Fuck Dog Parks and the Assholes Who Refuse to Control Their Dogs

The BBQ Pit
1

Just a rant. A vulgar rant because society says I’m not supposed to visit violence on people who don’t give a shit when their pet visits violence on others.

Backstory: I have a wonderful pit mix named Vaya. My brother and his family brought home a fantastic Bernese Mountain Dog last January and named him Thorin. Freya and Artemis are two other dogs (hound mix and goldendoodle, respectively) that cuddle with another brother in the Midwest. I’ve worked with dog rescues and shelters for almost my entire adult life, closing in on two decades. I’ve recently been working with a wonderful rescue that works with retired breeding dogs and unwanted puppies from puppy mills, may a pox fall on their houses. And recently, my mother had started remarking she thinks she wanted a dog. Given that the majority of dogs I work with in my rescue have little socialization with people and some pretty significant fear issues, I accepted I wouldn’t come across a dog or puppy at my rescue that would work out. But a coonhound came in as a stray from New Mexico (it happens sometimes), and she was perfect. So now my mom has an incredibly coonhound mix named Scarlett, who is slowly learning what’s allowed and expected, and generally being ridiculously sweet since she found her forever home a week ago.

My family likes to take our dogs to a local dog park. There are plenty of medium to large dogs (the smallest dog in our family is 60 pounds) and lots of space for running, which Vaya and Scarlett enjoy immensely. And while spats occur, because it’s strange dogs and these things happen, most owners have trained their dogs well and are quick to keep things from escalating. In the months we’ve been bringing the dogs twice-weekly, never an issue.

Fast-forward to today. Mom’s still getting used to Scarlett’s wanderlust (FOR THE SMELLS!), and Thorin tends to follow whatever dog he meets foreeeeeeeeeeever, so they were both leashed as we walked back to the entrance, so as to avoid another thirty minutes of tracking down wayward dogs in the snow. As we’re walking back, up comes several other large dogs - two Rottweilers, a Great Dane mix, and some other mix. The breeds themselves are entirely unimportant, provided for size reference only. The larger Rotty decides he doesn’t like Thorin, and more or less immediately charges and latches onto his face and ear. Now Thorin, while not full grown, is still close to a hundred pounds and likes to play rough. And as this dog gets ahold of him, he literally cries. So I do the pretty dumb thing, run in, haul this dog off by the collar, and basically sit on him. He’s a big dog, but I’m bigger - I’m higher on the food chain. Meanwhile, my mom doesn’t know what to do, so I’m trying to get her and her dog a safe distance away, Vaya’s ready to murder something, Thorin’s whining, my brother (who was bitten twice by dogs and is still skittish around strange ones) is just frozen, and his girlfriend is trying to keep from freaking out. I’m asking everyone around whose dog this is, and a middle-aged woman finally comes walking up, saying, “Let him go, I’m shocking him.” So I do, and the Rottweiler turns back at Thorin, and promptly gets hauled off his feet and put back on the ground until his owner listens and gets physical control of him. She receives a quick, “Get control of your dog, *******************************,” and we hustle away. I looked back a short while later, and she had already released her dog. Fortunately for her, he was wandering the other direction. Thorin’s ear has a gash and a few other marks. Emergency vet cleared him for a warm washcloth and some Neosporin, but check on him regularly. He’s getting loves on the couch all night and all the treats he wants.

I love dogs. And I hate that I might have caused pain to that Rottweiler. And I especially hate that I felt it was necessary because this absolute piece of shit felt her little remote was going to stop a dog in full fight “mode”. But the sheer gall to nonchalantly go about your trip after your dog attacks another infuriates me. There was no “Are they ok?” No “I’m sorry, I’ll keep a hold of him.” Just, “Let him go, I’m shocking him,” and off on her oblivious way. That Rottweiler is either gonna kill another dog or get put down when they cross the wrong person. And there will be social media posts about how he was always such a good dog and the sweetest thing ever and no one could have ever seen it coming. And I’ll be pissed again, because that dog absolutely COULD be a great dog, if it didn’t have a shit owner that didn’t give two flying fucks about anything but her own main character storyline.

No, there was no police report. Police here are shit worthless, and actively tell people to file a report online. At which point it’s “he said, she said” and “welp, we can’t do anything despite multiple witnesses and injuries”. And I’m almost certain we’ll go back, assuming Thorin or my family aren’t completely traumatized by it. I did check in with my brother, and he’s holding it together. We’re going to talk tomorrow, because he’s unhappy that he just froze while his dog was attacked.

And I’m just going to sit here and rage, then eventually love up on my dog, who is actually the greatest dog in the world, despite everyone else’s misguided thoughts.

For taxes:

Vaya

Thorin

Artemis and Freya

Scarlett

And the rescue, which is run by some of the biggest hearts I’ve ever met, because they deserve a shoutout!

2

I’m lucky that the park I take my dog to has 99% good owners, And it has two sides, one for bigger dogs and one for smaller. The worst thing I ususally see is people who don’t pick up after their dogs. Ive been going to this park for over twelve years and seen maybe two biting fights. Sorry for your trouble.

3

Ugh. The owner is an idiot. An inconsiderate idiot who’s is going to get someone’s dog killed.

4

My opinion is many/most dog parks are a problem waiting to happen. Don’t currently have a dog myself, but I have friends that do and after about a year or so of trying them out, most of them seem to give up on them. Either they themselves have a dog-reactive dog that adds a lot of work to walking them around other often uncontrolled animals, or they have to deal with people that have dog-reactive dogs that are not under proper control. Easier to just walk them anywhere but and have more a structured socialization program.

ETA: Oh and sorry you had to deal with this. It’s never not stressful.

5

I just want to say that these are awesome dog names.

6

I don’t think there should be dog parks because these incidents happen at every single one of them. Yes, of course it’s the fault of idiots. Knowing that doesn’t change the situation. Dog parks are an invitation to trouble.

7

Or someone’s kid.

Bad stuff.

8

Dog parks are horribly overrated. In an ideal world they’d be great. We are lucky in that our dogs can run and romp on our property as if it were a dog park.

9

My dog got killed by another dog that had been recently dumped (dumped in a public park by new owners because it killed a cat in their home). My dog was leashed, but it didn’t help. It was very fast.

People think dogs just “play rough”. Even this dog was adopted back out by the local animal shelter because they “assessed her” and decided she wasn’t people aggressive.

10

I’m sorry for your loss.

Many years ago, a dog that had gotten loose killed my cat. The cat was elderly and probably not long for the world, but it was still really traumatic. (For me, obviously it was traumatic for the cat.) With some difficulty, i got the town to prosecute the owners. The relevant law was really old, and the penalties were something like “up to $100 or up to a year in jail”. But in fact, the court ordered the owner to increase the height of the fence that held the dog in their yard. I had asked to have the dog put down, because it was dangerous. But hopefully the fence worked. The dog was well-enough behaved when with its owner.

There had been a rash of dead cats in the neighborhood. My guess is the dog killed about 20 cats. It was not actually an aggressive dog, it viewed the cats as prey.

11

The dog that killed mine killed it as prey. It was like a dog with a toy.

I actually got a settlement that covered the cost of my medical bills (had to get rabies shots until we found the dog a few days later), my son’s therapy (we saw it) and a new puppy. So we weren’t financially damaged, which is a miracle. I hired a lawyer who doscovered they had renters insurance and we filed a claim. Texas expects you to control your dog. It turns out.

12

That is great. Nobody, well almost nobody, wants a dog that is aggressive towards people. The issue is that there are numerous other things that dogs can be aggressive about.

13

Link to my traumatic experience with loose neighborhood dogs. Warning - it’s pretty graphic. I was extremely upset.

I also had one of my dogs bitten in a dog park. Harley was the sweetest thing, and wouldn’t harm a fly. He didn’t fight back, just rolled over in submission. I got into it with the owner, and the other dog owners shamed her fiercely until she left. I gathered up Harley and my other three dogs (!) and I got him home. He had two puncture wounds in his flank which I treated with neosporin and kept an eye on.

Useless owners are the worst.

14

My neighbor had an untrained Doberman that made a lot of noise behind it’s fence. One afternoon I was gardening in the front yard, the Doberman cleared it’s fence and made straight for me on a dead run. I was kneeling so I raised my arm in front of my face to receive the blow, when our cat flew past me headed directly at the Doberman. The dog came to a halt and briefly regarded the cat before turning and trotting back home. I was amazed, but I assume the dog recognized the cat was defending it’s territory and could do serious damage regardless of what it received.

I do not understand the pleasure of keeping an untrained aggressive dog.

15

It’s hard to claim financial damage when you lose an elderly cat. I didn’t try. It was the best cat I’ve ever had, though, and i still miss it.

Mostly i wanted to stop the carnage.

16

On the opposite side here. We had an akita that viewed small dogs as lunch. We tried dog parks a couple of times with her muzzled but decided dog parks were not the place for her. So here we are walking her down the street and some lady let her little shit dog out freerunning to our dog. Mrs Cad yells at her to grab her dog but she says it’s ok, her dog likes to play. Meanwhile our dog is straining at the leash thing of a tasty snack running into her mouth. Mrs Cad yells back, “Our dog doesn’t!” Luckily the kid playing in the street realized at the last second he was going to see the family pet turned into a meat smoothie and grabbed it.

17

We had a hen torn apart by a dog running loose. We tracked down the owner, who said he’d pay for the damage. He was thinking of the price of a chicken. Meanwhile we had taken her to a veterinarian who stitched her back together, spending over an hour to place many dozens of sutures and only charging us $375.

When we gave the guy the bill he was shocked. He paid, but wasn’t happy.

18

My sister had exactly that experience with one of her German shepherds. Well, her dog didn’t think small dogs were prey, her dog thought they might challenge her dominance. But she was extremely dog-aggressive. My sister never let her off the leash outside her property, and didn’t take her to dog parks. She had to find a place that could board her dog alone when she was on vacation.

It was a really nice dog with people. And with work, it got along okay with her cats. But not with other dogs.

19

Reminds me of Tara, the hero cat who saved her family’s little boy from a dog attack.

20

I’ve rarely gone to a dog park because we’ve had only rescues since we’ve been adults, and it’s a minefield with rescues. We have dachshunds, but they’re just big dogs in little dog suits (y’know, “Death from the Ankles Down”), and it was just too stressful. Plus, the first pair we got seemed like they’d probably been crated 90% of the time and weren’t socially adjusted At.All. It took us nearly a year and a half to walk them in the neighborhood. The female just had something click in her brain, and all of sudden other dogs were fun! Our boy was fear-aggressive to any dog bigger than he was (he just adored fluffly little dogs, though). He was only allowed to interact with a bigger dog if the owner was able to deal. So, he did make a couple of big dog friends, but it was always each individual big dog. He couldn’t transfer his affection for his new big friend to any big strangers.

All that said, dog parks did not work for us. Our boy was always afraid, and our girl didn’t like crowds. We went to a dachshund meet-up at a dog part once, and she made her rounds then walked to the gate and stayed there with her nose pinned to the chain link. She was done.

Our new guy (well, old now) never went to the dog park. Plenty of friends in the neighborhood, and our newish neighbor has a couple of cats that he likes to interact with. Once when Max was at the vet, one of the cats came to our door. I think she was wondering where her doggy friend was.

Oh, and dog parks are idiot-magnets.