Sounds bad to be so judgemental, but day after day at the park, the most misbehaved dogs tend to be owned by those who sit at dog parks and chat, smoke, bring random lawn chairs etc…
The breeds of dog also tend to be the same, ‘pitbullish’ style or cane Corso, or those dogs so small and yappy.
It’s somewhat frustrating. If I see more then 1 or 2 people sitting, I know there is most likely going to be some altercation between dogs and there usually is…
Is it the same in your area?
Owners that are sitting are giving their dog a space to be territorial over. If they’re standing and walking, the dog will be on guard for their owner, but not necessarily territorial. I haven’t noticed any correlation with breed, but the ones you mentioned are definitely some of the repeat offenders.
The correlation, unfortunately, is that those dog breeds are popular with assholes who treat their dogs like crap or encourage territorial and aggressive behaviour.
I’ve met a LOT of bully breed dogs, and when they’re in the hands of good owners they’re kind, loving, friendly, and incredibly loyal. I’ve known pitbulls who would let toddlers treat their faces like silly putty. The biggest danger they pose is a total lack of regard for personal space; pitbulls basically want cuddles 24/7.
Inherent aggression and nervousness is much more of a issue with herding dogs like corgis and collies, because they want to always be in control of what’s happening around them. But those dogs aren’t popular with dickwads so you rarely see the same kinds of issues with them.
If anyone wants more info on this, here’s a great read:
Our trainers when showing us the dog park told us to always keep moving. The dog covers new ground and gets distracted and entertained by new smells and doesn’t annoy dogs with overexposure because they are forced to make short visits.
They say people who were standing still risked encouraging bad behaviour by comparison so avoid the people and dogs standing still.
So this tracks.
I can’t really say the same. Though, here we don’t really have dog parks more like places dog owners just gather in.
I’d also say, dog parks that are big, not fenced off and near a road are the better dog parks because these naturally filter out dogs with poor recall and likely poor training and socialisation lest they get hit by a car or run away. If someone’s dog is so out of control they get into trouble, eventually they stop coming there.
It’s the small fenced in parks one should avoid.
Actually…this is a good point I never clicked in on before. Thanks.
My husky has amazing recall, she just have a very wide radius that she keeps around me. A good 20-30foot or so. Always comes back when I call. I trained her recall to be a physical touch instead of the usual, come where I can see you. Has its downsides as she says hello by touching human hands and people tend to pull away from a dog mouth…my bad :(
I’ll have to visit our non fenced dog parks more often, thanks again
Over here, those with “well behaved dogs” seem to just let them off the leash to run around wherever the fuck they want.
It’s an off leash dog park provided by the city…I don’t understand what you’re talking about.
“Wherever they want” meaning not at a park because they think their dog is just too good to get hit by a car. Hence why they aren’t at parks and thus op is only finding poorly behaved dogs there. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯