My dog is apart of my family and any person or animal hurting it or attempting to hurt it, dog park or otherwise will definitely be second guessing coming after my dog.

This is exactly why my sister and i havent gone to a dog park and i dont think every will. We want our dogs to be able to play with ours but we just dont trust their humans to have brains enough to know when they have had enough. Plus we have some rough players, my sisters pitty mix is actually worse then my two huskies playing. Shes very vocal play growling and barking and is unrelentless, she goes after bella as jasper goes after her then the girls will gang up on jasper. My mother has watched then play twice and keeps trying to tell us that honee, the pit, is just vicious and being mean but she really just plays like that. We watch for when bellas had enough and seperate them all for a few minutes. My father saw them start to play once and started yelling and screaming and ran after them, he thought they were fighting. When the weather evens out hee we are hoping to get together at my bosss

He isn't playing he's being dominant with your dog. Stryker has the same personality he'll bully other dogs that's why we don't go to the dog park. AVOID him at all costs find a different dog park if necessary if your dog decides one day to bite back it will not end well.

Had one of those "owners" at the park this evening. One lady brought a 5 month old puppy that just got dominated by this owner's full grown rottweiler mix (he dominated most every dog at the park), then when Harry was legitimately playing with her puppy (her puppy was playing right back) she got in a hissy and left. I was going to ask if she wanted to take her puppy to the small dog side of the park, but not with her attitude. Hopefully she doesn't end up with an under socialized dog...the puppy certainly left the park with a bad experience.

Most of us that go to our dog park DO NOT take toys in the gated area we have learned that most dogs will fight over a toy (especially a sqeaky toy)we also try not to give treats aswell untill outside the gated area. makes for a much better time at the dog park

My bella would definitely fight over a sqeak toy or a tennis ball, she tried taking an orange the other day thinking it was a ball! Tennis ball is what our first fight was over between my two. I'm just going to avoid the whole dog park scenario. The have my sisters dog to play with and now a puppy across the street that the teen owner wants to keep introducing so they'll play with her later since shes scared shitless of them right now, and hopefully we'll be able to do play dates with my bosses dog sometime over the summer sonce shes got a yard the can play in. I just dont feel the parks worth it for us especially hearing all the problems people have going.

my Eska would definitely fight over a sqeaky toy and probabaly not give up!! my Past husky Luna killed a couple guinea pigs that were pets one time it was the owners fault and one time my daughters fault (she was only 2 at the time) the second one we replaced . she didnt eat them just squeezed them till they stoped sqeaking!! so we have no sqeaky toys in our house. lol

I actually haven't seen this particular pit and owner since I posted this last month. Kingsley has been great at the dog park every time I take him, except that he tends to want to play with dogs that don't want to play with him. Nothing a little coaxing from me to get him to run in the opposite direction won't fix. He's super friendly with everyone. It's been a great improvement.

Glad I remembered this thread.

What a day yesterday, yikes.

We met up with Rhia and Korra at a local dog park and within 10 seconds of being in the gate Link was pretty viscously attacked by a dog on his way out with his owner.

Link got in the gate and saw Korra up the hill, He stopped to look at her and prepare his dash for her. Right as he took off up the trail, the dog and his owner, who had a ball and a Chuck-it thrower, blindsided Link from the side and tackled him, and then proceeded to try to rip his face off.

Thankfully I was right there and had to kick the dog off and block his further attempts of biting Link. He managed to get on canine into Link's left cheek. He was screaming and curled up in a ball.

I am happy to report though that it turned out as a success story for the owner taking responsibility.

I confronted her to get her contact info and she gave me her name and number willingly. I left Link with Rhia and Korra to get it. I came back and saw the wound and the blood, and I flipped. After chasing her down and using my phone to confirm that it was the right number, I told her of the damage and said that I expected her to be responsible for the damage, as dictated by Seattle law and the dog park rules. She defensively agreed to half the bill and said that she would take responsibility by not taking her dog there anymore because he has done this before. Other people in the park said they're regulars and this is typical. Apparently this dog is very "private" and likes his space. Ugh. I said that wasn't good enough but that I had to go to get him to the emergency vet.

No stitches, no puncture through the cheek. All in all not that bad, but $220 later I was irate.

I called Animal Control to file a complaint and assess my options. They actually came to my home the same day and took my statement and photos of Link. I was told that we could file a citation worth $270 and that any dog with 2 gets put down. Potentially serious stuff.

Later we called her and she had been contacted already by Animal Control. She at this point happily paid the vet bill and we told her we would thus skip the citation. She still has a record now with Animal Control though. Her dog was unregistered though and she will be fined for being in a city park.

Yep. Dog park drama. So frustrating. I am now terrified to take him back to one. All he wanted to do was play with Korra

seattlesibe wrote:

What a day yesterday, yikes.

Wow! I am so glad Link it alright, and that you were able to make her take responsibility for it all. Sounds so scary, give Link all my hugs and I'm sure he will make a speedy recover <3

Thanks Megan will do, it was scarey indeed.

The absolute best part was at the vet, while waiting for his treatment, I was sitting on the floor in front of Rhia crying and Korra came up to me and licked my tears away with her ears back.

I will remember that moment forever.

seattlesibe wrote:

Thanks Megan will do, it was scarey indeed.  

The absolute best part was at the vet, while waiting for his treatment, I was sitting on the floor in front of Rhia crying and Korra came up to me and licked my tears away with her ears back.  

I will remember that moment forever.  

Oh my how sweet! Okay maybe I'll come up to Seattle after all so my big aggressive Link can scare off all these truly aggressive dogs

Ha, yeah, that's the funny irony. All he wanted to do was wrestle and bite and gnaw on his best friend in the world and then this.....

We would always be saying: LINKs!!!!!!! People would think we're nuts.

Poor Link! Hopefully that didn't traumatize the poor guy to much, and that he recovers quickly. I will never understand people who are aware of their dogs problems and continue to take them to the dog park when its just a liability for them. I'm glad that you got her to pay for the whole incident and that it wasn't to much of a fight for you to have her do that. However, I am sorry that it happened to you guys!

Oh I do hope Link will not be too traumatized by what happened! I had tears in my eyes reading this, I get so worried that something like this will happen to my boy that I am apprehensive to take him to the dog park. Although, with my luck - Rogue will be the instigator. However I never take my eyes off of him or am too far away. One of my good friends keeps telling me I need to take him to the park - we have a big back yard but I really do need to make sure he is more socialized. He has always been friendly with other dogs but he is a rough play pal - and I just don't know what I would do if he got hurt or if he hurt someone else's furbaby.

Thanks Erica. It is terribly frustrating. There are rules and laws like this for a reason and it sickens me when people don't comply because they are lazy or negligent or careless, whatever.

Some laws and rules being broken, no problem, so long as you're not putting other people at risk of anything or endangering a person, dog, whatever. People who go to dog parks and expect to left alone in private because their dog is dangerous drive me crazy. It should be so obvious that that is a horrible idea.

I don't think he's traumatized. He was wounded and bleeding and yet he still wanted to play with Korra as Rhia was trying to keep them separated while I chased the woman down. I love how easily dogs can move on from an incident as though nothing happened.

mmwhiteside wrote:

Oh I do hope Link will not be too traumatized by what happened! I had tears in my eyes reading this, I get so worried that something like this will happen to my boy that I am apprehensive to take him to the dog park. Although, with my luck - Rogue will be the instigator. However I never take my eyes off of him or am too far away. One of my good friends keeps telling me I need to take him to the park - we have a big back yard but I really do need to make sure he is more socialized. He has always been friendly with other dogs but he is a rough play pal - and I just don't know what I would do if he got hurt or if he hurt someone else's furbaby.

Thank you, he is gonna be okay. He just has a big chunk shaven off of his cheek and the runs from the meds

But your post...this too. Ugh.

People who go into dog parks and essentially plant themselves down, get on their phone, and ignore their dog, also drives me crazy.

I never stop moving at the park and follow Link like a hawk. For his safety and potentially other dogs' I stay within arm or legs reach of him as best I can. When he is with his Husky friends it's a little different because they as a group isolate themselves and we all kinda relax, but with non-Huskies I am well aware that Huskies are provocative and "loud" and I monitor him incessantly.

Unfortunately, this incident happened so freakin' fast, literally less than 10 seconds in the gate.

There is a lady that comes to the dog park I go to that has a huge doberman that she takes into small dog section if it's empty. It wears a muzzle all the time, except when in the small dog section alone, she takes it off. The dog just runs along the fence acting trying to attack every dog on the other side or any dog that walks by outside the fence on a leash. The fence in our dog park is only like 3.5-4 foot, so it actually scares me, it would be so easy for that dobbie to jump the fence. Whenever I see her, I leave with Dizzy immediately, its just too close for comfort for me.

I'm willing to bet that the owners of these dogs are the type that never walk their dogs and they think that their dangerous, improperly socialized dog is getting healthy exercise at the dog park.

Also, the lady who owns him is probably 90 lbs soaking wet.

Reading all of these stories lately and having it happen to Nikolai (pitbull) and Siku (German Sheppard) once before each (luckily no major injuries), makes me want to like carry something with me just in case this were to happen on one of our walks or something.

It sounds like though in Seattle they take this stuff seriously (which is awesome), I don't think it would of happened that smoothly here in Maine.

This was the one bite from the dog's canine. Could have been so much worse had I been 1 foot further away.

Aw! Poor Link. He looks so sad... Dizzy's coloring looks so much like his! I need to post some updated pix tonight. This is another reason I love his daycare. Socialization and dog play in a safe environment.

siku&nikolai wrote:

Reading all of these stories lately and having it happen to Nikolai (pitbull) and Siku (German Sheppard) once before each (luckily no major injuries), makes me want to like carry something with me just in case this were to happen on one of our walks or something.

It sounds like though in Seattle they take this stuff seriously (which is awesome), I don't think it would of happened that smoothly here in Maine.

That's too bad. I was so immensely impressed with Seattle Animal Control. So prompt and efficient and professional and informative.

He was so exhausted last night and incredibly sweet and affectionate too. Korra kept trying to lick the blood off of him

Meanwhile, Patrick was at work in a conference getting texts from me...poor guy. He was sick to his stomach. I missed him so much yesterday.