# To some of the assholes at the local dog park **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 19, 2011, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-some-of-the-assholes-at-the-local-dog-park/582499 "2011-05-19T20:40:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ibanez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a4c791/32.png) [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-some-of-the-assholes-at-the-local-dog-park/582499/21 "2012-03-18T19:02:32Z")
Did the owner with the aggresive dog look like [this ?](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XKTtVucVzf0/TWR-cM4uFhI/AAAAAAAAAOw/7ORLbPecaMI/s1600/white+rapper.jpg) Seems like there’s the whole range of dumb-assery going on at that dog park. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-some-of-the-assholes-at-the-local-dog-park/582499/22 "2012-03-18T19:06:13Z")
> [@Tarwater](#): > > No, they were three-week old puppies. Like I said, they were the size of a softball. Their owners carried them into the park in the crook of their arms, cradling them like infants. They were expecting people to crowd around and ‘ooooh’ and ‘awww.’ More than one person asked them about vaccinations, hinting that they shouldn’t have brought them to the park. They were oblivious to everything. This makes me wonder if they were using the puppies as “date bait”. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-some-of-the-assholes-at-the-local-dog-park/582499/23 "2012-03-18T19:15:50Z")
The OP is 100% right. They need to stop licensing dogs, and start licensing their ‘owners’. ---
**Author:** ![SticksAndString](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3bc359/32.png) [@SticksAndString](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SticksAndString)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-some-of-the-assholes-at-the-local-dog-park/582499/24 "2012-03-18T19:24:12Z")
We need a “like” button on this thing. Seriously. Our library has a couple of different therapy dogs come in on the weekends (seperate weekends, though) and both the dogs and their owners are teh bombdiggity. Neither of the owners are shy about telling kids not to tug on the dog’s ears/tail/fur (which is esp. tempting with the older of the two, Dasher, who happens to be a retired from show and chase competition Saluki with gorgeous long blonde fur ). Although I’m not a dog person, I adore well trained dogs. If I ever get a dog (we have a cat and Hubs is adament that we not get a dog until the cat has shrugged off her mortal coil cuz he thinks the cat would shred the dog to teeny pieces) I promise to make sure he/she is well trained because NOBODY likes an obnoxious, out of control dog with no manners. ---
**Author:** ![stegon66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee59a6/32.png) [@stegon66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stegon66)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-some-of-the-assholes-at-the-local-dog-park/582499/25 "2012-03-18T20:37:59Z")
I’d love to take my two beagles to the local dog park but I’m kind of nervous about it. My girl is neutered, four years old, my boy is neutered, three years old. Both are super friendly with people (especially kids) but I’ve had mixed responses from both around other dogs. Boy dog is a bit of a wuss but will occasionally stand his ground and bark at other dogs, girl dog is friendly to some dogs but tries to dominate others - she once went off on a rott that jumped its fence and came after us (luckily the dog was a real sweetie and backed down). Guess I could take 'em and walk 'em around leashed first? ---
**Author:** ![Lady\_of\_the\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@Lady\_of\_the\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_of_the_Lake)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-some-of-the-assholes-at-the-local-dog-park/582499/26 "2012-03-18T21:26:17Z")
> [@stegon66](#): > > I’d love to take my two beagles to the local dog park but I’m kind of nervous about it. My girl is neutered, four years old, my boy is neutered, three years old. Both are super friendly with people (especially kids) but I’ve had mixed responses from both around other dogs. Boy dog is a bit of a wuss but will occasionally stand his ground and bark at other dogs, girl dog is friendly to some dogs but tries to dominate others - she once went off on a rott that jumped its fence and came after us (luckily the dog was a real sweetie and backed down). Guess I could take 'em and walk 'em around leashed first? Yeah, I’m nervous about dog parks as well! Granted, I’m not a ‘dog person’ (even though we have one). My dog is a collie composed of bundles of fur and an extra long tongue, and he whines pathetically when tiny little dogs bark at him, so I’m pretty sure all the other dogs would kick his ass. 😉 I understood the OP’s post ( **Tarwater** ), but I admit I was stumped by **MidwestGrl’s** entertainingly written story. I understood that the unleashed, balls blazin’ asshole bulldog was definitely bad, but isn’t a dog that runs to the other side of the park following another dog (‘green beret’ style) to chomp on their neck also behaving poorly? Unless that is just how it is in dog parks? Or keep him on a leash if he does that? I mean, yeah, he was fine before the bulldog was there, but maybe now that he’s attacked another dog a leash is a good idea just in case? ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-some-of-the-assholes-at-the-local-dog-park/582499/27 "2012-03-18T21:34:14Z")
> [@Lady\_of\_the\_Lake](#): > > I understood the OP’s post ( **Tarwater** ), but I admit I was stumped by **MidwestGrl’s** entertainingly written story. I understood that the unleashed, balls blazin’ asshole bulldog was definitely bad, but isn’t a dog that runs to the other side of the park following another dog (‘green beret’ style) to chomp on their neck also behaving poorly? I’d throw both humpy-bulldog and won’t-let-go-biter out of my dog park. ---
**Author:** ![MidwestGrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7feea3/32.png) [@MidwestGrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MidwestGrl)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2012, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-some-of-the-assholes-at-the-local-dog-park/582499/28 "2012-03-18T22:55:04Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > I’d throw both humpy-bulldog and won’t-let-go-biter out of my dog park. Yup! You can bet on it that me & Zeus will NOT be returning to that dog park or ANY other one in El Paso for that matter! His sneak attack wasn’t right, but I will defend it somewhat by saying this. (And no, I’m not anthropomorphizing my dog but let me humanize the scenario like this.) If your kid was minding his own business and playing nice with ALL the other kids on the playground, and some big bully came on site and starting picking on everyone, and your kid stood up to the douche and put him in his place, you’d probably be glad he stood up for himself and ever other kid out there on the playground. If he whooped some ass, sure, he deserves detention, but at least he stood up to the perpetrator! My overall point was: Dogs with dangles do NOT belong at the dog park and it pisses me off that people think it’s “OKAY” to bring them there and let them terrorize every other dog. NO NEUTER? NO ENTRY!! ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-some-of-the-assholes-at-the-local-dog-park/582499/29 "2012-03-19T00:26:41Z")
You can always tell the assholes at the dog park by the smell. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-some-of-the-assholes-at-the-local-dog-park/582499/30 "2012-03-19T04:29:54Z")
wrong thread ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-some-of-the-assholes-at-the-local-dog-park/582499/31 "2012-03-19T13:12:27Z")
Why stop with just _some_ of the assholes at the dog park. Did the remaining assholes bribe you to be quiet? ---
**Author:** ![Enlightening\_Meditation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecc23a/32.png) [@Enlightening\_Meditation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enlightening_Meditation)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-some-of-the-assholes-at-the-local-dog-park/582499/32 "2012-03-19T14:22:21Z")
You expect all of the people at a dog park to be intelligent and reasonable? I am humoured. Good rants, though. ---
**Author:** ![kbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4491bb/32.png) [@kbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kbear)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-some-of-the-assholes-at-the-local-dog-park/582499/33 "2012-03-19T16:27:17Z")
Was I the asshole in the dog park? I was walking my 4 month old puppy in the park on her lead and we came across a dog off her lead wearing a “working dog” harness. (The owner had an autistic child with her) The dogs sniffed and played for a bit and starting rolling around getting tangled in my dog’s lead. It wasn’t really aggressive or anything but my dog was pinned and I wanted to move on and the owner was doing nothing so I lifted the dog off mine by the handle on her harness. The owner proceeded to chew me out for touching a working dog. I didn’t want to be a jerk about it so I said nothing but shouldn’t a working dog have been on her lead doing whatever it is she should be doing for the child and shouldn’t the owner have pried her dog off mine instead of me? I don’t want to become one of those who are so precious about their dog. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-some-of-the-assholes-at-the-local-dog-park/582499/34 "2012-03-19T16:56:20Z")
I agree that you did the right thing. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-some-of-the-assholes-at-the-local-dog-park/582499/35 "2012-03-19T17:26:21Z")
> [@kbear](#): > > \ > > I didn’t want to be a jerk about it so I said nothing but shouldn’t a working dog have been on her lead doing whatever it is she should be doing for the child and shouldn’t the owner have pried her dog off mine instead of me? I don’t want to become one of those who are so precious about their dog. People in dog parks (and off-leash areas) are a strange breed. I get the impression from my encounters with my local ones that none of them have bothered to read the rules for off-leash areas here. They let their unleashed dog run up to me while I’m in an on-leash areas (which is right beside the off-leash area - I’ll fault the City of Calgary for that stupidity) and then glare at ME when I dare to point my dog repellent spray at their dog. When I pointed out to one woman that she had two dogs off-leash in the on-leash area, she looked at me like I was some kind of nut. I would never go near my local off-leash areas if the most direct route from my house to Safeway wasn’t right through it on a multi-use path (which is the on-leash area). ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-some-of-the-assholes-at-the-local-dog-park/582499/36 "2012-03-19T17:35:03Z")
> [@Tarwater](#): > > I knew you were going to be trouble when I saw you coming from afar, because before I could even make out the fucking breed of your hideous mongrel, I could see the ugly hypertrophic scarring all over his throat and hindparts. Oh, and for future reference, when your dog is snarling and growling at the other dogs, you can’t absolve yourself by throwing up your arms and saying, “Oh, he’s usually pretty dominant. I’m not surprised that he’s being a little rough.” Don’t stand there looking at us as we’re pulling our animals away from him. Grab him by the fucking collar and haul his ass away. Take him out of the goddamn park. He never should have been there to begin with. I agree. It sucks to be stuck with an aggressive dog, but it’s the dog owner’s problem and responsibility. Aggressive dogs don’t get to hang out with other dogs. > [@](#): > > And to the imbeciles bringing their three-week old puppies to the dog park: what the hell are you doing? Your puppies are too fragile, their immune systems too undeveloped to permit them to carouse with the animals here. They haven’t even had most of their vaccinations yet. They can very easily catch something that would kill them. Wow. I’ve never seen that. That’s awful. Don’t they get the repeated warnings from vets and the like about the vaccinations and how long you have to wait before taking your dog out? Mine didn’t end up going out (except the back garden) till he was 12 weeks old and all vaccinations were done. > [@](#): > > And to the yuppies with their brand-new plastic Chuckit! toys, their bright yellow undirtied tennis balls, and their groomed and manicured showdogs, if you don’t want your animal getting dirtied up wrestling with other dogs, don’t take them to a fucking public, off-leash dogpark. Yeah, that’s annoying as hell, too. Happened to me the other day. Big forested area, very, very muddy; lots of streams and tons of wet horrible mud. It’s one of the primary off-leash “let your dog go and have fun” areas near me, and other dog owners are the only people you see there. But a couple of women came along with their dog on a leash (WTF is your dog doing on a leash? Let him go play! He wants to play with the other dogs! He wants to roll in the mud! He wants to run, and jump, and bound! You’re in the middle of a friggin’ large muddy forest teaming with playing dogs!) and when my - now muddy - dog gave it a desultory ass-sniff, they freaked out. > [@](#): > > And don’t feed me that bullshit about my dog acting aggressive. It illustrates a complete fucking lack of understanding about dog behavior on your part. Had your dog been bitten? Was she snarling? Did she have her ears pinned back against her head? Was she in a defensive stance? No? You want to fucking know why? It’s because she wasn’t feeling threatened by my dog, you stupid asshole. Yes, my dog was bumping into your dog to try to get her attention. He was being physical, granted. But by no stretch of the imagination was he bull-dozing into your dog or knocking her around. In addition to nudging against her, he was also licking at her mouth and falling down on the ground in front of her, exposing his belly. That’s not a sign of aggression. He was trying to get her to wrestle with him by making himself vulnerable. How you could possibly interpret him rolling around on his back as acting aggressive toward your dog is just fucking mind-boggling to me. Yeah, that’s how dogs play with each other. It’s what they’re \*supposed \*to do. A dog owner shoulod learn how to recognise these things. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-some-of-the-assholes-at-the-local-dog-park/582499/37 "2012-03-19T17:35:40Z")
The dog at our local park that humps all the other dogs is unfortunately named Tucker. Can you guess his nickname? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-some-of-the-assholes-at-the-local-dog-park/582499/38 "2012-03-19T21:19:29Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > The dog at our local park that humps all the other dogs is unfortunately named Tucker. Can you guess his nickname? No, I can’t - is it Jucker? Sucker? Mucker? Rucker? Hucker? Heh heh heh. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2012, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-some-of-the-assholes-at-the-local-dog-park/582499/39 "2012-03-19T22:40:24Z")
> [@](#): > > What I hate is when people bring human toddlers. Last time I was at the off leash park, here comes some people with a toddler, and they’ve all just come from the drive thru at Macdonald’s, it would seem, because the toddler’s carrying a burger, in her hand! Yeah, this gonna end well! I was exiting at the time, thank goodness. What the hell are people thinking? ---
**Author:** ![Candyman74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Candyman74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Candyman74)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2012, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-some-of-the-assholes-at-the-local-dog-park/582499/40 "2012-03-20T00:25:08Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Last time I was at the off leash park, here comes some people with a toddler, and they’ve all just come from the drive thru at Macdonald’s, it would seem, because the toddler’s carrying a burger, in her hand! > > Yeah, this gonna end well! I was exiting at the time, thank goodness. > > What the hell are people thinking? That’s just dumb as hell. May as well send the toddler across a busy freeway and blame the cars for being there. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-some-of-the-assholes-at-the-local-dog-park/582499.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/to-some-of-the-assholes-at-the-local-dog-park/582499.md?page=3)