bug me, too... Kinda weird that they'd start out all 'safety conscious' then be so lax once the dogs were in the play area.
 

sparks19

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#4
I don't know... dogs will be dogs. we can't expect them to all get along all the time and some posturing is not unusual so... no not really. I just can't be upset about dogs being dogs. now if the dog was attacking others and the owner did nothing at all then I would be pissed at the owner but... we don't get along with everyone why do we expect dogs to?

as for the kids... were they being unruly? going up to dogs, harrassing them, being a pain? if not then NO why would that bother me. do dogs not get to socialize because there are children in the family? were they doing anything abrasive or harrassing the dogs?

as for the precautions before... t hat's just common sense. Teddy and Belle got along famously but leaving a collar on her resulted in a near tragedy one day when they were playing and Teddy got his lower mandible caught in her collar and was screaming for help.
 

sillysally

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#5
I don't know... dogs will be dogs. we can't expect them to all get along all the time and some posturing is not unusual so... no not really. I just can't be upset about dogs being dogs. now if the dog was attacking others and the owner did nothing at all then I would be pissed at the owner but... we don't get along with everyone why do we expect dogs to?

as for the kids... were they being unruly? going up to dogs, harrassing them, being a pain? if not then NO why would that bother me. do dogs not get to socialize because there are children in the family? were they doing anything abrasive or harrassing the dogs?

as for the precautions before... t hat's just common sense. Teddy and Belle got along famously but leaving a collar on her resulted in a near tragedy one day when they were playing and Teddy got his lower mandible caught in her collar and was screaming for help.
It was more than posturing IMHO. the dog clearly did not like other dogs. She had no interest in other dogs outside of going after them. If the other dogs had not been so polite as to not go back at her, there almost certainly would have been a fight.

As for the kids, no there was no dog harassing, but I feel that allowing them to sit on the floor in the middle of a dog play area is just not all that smart. Like you said, dogs will be dogs. They often run into each other and people while they play. The pug actually went after another dog while standing practically on top of the kids who were sitting. If the other dog had not backed down there probably would have been a fight right on top of those kids....

The other precautions didn't bother me, it just seemed strange that they would make such a big deal about safety and then allow a dog to repeatedly go after other dogs and allow kids to pretty much do what they pleased....
 

ihartgonzo

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#6
Honestly, your description of the Frenchie is the same way every Frenchie I know acts... they can be obnoxious little boogers! But they're so cute! :p haha. Honestly, some dogs are more vocal and bossy than others. Was she snapping at the other dogs? What was the reaction of the dogs that she did this to? What was her body language like? As people, sometimes we find vocal dogs to be scary and dangerous, when in reality it's the dogs who are not vocal and do not give clear warnings that you need to worry about. :/ Fozzie is quite vocal and does not tolerate rudeness, toward him or toward people or toward other dogs, but it's obvious that other dogs are not stressed or threatened by his vocalizations AND I know that he does not go beyond being vocal.

Were the kids chasing/approaching dogs without asking? If not, it's kind of hard to tell people that their kids aren't allowed in the dp. Dogs that are let off leash in a dp should not be human aggressive... they don't have to tolerate kids jumping all over them and kids under 5 definitely shouldn't be there, but if kids are sitting around I don't think it's a big deal and a dog that is uncomfortable with that probably shouldn't be off leash with strange people around period. It's kind of gross that they're sitting on the dog beds and the floor, though. :rolleyes:

I think the entering policy sounds reallyyy awesome! I have seen dogs tangled up in each other's prongs and chokers and just cringe when I see dogs with inappropriate collars... are dogs also not allowed to crowd the entrance gate? Amazing. At my local dog parks, everyone seems to think the gate is the place to hang out.
 

sillysally

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#7
Honestly, your description of the Frenchie is the same way every Frenchie I know acts... they can be obnoxious little boogers! But they're so cute! :p haha. Honestly, some dogs are more vocal and bossy than others. Was she snapping at the other dogs? What was the reaction of the dogs that she did this to? What was her body language like? As people, sometimes we find vocal dogs to be scary and dangerous, when in reality it's the dogs who are not vocal and do not give clear warnings that you need to worry about. :/ Fozzie is quite vocal and does not tolerate rudeness, toward him or toward people or toward other dogs, but it's obvious that other dogs are not stressed or threatened by his vocalizations AND I know that he does not go beyond being vocal.

Were the kids chasing/approaching dogs without asking? If not, it's kind of hard to tell people that their kids aren't allowed in the dp. Dogs that are let off leash in a dp should not be human aggressive... they don't have to tolerate kids jumping all over them and kids under 5 definitely shouldn't be there, but if kids are sitting around I don't think it's a big deal and a dog that is uncomfortable with that probably shouldn't be off leash with strange people around period. It's kind of gross that they're sitting on the dog beds and the floor, though. :rolleyes:
She did occasionally appear to be snapping at certain times. The other dogs mostly tried to flee from her. Jack certainly did. He did not outright run from her (although a couple of others did), but he scrambled to get out of her way, and avoided her. I could see a dog being offended by greeting maybe, but honestly, he wasn't even looking at her the second time, he was paying attention to the little girl. Most of the time the 7 or 8 other dogs she went after were not even trying to interact with her either. Maybe this is normal for her mix, but we've never quite run into something like that in any of the unsupervised parks we've been to. Usually people take their dogs out when they behave like that. Maybe it is just a frenchy thing, but I didn't find it cute....

None of the kids asked before approaching the dogs. I'm not even sure which kids belonged to who. Just to be clear, the kids were not behaving obnoxiously or badly, they were just not being watched...

I might bring Jack for use of the dog park again before it gets warm, but I don't think I'll be leaving him there for daycare....Not crazy about him being loose with strange kids without me there (the daycare dogs and dog park dogs are all together). He's good with kids and the parents do have to sign a waiver....but IDK--stuff can happen....
 

adojrts

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#8
Personally I don't think the other dogs should have to put up with a dog like that especially when they were backing off or minding their own business and the other dog doesn't stop. They could have done some work with some positive re-enforcement to get that dog to have better manners, shame that people miss changes like that to train.

Foolish to have kids in the middle of it, esp sitting down. IMO.
 

ihartgonzo

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#9
Wow. Daycare dogs are in there with dog park dogs??? THAT would definitely worry me. Some daycares are so lax... I can't believe it. Are there employees in there keeping them all in line or what?
 

ihartgonzo

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#11
That's just bizarre to me.

I mean, I work at a daycare where there are a max of 15 dogs in a room, and always at LEAST one person on top of them at all times. My rally class is at a daycare where dogs are put in one of two small pens, and the only lady there is sitting on the computer 30 feet away. That alone is insane! But add in other owners and their dogs!? It's really awkward telling some one that their dog had to be removed from daycare because of their behavior, much less having to tell the person who is standing there with their dog, especially since some people are so oblivious. That definitely doesn't sound like a good set-up to me! I wouldn't leave my dog there, and I probably wouldn't go there if it's that poorly supervised. D:
 

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