The dog park in Little Rock prohibits food. Most of the people who come to the dog park are nice people who look after their dogs. i.e. They clean up their dog’s poop, make sure their dog isn’t aggressive and are generally friendly to everyone in the park. I’ve only seen one dog behave aggressively which led to an argument between a few owners and some very harsh language. It’s too bad when a few assholes ruin it for everyone else.
As the trainer and owner of service dog number three now, the owner was the asshole. Either the dog is off lead and off duty, or it’s on lead and on duty, and no service dog should ever interfere with another dog or a person unless invited. People like that make it more difficult to get access with a service dog.
Yup. You don’t bring a working dog to a bark park and keep it in a working status. And if the dog is NOT in working status, you don’t tell people to follow the rules for a dog that IS in working status.
That said, should you and your puppy encounter another working dog in the bark park in future, you would do well to interact with the user and establish how far he/she wishes to depart from standard working-dog ground rules before allowing your puppy to interact with the dog.
My two neutered (50 pound) dogs play with a giant (150 pounds) unneutered Rottweiler who is a total gentleman - mainly due to the fact that his owner has him well under control. So unneutered dogs can socialize well with other dogs.
Since my dogs love to retrieve, I carry a chuckit. Used to use a tennis racket, but the chuckit lives up to its motto, “all fun and no slobber”.
People who don’t know dog behavior need to be taught. Play behavior is easy to understand. Front end down, back end up and wagging. Don’t go to the park with a chip on your shoulder. Be friendly and help the unfortunate ignorant (newbies) to understand their pooches.
I have found, generally - not all the time, that dog people are friendly and more empathetic than average.
No to puppies and socialization! Why would anyone want to subject a puppy to a killing infection? Wait 'til they’re old enough to have a well functioning immune system. That’s just common sense.
If a dog park isn’t relaxing for you, don’t go.
And even though this thread is nearly a year old now, this post STILL makes me cack myself.
Thanks Wilson. 
I totally agree with you on that, though I’ve never owned a service dog myself. I’m friends with Ms. M, the owner of one of the therapy dogs who regularly comes to our library and one day, after storytime, I asked her what the “rules” are for dogs in harness/vest just so I would know. That way if/when we saw one elsewhere I could tell my son (who was I think 3 or 4 at the time) not to touch and why.
My complaints:
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You with the growling snappy dog that growls and snaps at every dog that comes even near it. Get the f**k out of the park. Your dog was not socialized properly and you will have to work out a non-public way to socialize him so he can handle being around other dogs.
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You with the dog treats. No! Bad owner! Some dogs are food aggressive and having treats can start fights in what is normally an even tempered community. I got to witness that once when a man pulled jerky out of his trench coat and was immediately surrounded by 9 or 10 dogs who all wanted a piece after the man’s dog got one. I called our dogs away as I saw it was nothing but trouble brewing.
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Also, you again with the dog treats. Some dogs have allergies. Some dogs have weight issues. Some owners believe that treats should only be given out when a dog has earned them. Again, leave them out of the park.
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To the nasty person who yelled at a stranger. She and I were having a conversation and her dog pooped off to the side and she missed seeing it. The polite thing to do is to say something like “Hey, I think your dog just pooped over there” and not “You think it’s ok to let your dog shit wherever he wants to? You’re not that special!”
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We’ve got two dogs, a very affectionate and outgoing but slowmoving Olde English Bulldogge, and a spunky stranger-wary pug who was adopted from an abusive home at 6 months. I’ve had the pug a year now and he’s really come out of his shell compared to where he was before. So if you or your kids chase after him, he either goes submissive or runs away. I’ve explained a little bit of patience helps build quick trust and you’ll be covered in puggy licks really soon. So please don’t have your child chasing after my dog until they get a pet in after I’ve explained this to you.
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And this is a lesser pet peeve, but if you can see I’m trying to leave, I’m calling the dogs, please don’t block my dog from leaving while trying to pet her. She does love those pets and she does not like leaving. So if you see me calling her to come, just stop with the lovin’s.
Also, “unneutered” sounds like the dog was once neutered and had it reversed.
I’d give them a pass on that one; you’re most likely seeing the baggage from all the dog owners who let their dogs poop without cleaning it up. This person probably thought she was just one more person who wasn’t going to clean up after their dog. Once again, the Ruiners ruin it for everyone.
Wow…I was researching dog parks on Google for my dog & your post came up in the search results. When I saw all of the profanity in just the first line, I HAD to read it. Even though your post was a few years old, I had to reply, so I registered for a Straight Dope account, just to respond to YOU.
First of all, I cannot believe the amount of profane language I your post…some of your filthy words would make truck drivers, sailors and rap musicians blush. ( NO offense to truck drivers, sailors, & rap musicians intended) Was all the swearing really necessary? Did it make you feel more like a man (or woman)?? It sure did not make you sound that way. You came off sounding like an immature CHILD trying to get a reaction from an adult. Perhaps you had a negative experience at a dog park. Maybe your dgo was attacked by an aggressive , unneutered male dog. As a dog lover myself, if that were the case, I completely understand pour frustration. If my precious dog were attacked by a bully, I’d be upset to. What I would NOT do, however is make myself look like a complete imbecile by posting a foul-mouthed, nonsensical rant that offends 99.9% of the people who read it.
Secondly, I cannot believe that the people who administrate StraightDope.Com would allow such juvenile filth to be posted on their site. Does this site NOT have an editor, administrator or chat moderator who’s responsibility it is to protect their reasonable readers from toxic, idiotic posters like you? Having said that, I intend to cancel my account immediately after I post this reply, as I want NOTHING to do with a site that alliws people like you to post absolute garbage.
In your post, you represented yourself as a dog owner. I can only hope that in addition to being a foul-mouthed idiot, you are also a bald faced liar. Jerks like you should NOT be allowed to own a cock roach, much less a dog. If you do òwn a dog, I can only imagine how aggressive & poorly behaved it is because it’s a known fact that dogs, like children are
products of their environments. In fact, any dog if yours would be MUCH better off being euthanized than forced to be at your mercy.
I have said my piece. Grow up. Get a life, get an education, & most importantly…GET RID OF YOUR DOG!! Dogs, like children, are precious gifts, entrusted to our care & conservatorship by God. PEOPLE LIKE YOU DO NOT DESERVE & HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO BUSINESS OWNING OR BEING ANYWHERE NEAR A DOG!!
Hi and welcome to the straight dope, you found a great message board and you also (without reading the board rules or even the specific forum rules) found your way into the bbq pit.
its the one where everyone present gets to tell everyone else whats on their mind. things like “FUCKING SHIT HEAD DOG OWNERS”, and FUCKING SHITHEAD NEWBIE POSTERS WHO CAN’T BE ASSED OUT TO READ THE DAMN STICKIES AT THE TOP OF THE FORUM BEFORE POSTING A RANT ABOUT A RANT IN THE FUCKING RANT FORUM"
I am joking but seriously your post is some funny shit to a long time Doper.
Sorry, you’re one of us now! There’s no such thing as canceling your account (cue hand rubbing and evil laughter…)
Nope, dogs were made by man over the course of millions of years of evolution.
And that owner (who hasn’t posted here since August) sounds actually like a GOOD dog owner who has a clue and was at the end of their rope with preachy, ignorant, sententious idiots.
Welcome to the Dope!
Go to hell, you sanctimonious bitch.
Fuck Fuckity Fuck Fuck Fuck.
And your little dog too!
And I thought the vapours had been eradicated.
Wow, I hope she doesn’t flounce off in a huff like she said she would. She obviously has a lot to share with us. I feel we could really learn from her experience, syntax and punctuation choices.
They’re making a comeback, because people think the vapours vaccine causes an imbalance in bodily humours. Why, there was an outbreak of vapours at Medieval Times just a fortnight ago.
Looks like we found the one with the limited reading comprehension who brings the un-neutered dog into the dog parks.
On the off chance you wander by to see if you achieved any effect…
You’ve never really spent any time with any of those groups in an environment where they didn’t feel constrained, have you? The only blushing would be at how embarrassingly non-profane that first post was. Angry yes but pretty mild language wise. The OP didn’t even display familiarity withf infixes (I’ll demonstrate later). Not a one. He didn’t really even try combinations. He really didn’t use standard language to express foul ideas. In our modern kinder and gentler military we tend to be less foul mouthed than in days of old but allow me to share a couple quotes from Full Metal Jacket. These lines are by R Lee Ermey who’d been an actual Marine Drill Instructor and was allowed to ad-lib extensively in his role as DI. Now may be a good time to void your bowels or put on some Depends if you choose to continue reading.
Now that’s abso-fuckin-lutely (<<< use of the infix ;)) some, no shit high quality, motherfucking profanity! Ermey wasn’t dickin’ the fuck around. He fucking had his shit squared the fuck away. *Edit - I couldn’t bring myself the to leave the comparison between his mouth and that of the budget sex worker with severe dental issues caused by meth addiction in the post.I’m not that foul…here.
I hear God made them tasty too, The dogs, that is, not the babies. Nobody I know has tried babies when assigned in South Korea. (<<< that’s the normal language to express foul ideas. I can’t keep giving you these free lessons.)
Heh heh. You said “cock.”