Dog park ex-fan

This is written by someone in Ontario, who learned the hard way to keep his pit bull OUT of the dog park. Anyone who owns or cares about this breed should not jeopardize his/her OWN dog, the dogs of other people or the breed itself. This breed doesnt' need more enemies, which sadly the hound owner in this story now probably is, thanks to the stupidity and ignorance of one person.(Spud is a pit bull)
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"This morning I witnessed a typical display of stupidity by a pitbull owner. And an amazing act of good judgement by Spud.

I didn't feel like walking today so I called a woman I met recently who has a 7 month old lab, Lucy, that Spud loves. We drove down to the dogpark, it was a slight drizzle so we bet we'd have the place to ourselves. Well the only other dog there was Gus the 120 lb coonhound. We'd met him before and knew he was OK. Gus is the undisputed park king. Spud and Lucy did the customary grovelling to him, then went off to wrestle and chase.

About half an hour later, two young guys showed up with a purebred APBT and a sheperd mix puppy. The APBT was not neutered and was named Trigger. Anyway the guys with Trigger went over to Gus's owner and were talking with him, their dogs and Gus were sniffing at each other. Spud and Lucy ran over to them. Spud stopped a few feet away from Gus and Trigger and came back to me. I thought he'd injured himself because it was VERY unusual that he'd come stand by me when there was so much going on. Then (and I'm not making this up) Spud made a beeline for the gate and stood there waiting for me. Now I was worried and thought for sure he'd hurt himself.

Just as I opened the car door I heard snarling and looked up to see that Trigger was clamped onto Gus' throat. Lots of yelling, chaos...I saw Trigger's owner lift him up but he wouldn't let go of Gus. Anna came running out with Lucy and we got the hell out of there. Don't know how it turned out, hopefully Gus was OK and his owner won't report what happened.

I seriously wanted to go back and kick the crap out of Trigger's owner. Bringing any unneutered dog into the park is just plain stupidity and against the rules. But I don't think Gus was neutered either, I'm not sure. This was the first time I've ever witnessed a pitbull being aggressive and it was scary.

I'm totally blown away by what Spud did. He isn't injured as far as I can tell. I think he just sensed a fight was about to happen and wanted to get out of there.
Anyway, talk about a WAKE UP call for me...its impossible to control who comes into that park. Trigger wasn't leashed when they came in. That could've been Spud's neck in Triggers mouth and he would've come off a lot worse than the giant hound probably did. And the worst part is someone who was against the ban (Gus's owner) may now have changed his mind."

You know the stupidity of people just amazes me. Do people not hear the news or read a paper or watch tv. I hope they do call animal control and report the owner and I certainly hope the Hound Gus is okay. Because if it was me I would be reporting it but I would want the owner held responsible not the dog. Gee what happens when you have 2 intact males, nothing good I can assure you.

Do people not hear the news or read a paper or watch tv

Yes, I'm sure they do. They just don't think any of it applies to THEM. I'm also sure that each person whose pit bull has attacked or killed another dog has also said these fatal last words:

"I KNOW MY DOG."

"MY dog would never do that."

"I watch my dog closely".

Anyone who has not seen a pit bull in full "fight mode" has no concept of the speed and ferocity, and that "watching" them is NOT going to stop them.

Thanks to all the people who take their pit bulls to dog parks, jeopardizing MY right to responsibly own one of these wonderful dogs and endangering MY dog. :mad:

We didn't get one. (actually we did -With 2 sewage overflow ponds on it -YUCK!) Needless to say, we don't go there, esp. with a Lab.
I hear a lot of bad news about them. I do wish we had one, or could buy into a private one, if it wasn't too expensive. The one complaint I hear the most is dingbats with aggro dogs showing up. Our big LF park is next to the H.S. & Dog pound. I guess this is some deterent to jerks, but it's just Too far Away for us to use.

It's safer to play in traffic then go to offleash parks. I have seen people being hurt by dogs in play - they get knocked over, hyperextension of knees from being hit behind, back problems... people get hurt there too.

I have mentioned here many time before that Briggs would go to the dog park religiously when we got her. She went there for about 6 - 8 months, can't remember... but I began to notice as she got older other dogs would react to her differently, there was more competition then when she was a little tyke. It seems as though when summer neared the idiots would come out of the wood work! Plenty of people would bring unfixed dogs... (the ones that we knew about we would heckle until they left); people would bring in KNOWN aggressive dogs! That was more then enough.

I love pit bulls and I am the only one to protect her! It's not that us pit bull owners agree with the stereotypes and we agree that all pit bulls are aggressive. That's NOT the case at all! Our concerns are the people that have stereotyped pit bulls already, we are PROTECTING our dogs FROM that stereotype! Why gove more fuel to the fire?

I'm VERY sure that if there was a fight to break out between a pit bull and a lab... it would NOT be the lab that is balmed! That's WHY we stay away from the park.

What Sammie said.

I do take Buddy to High Park but unless we are meeting someone for play we usually just walk the trails. Since I own a big dog he of course is to blame for anything that goes wrong. If he walks over to sniff a dog people who don't know him think he will eat there dog. In most cases he doesn't even bother with most of them now since most of the time they will try and snap at him or start growling at him. But he is still the big mean dog in some peoples eyes. Those who know him will defend him and tell people what a gentle dog he is. My only concern is when they are toy breeds cuz if bigfoot steps on them by accident they would be seriously hurt. But I agree for the most part that they are a dogfight waiting to happen. I also usually try and stay away when the weekend owners you know the kind who only take their dogs out on weekends and have no control over them show up. You are right Sammie people get hurt all the time I have been knocked down more times than I can count, but it is usually my dog that gets me and I should know not to stand in his way. But stupid people bring young childern to an off leash park what are they thinking letting a 3 year old stand around a offleash area where dogs are running and jumping and the kid gets knocked down and the parents are yelling at the dog owner. There is just to many irresponsible people in these parks now a days. I used to really enjoy them up to about 6 years ago but at that time I think that it was newer and people enjoyed them and did not want to jeopardize the freedom for the dogs and owners for a little while everyday. Now they are just to risky