I love taking my dog to off-leash dog parks. It’s great for him to be able to socialize, and there’s no better way to tire him out. Anyone who frequents off-leash areas knows there are certain rules to follow—pick up after your dog, don’t let your dog dig or rip up the grass, your dog’s toys will be stolen by other dogs, etc.
I often bring a ball and “Chuck-It” stick to the park, so that my dog can get a really good run. I have no problem whatsoever with other dogs chasing the ball too.
What I do have a problem with is dogs who take the ball, then won’t give it back. The other day I spent 15 minutes waiting for another owner to try and get my ball back from her dog. She had absolutely no control, and all the dog did was run away from her. If your dog doesn’t know certain basic commands like “sit,” “come,” “stay” and-–-just as important—“drop it” or “leave it” or “give,” perhaps you’re not ready for the off-leash park. —Friend of Fido
This article appears in Jun 21-27, 2012.
“your dog’s toys will be stolen by other dogs”
are you fucking clueless.
What an…animal! I am so sorry for your ordeal! You should keep your dog away from naughty ones like that, unless you want it bringing home the same terrible behaviors!
Dogs who take the ball and won’t give it back are selfish, primitive assholes! Their owners are the same! It says a lot about what kind of person you are when you allow your dog to act in such an un-sophistocated way! You should call the police the next time it happens!
Well Scooby-Doo can Doo Doo. But Jimmy Carter is smarter.
http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/1t0m/
I think the word “stolen” is a little out of context…
more like ‘utilized’.
as far as the bitch goes, I think it’s fair to say people who haven’t taught their dogs basic commands should be letting them out to do whatever the hell they want.
It’s the same as our little kid rant…
teach em how to behaving in public before subjecting the rest of the world to their unacceptable behavior.
If this guy was running on a time limit and needed to get the dog back home in time for something… I can totally understand his aggravation at basically being late because of someone else’s stupidity.
Screw obedience training for dogs, there should be reality check training for prospective dog owners.
Dogs who don’t listen are not bad dogs. They have bad owners who probably never planned their strategy for raising an animal, and just got their puppy because it was cute. Gag.
Sorry, my disgust for bad pet owners is showing.
I have a dog, who i’ve had since he was a pup and he is a ball stealer (Oh my goodness what a terrible owner i am) Its annoying for the owners of ball stealer too you know.. because you can train your best friend at home in your back yard where he will listen to ‘leave’ and ‘drop it’ and ‘wait’ but when you get to the park its a whole different story. The only way these dogs are goin to learn to do that in that environment is to be in that environment. I am quite annoyed with peoples attitudes of “if he can’t do this or that don’t take him to the park” how is he going to learn? Socialize? exercise? Play? sorry but EVRYONE can use the dog park and as owner we should maybe be giving advice to others who have problems with our dogs rather than telling them to stay at home. I have worked on my dogs ball stealing (at the park with other dogs) and he is getting better, but it won’t happen overnite it takes time and patience.
Kimi: If this is an issue with your pet, as a good owner, you work on it.
If you can’t stop him/her from ball-stealing, you can keep her/him on leash when other dogs are chasing balls (ha!).
You can tell other owners who are ball-throwing (ha!) that this is a problem so they can make an informed decision and not have to write a bitch in the Coast.
And FYI, I’m referring more to the owners who don’t *bother* to work with their pets, or don’t have clue 1 as to how to raise a dog and end up giving them away, putting them down, or bringing them to shelters rather than actually taking the time and patience that training requires…
It seems to me the OB isn’t so mad about the ball being “stolen”, it’s that the other dog refused to let it go for 15 minutes.
I take my dog to off-leash parks all the time, and he always steals other dogs’ balls. However, as soon as I say “ball” he drops it, and I can give it back. Or better yet, throw it for all the dogs to chase!
Perfect time for your dog to learn to protect what’s his, OB 🙂
It’s kind of like when a kid steals a toy from another kid and the parents go ahead and intervene right away.. it’s great to teach them to share, of course, but intervening every time doesn’t really teach them to stand up for what is theirs when Mommy or Daddy aren’t around.
I don’t know what kind of numpty brings dog toys to the park and doesn’t expect something like this to happen. It’s one of the reasons why we don’t bring toys for our dog anymore.. we just find a decent sized stick and he’s as happy as if it were a dog toy. If another dog takes it, it’s up to him to let that dog know that that is HIS stick, or go off and find another one.
That’s fine and dandy to say, Naveed, but my Bernese Mountain Dog doesn’t stand a chance against, say, a Border Collie, or Italian Greyhound. They’re going to beat him to the ball every time!
Fortuntely, my dog isn’t at all agressive, so when a faster dog get there before him, he just happily waits until they give it up.
we had a bernese in the shop a few months ago, what a sweet, sweet dog
They’re such awesome dogs, Paingirl!
(But it drives me CRAZY when I hear people call them BerMese Mountain Dogs, rather than BerNese. They’re from Bern, Switzerland – not Burma!!!)
they’re great with kids http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/giant-dogs3.j…
I thought I had a CERNese pup but I can’t seem to detect where he is…
*I apologize in advance
Ha ha, Clever Trevor. he’s hiding in a box with schrodinger’s cat. Or, is he…..?
you know o.p., this amazes me too. some of these nice, safe dogs, are so oorly trained, it ain’t funny. maybe it should be a required law, to have some common dog owner sense, before you are allowed to buy or own a dog of any breed. not just the known non-safe dogs.
i firmly believe if you want to have a dog, or even a fucking worm for a pet/friend/companion/whatever, you should have a little know how, to either teach them so basic commands or behaviours around other animal and humans.
but people being what they are(douchebags), this will never happen. maybe we should just outright ban all animals from being kept by humans. that would certainly solve a lot of problems, and court cases.
For fuck sakes! Really? You actually took the time to type up a story about some dog stealing your dogs ball, then not giving it back on command. This was the worst thing that happened to you on this particular day? I hope your dog’s delicate psyche didn’t suffer unrepairable damage.
“Anyone who frequents off-leash areas knows there are certain rules to follow—pick up after your dog, don’t let your dog dig or rip up the grass, (your dog’s toys will be stolen by other dogs), etc. “
So you already know your dog’s toy might get taken by another dog.
“What I do have a problem with is dogs who take the ball, then won’t give it back.”
See, there’s an inconsistency here. Your dog’s ball was taken by another as you expected apparently. So what’s the bitch?
“…not just the known non-safe dogs. “
known…. non-safe….. dogs?
like who, Cujo?
If you checked statistically which breeds caused the most human fatalities in the last while, you’d be pretty surprised.
you have your pit bulls, rottweilers, and dobermans. Oooh, big scary dogs…. responsible for over half the attacks… but you also have husky’s, malamutes, presa canarios, german sheppards… and even chow chows…. fucking chow chows.
(pulled from insurance companies and their ‘blacklist’ of dangerous dogs)
https://my.qoop.com/store/anita-friend-e5a…
Even cats can cause death!
Especially to infants. They like to cuddle with humans and there have been cases where cats have jumped into a crib with an infant (usually a newborn) and cuddled up to them and blocked their air passages and the baby has died. Newborns are probably the same size as a cat or even smaller if the cat is a fat ass.
So, you don’t just have to be a scary ass dog to harm a human being.
zZz – fyi, chows are guard dogs.
Blue (my dog) is a Husky-Chow cross, both breeds are alpha breeds, but since I’ve trained him right…he has the best disposition of any dog I’ve ever owned. He’s never bitten anybody or anything, and I can take a bloddy steak out of his mouth, all he’ll do is ask nicely for it back. Frig, I even take him to work with me.
Bad dogs are just a result of bad owners.
Especially cats…..
http://www.funnypictures.net.au/images/cra…
I don’t know why, but this bitch made me laugh. This line especially “What I do have a problem with is dogs who take the ball, then won’t give it back.” I just imagined the OP putting up a “Rules of the Dog Park” sign at dog-level, so they can read them too. Nothing to do with the point of the bitch, just a thought ;).
where do you work shitd? i’ll come visit^^ http://c.cslacker.com/2471l.jpg
it’s hard to take a guard dog breed by the name of ‘chow chow’ seriously.
I mean, come on…
‘bunny’ the chow chow guard dog?
riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
http://i.chzbgr.com/completestore/2009/7/1…
http://www.petwave.com/Dogs/Dog-Breed-Cent…
I want one of these guys!!! Look at that faccccccce in that picture?
Great personality too! I’ve met a handful of these guys and they are sweeter than sweet!
http://www.petwave.com/Dogs/Dog-Breed-Cent…
HYPOALLERGENIC TOO (as long as they’ve been bred a certain amount of times).
OH! And this time last year I was with one of these guys:
http://www.petwave.com/Dogs/Dog-Breed-Cent…
He was SUCH a little sweetie and everyone’s BFF.
HGL – thanks for the correction 😉
Nice link pg 🙂
for zZz http://media-cache5.pinterest.com/upload/8…
that looks like a cross between a bear and a lion….
he’s probably like that because his owner named him ‘bunny’.
Oh stop being such a grump, zed!
would if I could, but I can’t
http://images.wikia.com/mrmen/images/9/9b/…
Why not?
🙁
Would a hug make it better? 🙂
Naaw man, embrace the grumpy. I too am grumpy and I use it my advantage. When I’m pissed, I just don’t give a fuck. I’ll be walking into traffic without looking, not using hand sanitizer and not holding doors open for any mother fucker. TAKE THAT SOCIETY, you stupid, ugly, boring FOOLS.
Would a hug make it better, Mel? 🙂
OP. I am sure that if you look around, you can find an off leash area specifically for elitists that want dozens of rules. Until then, relax a little.
That’s what dogs do lady. They bark and run around with balls in they mouth. That’s the nature of the beast. Get over it and go to the dollar store and get another ball, dummy.
In other news, I heard about a story recently that dog owners are now putting their pets on PROZAC to control barking?? WTF PEople! It’s a dog, that’s what they do!!
Not ready for the dog park?? LOL!!
Was this dog by chance, my adorable 8mo old Australian Shepherd pup? Sounds strangely similar to a situation I was in a few days ago.
If so, just so you know, he’s in obedience classes and we work with him regularly and he’s doing just fine! Sorry we haven’t gotten to ‘ drop the ball on command while 30 of my dog friends are running around and chasing me’. part of his training yet.
If you don’t want other dogs to take your ball, don’t go to an off leash park.
If you would like to throw the ball and have your dog bring it back to you without other dogs interfering, I’d suggest you go somewhere (ANYWHERE) other than an off-leash dog park.