Dog Parks (Addendum) (shepherd, vet, aggressive, train)

[otterhere]

I can't find the earlier discussion on dog parks, but honesty compels me -- a huge fan of them -- to report that I observed my first "incident" at one recently. A really shady (almost homeless) looking guy with an unneutered German Shepherd, pulling hard at the leash, arrived, and I noticed a lot of the other owners scooping up their little dogs or hurrying toward the exit gate. Sure enough, almost as soon as he was in, it began aggressively chasing another dog and a fight broke out, followed by "words" between the owners. The GS man took no responsibility nor steps to restrain his dog, lounging on a bench scrolling through his phone. The poor dog was probably cooped up alone all day and over-excited, or maybe the guy abuses him; who knows?

It's a shame that a jerk can ruin it for the whole bunch; what recourse is there? I suppose it's self-governed.

I should add that, although not currently a dog owner myself, whenever I'm eating lunch in my car or have occasion to do paperwork, I like to do so at one of our five really nice dog parks where the occupants run and play together peacefully without exception -- until now.

It's such a joy to watch!

[Riley.]

I suppose if the GS man's dog hurts another animal (and there is no disclaimer on any signs near the dog park) a person could sue in small claims court for vet bills.
BTW Judge Judy doesn't like dog parks and she will always side with the victim dog. It is up to the owner to control their animal.

[otterhere]

One of the owners actually got bit pulling her dog to safety. Not sure what became of that! I love dog parks and, in all my years of observing them, have never seen any aggression, so that was a shock! This was clearly not a good owner (not the dog's fault), which is thankfully very rare, but I suppose anyone can walk in if they feel like it unless it's privately owned. I imagine some people think it's a good place to meet others or even "hook up," as a lot of socializing goes on there, for people as well as animals!

[Metlakatla]

Good luck suing the homeless in small claims court. FTR, "disclaimers" are meant to protect the park itself from litigation, not to protect individual dog owners from being sued in civil court by others.

What you describe is indeed a problem out here where the homeless have been granted free reign to set up tent cities in public spaces. Public dog parks are often just afterthoughts tacked onto a city parks. This is why we like private dog parks.

[StarlaJane]

I love GSDs but, generally speaking, they are a poor fit for a public dog park. Males especially seem to have a hard time: they have high prey drives and feel the need to control high-energy dogs (whom they view as out-of-control). Because of this, even well-trained male GSDs have a difficult time at dog parks.

Hopefully, the guy won’t bring his dog back. However, as the OP stated, this is the problem with public spaces: they’re open to everyone. This means that one has very little control re: with whom one is sharing space, which makes such places potentially unsafe.

It’s always possible, though, to call the police or Animal Control if someone is not controlling their dog and/or the dog is posing a threat to someone else and their dog. I’d just rather find some place else to take my dog than to deal with all that.