So I've been going to my local municipal dog park for about five years now.
We (myself and my two canines) get along with pretty much everyone, and I
take care to see that my dogs are well-trained and not abusive towards
anyone else's experience.

For the past six months or so, unfortunately, there is a rather clueless
woman with a one year old husky. She has absolutely *no* control over her
dog, which likes to steal the ball I use for retrieving drills with my dogs.

Now, occasionally a dog will come over and take a ball, and with everyone
else, they call their dog, get the ball, and give it back to me.

Except for the husky owner.

She tells the dog to come and drop the ball, but it's like she does it like
she is talking to a human, instead of commanding her dog to obey.

The dog, meanwhile, plays keepaway from her, which she seems to think is
fun.

Of course, this is about as far from fun for me as it gets.

Why are some dog owner's so damn clueless about animal behavior, to the
point of having no control over a husky?

Jon

On 2010-03-22 10:45:45 -0700, "Jon Danniken"
said:

So I've been going to my local municipal dog park for about five years now.
We (myself and my two canines) get along with pretty much everyone, and I
take care to see that my dogs are well-trained and not abusive towards
anyone else's experience.

For the past six months or so, unfortunately, there is a rather clueless
woman with a one year old husky. She has absolutely *no* control over her
dog, which likes to steal the ball I use for retrieving drills with my dogs.

Now, occasionally a dog will come over and take a ball, and with everyone
else, they call their dog, get the ball, and give it back to me.

Except for the husky owner.

She tells the dog to come and drop the ball, but it's like she does it like
she is talking to a human, instead of commanding her dog to obey.

The dog, meanwhile, plays keepaway from her, which she seems to think is
fun.

Of course, this is about as far from fun for me as it gets.

Why are some dog owner's so damn clueless about animal behavior, to the
point of having no control over a husky?

Jon

Annoying. All in all though this is a minor annoyance. Ball stealing is
a fact of life at the dog park. Things could be much worse.

--

wintermute

wintermute wrote:


Annoying. All in all though this is a minor annoyance. Ball stealing
is a fact of life at the dog park. Things could be much worse.

The point is not that the dog is stealing the ball, the point is that the
owner takes no responsibility in controlling her dog.

I can understand why an untrained and neglected dog engages in bad behavior,
what I don't understand is how an owner could be so clueless as to allow it
to continue to happen.

Jon

On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 12:16:51 -0700, "Jon Danniken"
wrote:

wintermute wrote:


Annoying. All in all though this is a minor annoyance. Ball stealing
is a fact of life at the dog park. Things could be much worse.

The point is not that the dog is stealing the ball, the point is that the
owner takes no responsibility in controlling her dog.

I can understand why an untrained and neglected dog engages in bad behavior,
what I don't understand is how an owner could be so clueless as to allow it
to continue to happen.

I wouldn't assume that a dog that is untrained is necessarily
neglected in areas other than training. Untrained dogs and clueless
owners are not new or unique, and in fact seem to be fairly common in
dog parks. I've always been a little amazed that people are surprised
by the types of incidents you described. Dog parks are public places
where lots of people and lots of dogs go, so there is naturally going
to be a certain percentage of poorly behaved dogs and rude owners. Is
a dog park really the best place for retrieving drills?

On Mar 23, 4:45*am, "Jon Danniken"
wrote:
So I've been going to my local municipal dog park for about five years now.
We (myself and my two canines) get along with pretty much everyone, and I
take care to see that my dogs are well-trained and not abusive towards
anyone else's experience.

For the past six months or so, unfortunately, there is a rather clueless
woman with a one year old husky. *She has absolutely *no* control over her
dog, which likes to steal the ball I use for retrieving drills with my dogs.

Now, occasionally a dog will come over and take a ball, and with everyone
else, they call their dog, get the ball, and give it back to me.

Except for the husky owner.

She tells the dog to come and drop the ball, but it's like she does it like
she is talking to a human, instead of commanding her dog to obey.

The dog, meanwhile, plays keepaway from her, which she seems to think is
fun.

Of course, this is about as far from fun for me as it gets.

Why are some dog owner's so damn clueless about animal behavior, to the
point of having no control over a husky?

Jon

If some harmless ball stealing is the worst thing that happens at your
local dog park then I want to take my dogs there!! Seems to be quite a
few unruly huskies around though, maybe they should be designated as a
dangerous breed and kept muzzled or on a leash at all times.

sighthounds & siberians wrote:
I wouldn't assume that a dog that is untrained is necessarily
neglected in areas other than training. Untrained dogs and clueless
owners are not new or unique, and in fact seem to be fairly common in
dog parks. I've always been a little amazed that people are surprised
by the types of incidents you described. Dog parks are public places
where lots of people and lots of dogs go, so there is naturally going
to be a certain percentage of poorly behaved dogs and rude owners. Is
a dog park really the best place for retrieving drills?

The problem with this individual is that this has been a consistent problem
for several months now. I have been going to that park for a number of
years, and restrict my activity to early morning when most of the
delinquents are still asleep.

And yes, ideally I would train the dogs in my 500 acre estate, but until I
get the estate, the dog park is part of our training routine.

Jon

On Tue, 23 Mar 2010 05:23:01 -0700, "Jon Danniken"
wrote:

sighthounds & siberians wrote:
I wouldn't assume that a dog that is untrained is necessarily
neglected in areas other than training. Untrained dogs and clueless
owners are not new or unique, and in fact seem to be fairly common in
dog parks. I've always been a little amazed that people are surprised
by the types of incidents you described. Dog parks are public places
where lots of people and lots of dogs go, so there is naturally going
to be a certain percentage of poorly behaved dogs and rude owners. Is
a dog park really the best place for retrieving drills?

The problem with this individual is that this has been a consistent problem
for several months now. I have been going to that park for a number of
years, and restrict my activity to early morning when most of the
delinquents are still asleep.

And yes, ideally I would train the dogs in my 500 acre estate, but until I
get the estate, the dog park is part of our training routine.

No need to get snide. I don't have a 500 acre estate or even 5 acres
of property, but I wouldn't go to a dog park to work on training. If
the dog park is absolutely your only other conceivable option for
doing retrieving drills, I guess you'll just have to put up with the
other people who go there.

On Tue, 23 Mar 2010 04:38:39 -0700 (PDT), Angry
wrote:

On Mar 23, 4:45*am, "Jon Danniken"
wrote:
So I've been going to my local municipal dog park for about five years now.
We (myself and my two canines) get along with pretty much everyone, and I
take care to see that my dogs are well-trained and not abusive towards
anyone else's experience.

For the past six months or so, unfortunately, there is a rather clueless
woman with a one year old husky. *She has absolutely *no* control over her
dog, which likes to steal the ball I use for retrieving drills with my dogs.

Now, occasionally a dog will come over and take a ball, and with everyone
else, they call their dog, get the ball, and give it back to me.

Except for the husky owner.

She tells the dog to come and drop the ball, but it's like she does it like
she is talking to a human, instead of commanding her dog to obey.

The dog, meanwhile, plays keepaway from her, which she seems to think is
fun.

Of course, this is about as far from fun for me as it gets.

Why are some dog owner's so damn clueless about animal behavior, to the
point of having no control over a husky?

Jon

If some harmless ball stealing is the worst thing that happens at your
local dog park then I want to take my dogs there!! Seems to be quite a
few unruly huskies around though, maybe they should be designated as a
dangerous breed and kept muzzled or on a leash at all times.

Sure, absolutely, let's designate all untrained dogs as dangerous so
their lives are in danger. Idiot.

Angry wrote:

If some harmless ball stealing is the worst thing that happens at your
local dog park then I want to take my dogs there!! Seems to be quite a
few unruly huskies around though, maybe they should be designated as a
dangerous breed and kept muzzled or on a leash at all times.

Yeas, I guess in the grand scheme of life, this is not armaggedon. It is
still very frustrating that it is a continual problem with this person, who
is too clueless to realize she is clueless.

This is compounded by the fact that it is indeed a husky, one of the breeds
which needs solid boundaries in it's life. I have seen this particular dog
fight with another dog, because the other dog went to retrieve it's ball,
and the husky fought the other dog over a ball that was not the husky's.

And yet, despite this happening time after time after time, the owner does
nothing beyong telling the dog to obey as if she was relating a brownie
recipe to someone over the phone (ie, has no clue how to train or
communicate with a dog like a husky).

And of course, I could have probably handled it better than losing my cool,
but I have only so much time to work with the dogs. I think the next time
this happens (which will likely happen the next time I am in the park) I am
going to suggest that she needs to physically restrain the dog for the 10
minutes we train in that area, because she has no control over the animal.
Politely.

Jon

sighthounds & siberians wrote:

And yes, ideally I would train the dogs in my 500 acre estate, but
until I get the estate, the dog park is part of our training routine.

No need to get snide. I don't have a 500 acre estate or even 5 acres
of property, but I wouldn't go to a dog park to work on training. If
the dog park is absolutely your only other conceivable option for
doing retrieving drills, I guess you'll just have to put up with the
other people who go there.

Yes, sorry 'bout that, but it is frustrating when I cannot use a public
space, that my taxes pay for, because someone is a clueless idiot. I should
not have to modify my behavior to accomodate people who are abusing their
responsibility to maintain contol over their animal.

Jon