Guest mariah Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 Regarding the ball diamonds... You can make your own portable gates to close off the dugout entrances, if that's the problem with them. I can put pictures here if anyone is interested. I want to see! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Garwood Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 I never go into a dog park without first watching the interaction of the dogs already there. If it doesn't look good, we leave, and if a dog shows up that changes the balance, we leave. This is what I did the only time we went. After watching and waiting for the park to empty, I brought my dog in and turned him loose. He was free to run as long and as far as his little heart desired. He ran around in circles for about twenty seconds, just like he does at home. Then he pretty much stood right next to me, just like he does at home. So much for the dog park. (Why does he always stand behind me?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Wasserbuffel Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 (Why does he always stand behind me?) So much the better to trip you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a_daerr Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 You'll have people on GT who are very strongly pro- dog park and others that are against. I think the short answer is to be vigilant and learn how to interpret behavior. Personally, we love taking Henry to dog parks. He used to be sort of a breed snob, so going to dog parks got him used to dogs of all kinds of breeds and sizes. Henry is pretty good about self-regulating, meaning, he'll walk away if another dog is irritating him. However, dogs do behave differently in a pack. Here are just a few things to watch out for: A group of dogs ganging up on a smaller, weaker, or injured dog. Your dog appears to be distressed, tries to walk away, and the other dog continues to follow and instigate Your dog tenses up, begins to snarl, or growls. You can also learn a lot by observing the position of the ears and tail. If any of these apply, I would intervene. It's a good idea to bring a small squirt bottle for emergencies. Also, I'm not too sure what you mean when you say "bite." Did he bite hard, break skin, cause an injury? Snap in the other dog's general direction? Put his mouth on the other dog's neck, ears, face? My four-year-old LOVES playing "bitey-face" with our other dog, a five-month-old puppy. Sometimes biting can be playful. Dogs who were raised with their mothers until at least 8 weeks of age usually have very good bite inhibition. They know just how hard to bite in order to not cause pain or injury to the other dog. Biting is also a way of establishing dominance and pack order. I would just try to be observant, especially if your dog is known to be irritated with certain types of dogs. Also, I agree with previous posters who've said not to muzzle unless all other dogs are muzzled. Same goes for leashes. Best of luck to you! Enjoy your new addition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OwnedBySummer Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 (edited) Here's the gate pictures. Please note that the gate was hung for these pictures in a gate opening at my home, which is TOO WIDE for the portable gate. The portable gate needs to be built wide enough to overlap the baseball diamond fence on both sides, for strength. Also, there are different types of plastic fencing available. Having seen a herd of greyhounds break through the cheaper, lightweight fencing... and run out onto a road... we no longer use the lightweight fencing for our playgroup gates. The fencing in the pictures is very strong and my DH absolutely cannot break it with his bare hands. The fencing is 5', although the pictured gate was trimmed down and made to be 4' to fit into a specific vehicle. DH also made a 2' "topper" that I can attach to this 4' gate, with a slight horizontal overlap, giving me a gate of almost 6'. We only do this if the group seems rowdy or if we have a jumper or screamer attending that day. I overlap the two and fasten with bridle clips. Also, the bungee cords are permanently affixed with zip ties. I see that the zip ties don't show clearly in all the pictures but they are there. Anyone who wants specific pictures or needs better pictures or has any questions, feel free to PM me about them. No problem! Edited February 4, 2012 by OwnedBySummer Quote Lisa B. My beautiful Summer - to her forever home May 1, 2010 Summer Certified therapy dog team with St. John Ambulance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jbbuzby Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 There is a great book I read the other day about different breeds and their play-types and preferences. Generally, sighthounds tend to do the chase/tag sort of play; they, and the other dogs, don't really bode well when it comes to wrestling. Just a contrast of play-styles. I'll try to find the link for you...an interesting read! Otherwise, I take my two hounds to the dog park at least once a week; yet, I don't take them with other dogs. Ever. If there are other dogs, we just walk instead (we have a convenient path/trail that goes right passed, so it's not big deal). It sounds super lame, but with the horror stories too numerous to count, I can't bring myself to do it. I would let them run/play with other dogs if all the dogs were muzzled (like how mine are...and even then, my male can just be too much for my little female, and I have to call him off). It just seems better this way. There are too many variables (I think, anyway) of what can set off the prey drive in an individual dog. If your dog was correcting an obnoxious puppy, his behavior is legitimate, but I know too many labs that just won't back off and think it's great fun getting told off by another dog, which is not fun for the other dog and can lead to someone getting hurt. Your dog is actually in more danger with IMO with just two other dogs. In larger groups, the silly rough-playing ones tend to find their own in a group and leave the others alone with the first sign of a "leave me be." FWIW, my dogs DO go to doggy daycare at my work, but the above scenario with a larger group of dogs (6-8) is the case, and they aren't bothered by the zany obnoxious puppyish dogs and can play with others more like themselves but while supervised by a professional in a neutral setting without their owners. So I'm not saying your guy can't EVER socialize. You might just want to do a case-by-case consideration . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greydawg Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 (edited) This link may be of interest... Greyhound Fighting or Playing? Oh, and Edited February 4, 2012 by Greydawg Quote Cheryl - "Mom" to RUNNER (Gunnah, born 6/15/2012) and FARGO (Ridin Shotgun, born 8/21/2015). Missing my Grey-Angels HEISMAN (RX Heisman) (3/29/2005-2/1/2016) and ALEX (Bevenly) (4/15/2005-6/7/2018). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neighsayer Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 You can also use a folding metal exercise pen with bungee cords to block the opening at the ball field. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greysandmollie Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 I have used dog parks without incident but it realy depends on who else it there. If the mix got to playing too rough we would just leave. The thing that would usually become a problem is if the other dog owners were not paying attention. I think if you stay focused they can be great places to burn off some steam and socialize your dogs. I have accumulated too many dogs to make it practical to go anymore....and fortunately I have a good sized yard here. Quote Donna and...Lucy and Chubb Rascal H 10/1/91-5/22/04 My best friend and Bounty Boon 1/23/99-6/25/07 My boy with the biggest heart Cody 7/28/99-8/1/13 My boy that always made me laugh and Dylan 5/12/04-12/29/2017 The sweetest boy ever Miss Mollie 1/1/99-1/30/15 and Pixie -10/10/2017 Lincoln -2/14/2021 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest verthib Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 So if it's fastened with a bungee cord, a dog could theoretically push hard enough and squeeze through? Maybe I'm looking at the pictures wrong. I like the idea though. That would work with an expen I guess too. This link may be of interest... Greyhound Fighting or Playing? Oh, and Very interesting article. This explains more about why my Angus doesn't appear to know how to play. He's super competitive and will nip (hard!) any dog that he perceives to be competing with him. Thus the constant play time muzzle. I wish that article was given to every adopter because some think I'm crazy and am over dramatizing his 'play' behavior. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PrairieProf Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 Nice gate. Good idea for a playgroup. Still can't see how I'd realistically do that as one person with one hound going to ball fields with at least three openings. Quote With Cocoa (DC Chocolatedrop), missing B for Beth (2006-2015)And kitties C.J., Klara, Bernadette, John-Boy, & Sinbad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OwnedBySummer Posted February 4, 2012 Share Posted February 4, 2012 (edited) So if it's fastened with a bungee cord, a dog could theoretically push hard enough and squeeze through? Maybe I'm looking at the pictures wrong. I like the idea though. That would work with an expen I guess too. No, they can't squeeze through. Not at all. There's 3 bungees halved, so there's 6 attachment points. And you need to attach the bungees tightly -- I sometimes have to struggle a bit to undo them. You would hang it on the inside of the diamond and it will overlap the opening on both sides. As I had mentioned, this was hung just for pictures in my way-too-wide gate opening at home. But at the diamonds, the dug out openings are much much narrower and the overlap on each side is somewhere around 1'. We measured all the openings at the diamonds we wanted to use and made the gates to fit the largest dugout opening. Edited February 4, 2012 by OwnedBySummer Quote Lisa B. My beautiful Summer - to her forever home May 1, 2010 Summer Certified therapy dog team with St. John Ambulance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kudzu Posted February 5, 2012 Share Posted February 5, 2012 You can also use a folding metal exercise pen with bungee cords to block the opening at the ball field. This is what I use for the ballfield at our little city park. One entrance has a gate with no latch. Use a bungee for that one. The other opening has no gate at all. Use the xpen there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest verthib Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 Hello everyone! I am a new member to the forum...we just got "Electric" a couple months ago and are really enjoying him as a pet and learning more about this fascinating breed. After a bumpy start things have been going really smoothly and we're settling into a nice routine. One of those routines involves going to our town's dog park first thing in the morning. We were very apprehensive at first but after scouting it out we tried it and he loved it. I find he exercises more and relieves more waste than a walk alone, so I have been going pretty much every day. We've never really had any problems although I am noticing that if two or more dogs are playing rough or chasing he gets very interested and joins in immediately and usually goes after the dog that is either being chased or is under the dominant dog(s) in the fray. Yesterday he did this and bit a puppy lab pretty good. The owner was cool about it and said "oh he's just putting Buddy in his place" but I saw what was going on. I did some more online research last night and read all about prey drive and dog park concerns, and now I'm really worried. Electric is good with the muzzle so I don't have a problem putting it on him there if need be, but I wonder how he'll react if he can't nip at Buddy (who has a lot of puppy energy and quite frankly sometimes does just seem to need to understand who's boss.) I am less concerned about Electric getting hurt because I go early enough that it's usually the same two or three dogs and they all generally get along pretty well...but now I am petrified that Electric could really hurt another dog if he gets too caught up in the excitement. If he's muzzled is he any less likely to jump in the fray? We don't have a fenced yard and would hate to give up the dog park, but obviously I need to make sure we're being safe about it. I'd really appreciate any input/experience you folks have on this topic, and I look forward to interacting with you more in the future!! Thanks, Brian Hi Brian! Please email me at verthib@yahoo.com so we can start planning our CT hound play date. I tried PMing you but it's not working yet. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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