need to rant

ok so last night i thought id bring the boys to the dog park for a quick romp around. as i was walking in an older gentleman with two border collies told me to watch of for this guys dog (as he pointed over to a man holding a boxer) saying the boxer had attacked his dogs. I should have listened but i didnt think much of it, dog fights happen occassionally and maybe these dogs just didnt get along. well i was wrong...
i enter the park and this guy is still holding on to his seemingly hyper yet happy boxer pup (arent all boxers a little hyper, part of their charm) so the guy lets go of his dog and it playfully dashes towards logan. logan loves it a play buddy so the dogs are chasing one another wagging tails happy and then eintirely unprevoked this dog snaps lunges at logan and attacks him (like no warning nothing, wagging tail happy logan running then this dog snapped)
poor logan had no idea what was going on, as logan turned i yelled fpr logan to come and thankfully he listened but his other dog kept attacking him. the dogs owners did nothing so i had to go over there myself and pry this snapping dog i didnt know off of logan, it was a little scary.
so then i freaked and screamed at this guy (i felt really bad because he had a kid there who was like 14) but i couldnt help it my heart was pounding as fast as it could, and then the guy steps forward and hes standing withing inches of my face... im yelling at him to get his dog out of the park and this is the 3rd dog it attacked and it shouldnt be here until better socialized in a controlled environment. the guy is staring me down and then i realize logan is staring this guy down and i am still holding on to his dog....
so i step back because i dont want to upset logan more as he is becoming very attentive to this guys everymove, and was not a fan of him standing in my face.
so then this guys wife starts yelling at me saying dont you know anything about dominance?? i say yes alot actually but that was flat out unacceptable aggressive behaviour, she starts yelling at me saying it wasnt this other woman who had arrived a min after i did looks at the woman and tells her no it was aggessive and that they should leave the park with their dog.
the woman tell me that this boxer has been ill for 3 months and is just getting used to dogs again, i tell her its fine but she needs to socialize her in a more controlled environment if these are her actions.
so then i put logan and brax on their leashes.... it is definately time to go and their other dog a quite sweet friendly mastiff comes up and sniffs logan, logan not in the mood lets out a growl, i ask them to get their dog away from logan, as he is unpredicable at the moment because he is still worked up and again they do nothing!!!! they start ylling at me that logan is aggressive and i should get him out of the park!
so i get in the car and then it hits me the woman said her dog had been sick!!! so i checked ever inch of logan 3 times last night and chris checked when he got home from work and there is not puncture marks or broken skin so thats a relief.

ok i needed to rant sorry s long, i know my actions werent the best (yelling and all) but i had never been so afraid in my life, there have been fights at the dog park before and logan has been in one quick fight that we broke up immediately but i had never seen something like this i was scared ****less....
so thanksfor the rant space

I'm sorry this happened. :(

But fyi. A wagging tail doesn't always mean a happy-go-lucky friendly dog. When he was running, was his head low, or was he at all slightly crouched? Ears raised?

no body language was saying happy dog.
they were palying for about 2 mins, and then his body laguage chaged and he snapped... it was weird i hadnt seen a dog do this before.... i was watching carefully too, i thought of the possiblity that logan stepped on him somehow, but he didnt do that either. :shrug: i think the dog just needed more socialization, but in a controlled environment.... but the dog's owners didnt seem very bright in the sense of dog training and dealing with aggressive/dominate behaviours... at one point they thought it was funny their dog was attacking logan

So sorry ~michelle~. I hope Logan is fine. I was at the park at 7:45am today and I heard about the boxer from the owner of the two border collies. He said that boxer (he called it a pit cross) was out of control and although he did not mention the family arguing with you, he did tell me about the attacks on his dogs.
I sure hope Logan is OK and the fact that they said their dog was ill would make me wonder what the ailment was too. Thank goodness little Brax wasn't involved!!!!!!
I will only go there in the early mornings now and only weekdays. I know it sounds silly to go to the dog park and hope that no dogs are there (or few dogs) but I really believe that I have to pick my times wisely, only because I feel that the more dogs around the more chances of a problem starting. If Lukka was good at recall it wouldn't be an issue for me, but that is not the case, at least Logan will listen to you when you give a command.

After posting and reading that last little bit there it almost sounds like I am telling you that you did not pick your times wisely. That isn't how I meant it and I sure hope you don't come to that conclusion. I only meant that I have to be warry because Lukka doesn't respond to me when there is so much action happening around her. Hope there is no missunderstanding here.

no misunderstanding at all lukka'sma.....
no the olderman with the border collies was leaving as i was coming in and warned me about the dog as i was entering but i thought nothing of it (silly me) hope his border collies are ok, they seemed a little older, this dog could have relly hurt them, and the poor lil old man probably couldnt do too much

no it was definately a boxer pup, make me sad the guy said pit... oh more bad press for the pit and it wasnt one at all :(

may be the sickness too, why the pup acted this way
logan is fine thank goodness... i have looked him over a couple more times just to make sure she didnt bite him.... i worry alot.
he is usually one to hold his ground so i was very proud of him when he came, but he had a look of pure confusion, he did not know what was going on at first.
little brax was scared he immediately lied down beside me and watched logan. so happy he wasn't involved. i am always so afraid of things happening to braxton, not just because of the physical injuries that could occur, but he is so emotional at times, i spent months getting him to not be afraid of everything, i am so worried if something happened it would traumatize him.

it was actually dead there except for the two dogs this guys owned and the woman who came in after me with her little black doggie. so it wasnt cause it was busy it was because the dogs owners were jerks. they honestly thought that the dog park was a good way to re socialize her... not a doggie that aggressive, baby steps are needed for her

no body language was saying happy dog.
they were palying for about 2 mins, and then his body laguage chaged and he snapped... it was weird i hadnt seen a dog do this before.... i was watching carefully too, i thought of the possiblity that logan stepped on him somehow, but he didnt do that either. :shrug: i think the dog just needed more socialization, but in a controlled environment.... but the dog's owners didnt seem very bright in the sense of dog training and dealing with aggressive/dominate behaviours... at one point they thought it was funny their dog was attacking logan


Funny, but everything you just said here is exactly what the fellow with the two collies said. He told me the dogs were fine and all of a sudden this boxer would snap and go wild. The owner and his kid would only stand back and laugh at the antics of their dog, and offer no help to remove their dog from the throat of the collie.
unbelievable isn't it.

poor man..... :( that must have been horribly scary for him..... its unbelievable what some people do, and the risk they put their own and other dogs at. that poor little boxer is going to come across a dog that is not going to tolerate it and it will be seriously injured.

That's freaky. Something's not right with the dogs and it seems something's not right with them either (like owner, like dog)...

Sounds really freaky too because they didn't move. I mean, breaking up a fight is one thing, but breaking up a fight with a dog you don't know that just snapped right in front of you is just scary. :grouphug: Dog parks bring out all sorts, don't they? :sad:

Happy-looking dogs aren't always happy. I get into arguments at the park sometimes because Boo looks happy when he's about to fight- his ears are up, his tail is wagging normally, but he has a low rumbly growl that you really have to listen for. I know my Boo, so I drag him away while everybody's all "they're playing!" :frustrated:

definately not cool of the people... but theres always a few that try and wreck it for everyone else. oh well ill be sure to leave the park if i see them there again, i have had a few run ins with people bringing not very friendly dogs to the dog park treating it like their personal backyard, some people just need to realize the dog park may not be the place for their dog. dog parks are great and the boys love them but isee why some people choose not to bring their dogs there and more people need to make that responsible choice.

That is right ~michelle~, people do need to be responsible. The only reason I take Lukka to the park is so that she can have some off leash time. Even though I hike her almost 4 kilometres daily I keep her on leash though all of it, always!!! I don't take chances with her, and the dog park is the only place I feel comfortable other than my yard letting her off leash. But like you said if I see any dogs that I think may be a problem I leash her up and off we go.

I had a problem on Monday. A guy brought his Shepherd/Husky to the park for the first time and as soon as he let him off leash he came after my Jasper twice then after another dog also named Jasper. A guy asked him to remove his dog from the park but refused because he said "That's what dogs do, they fight." He also said if we didn't like it then we should leave the park. I thought the park was for the dogs to have fun and socialize not for fighting. When he was asked again to leave, he tore off his jacket and wanted to fight, so someone at the park called police but he left before they got there. He was supposed to come back today to finish the fight but never showed up.

I can't believe people actually act like this. He tore off his jacket!! Wow, I don't know if I would have just stood there and laughed at him, (hey buddy you're too cool for me), or if I would have been nervous that he was going to snap too. I think the former would most likely have been my reaction. (After Lukka was safely in the truck of course)

There were quite a few people laughing because he said he had to take off his Rolex and then proceeded to say that he has beaten bigger guys in prison. The guy that asked him to leave the park used to be a bouncer and was pretty hefty and the other guy as probably 100 lbs soaking wet.

Sorry to hear what you guys had to put up with. Those people should not be taking dogs like that to a dog park. Glad to hear Logan and Jasper are all right. I always used to think it would be so nice to have a dog park here but now I'm glad we don't.