@xboatsailorz Honestly, if you’re concerned that she’s going to have bad experiences with other dogs that might lead to fear and/or reactivity, a dog park in the last place if you want to take her. It’s a matter of when she will have that bad experience, not if.
@jtyrer Eh. The same thing could be said for walking on the sidewalk. Unless you keep your dog isolated (which is a very very bad idea itself) eventually they'll have a disagreement with another dog. The important thing is in how you react to it, and what gets instilled in your dog afterwards.
@jtyrer I guess that’s a new concern to add to the ever growing list, I’ve primarily been concerned with her not getting enough time around other dogs. This was our second time there, today it was empty and i just wanted her to have some free rein, eventually a lab and a poodle mix showed up, no problem at all. And this dog didn’t seem to be aggressive really, just told her off and my puppy got unlucky with her lip getting caught on her canine. I see what you’re saying, i will have this in the back of my mind when i go to a dog park next time, and maybe avoid if there are big dogs there. But I don’t want to rule out the possibility of going to a dog park, and let her of her leash once in awhile.
@xboatsailorz The other thing that I would suggest if you’re going to have your dog off leash, even in a dog park, is that you make sure she has 100% reliable recall first. That way you can call her away if you see her approaching a dog who appears stand-of fish, or some other a toy, food, or water bowl which could trigger resource guarding.
@laluz12 I avoid them because my dog is a cane corso. She wouldn’t hurt a fly, but if there was any kind of incident she would automatically be the “problem” regardless. So I don’t put her in that situation.
@laluz12 My dog has never had any issues at the dog park and the only time she's ever been bitten/attacked by another dog was literally on leash at a brewery. I'm not trying to say dog parks = good and on-leash events/spaces = bad, but just because the dogs are leashed does not remove the unpredictability of the situation or guarantee the dogs there will be friendly. And in fact it introduces the wild card of leash reactivity.
@stephert True, but leashes also allow owners to have greater control of their dogs which, unfortunately, hasn't been my experience with dog parks. My dog has been attacked twice at dog parks but has never had issues at breweries. I'm not trying to say breweries are perfect (no place is), just that they can be a good option for socialization for people who don't want to deal with dog parks.
@laluz12 Totally agree! I was just cautioning against the mindset that as long as the dogs are on leash, all is well. It's really just about how much risk and what type of risk you are willing to take on because almost no dog interaction is going to be completely risk-free.
I accept the risk of dog parks with our girl because we live in a city with no yard and no other place for her to be off leash legally that is fenced in. And she LOVES other dogs and we don't really have dog owner friends in the area (yet) to set up playdates with. But I also accept that this requires me watching her like a hawk and be willing to leave instantly if I'm not liking the vibe.
@jtyrer Thank you, I’ll focus on training that at the country house, with different distractions and so forth. And really be more attentive to possible ‘resources’.
@xboatsailorz It’s important to train your dog to be dog neutral not necessarily friendly with everyone. Not all dogs are friendly. Do playdates with dogs you know or find small puppy play groups, it’s a lot less risky
Your puppy could be killed or pick up bad behavior from other dogs
@dryerfire Wow! That’s so long to wait. Ours had her first vaccine at 8 weeks, then we had to wait till 12 weeks until she was fully vaccinated - it stressed me out so much that we had such limited socialisation opportunities for the first 4 weeks. Can’t imagine waiting even longer! Very grateful to live in a country that doesn’t really have rabies
@ambi It is a long wait and it’s during a critical development phase for socialization of puppies. I’ll probably get some hate for this but, I had my dog out and about meeting other people/animals immediately at 8 weeks and my dog is now a social butterfly that loves meeting new people and dogs. Is a pleasure to take out and about. People will say you should wait until they’re fully vaccinated, but even vaccinated puppies can get diseases. I was always err on the side of more socialization versus less because there’s always the possibility of catching a disease regardless, but working through socialization issues later in the dogs life can be a pain in the ass.
Edit to add: “Socialization” does not have to be off-leash at a dog park. I dog sat for friends while I was raising my puppy.
@redjen I think it just depends where you live, we had a dog on our street die earlier in the year from parvo and our vet said it was really prevalent in our area so we didn’t want to take any chances
@ambi I understand that sentiment but parvo is everywhere. You can’t avoid it, even if you keep your puppy inside. You walk outside and take your shoes off inside, now the soil from outside is inside and you may have just brought parvo in your home. Dogs are animals, they need to spend time outside with nature and learning social cues from other dogs.
@redjen It’s only everywhere if you live in an area where it’s common. There are areas where it is not common at all, especially if where you live isn’t very densely populated. We lived in a city and a (pet) dog died of it on the street we lived less than a year before we got our puppy, so taking her out before her shots even on our street was a huge risk since it lives on the ground for many years. Yeah, we took our shoes off every time we entered the house. She went outdoors every day but never touched the ground anywhere except our fenced garden for 4 weeks. It sucked. But the people that know best are vets, if your vet says parvo isn’t common in that area, then it could be worth the gamble. That just wasn’t the case where we lived.
