Happened to take Kal to a small local Dog Park in town & introduced him to the 8-10 dogs there on a lead.  Kal was 'new meat' & immediately surrounded & sniffed thoroughly.  One 40-50 lb dog was especially excited & began chasing Kal right from the start & kept nipping at him.  Kal only wanted to run away & kept getting ambushed by the same dog, it would lay & wait, then sprint to chase Kal & bite at him.  I asked who owned the aggressive dog & asked politely that they intercede.  The Twenty-Something owner was of the opinion that I was unfamiliar "with how dogs were supposed to play".  I tried to explain that Kal was very tolerant & will put up with being nipped, butted & knocked down for just so long.  My request that he control his dog fell on deaf ears.  His dog continued to harrass Kal.  One thing that dog owner didn't know was that Kal will circle ever closer to me if harrassed.  The pest refused to let up & the owner did nothing, inevitably this little nuisance was racing right at me trying to cut off Kal, so I called out to it, got it's attention, gently grabbed it & calmly asked if it was going to stop nipping Kal?  The happless dog was surprised, but calmed down & was friendly, wagging all over, happy of for the attention.

The owner went ballistic, saying "He'll do that"!  I asked him why he hadn't & told him if he wasn't-I was.  I quickly discovered this young man was as aggressive & abusive as his dog.  He started a "I come to this park all the time" defence.  I told him I didn't care if it was his 1st visit or he owned the park-he was obliged to stop his dog from harassing my dog.  I asked how he'd feel if the situation were reversed which resulted in him threatening me "To get out of his face!"  Somehow odd, considering he'd walked halfway across the field to confront me. 

A few minutes later his dog was back at it nipping at Kal's ears & tripping him up.  I began to walk in their direction to get Kal to close ranks again & this guy goes for his dog.  He yells at his dog making it cower, then beats the snot out of it in front of everyone, ending up pinning the dog to the ground w/knee to the neck.  The dog does some shrieking, another startled owner asks if his dog is OK & the fellow retreats from the park grumbling obscenities.

I'm old enough to be his Gramps & had used that park probably before he was born.  This "conflict" followed a common theme w/the handful of others I've had over the years.  The dog in question was a "Pit mix" & the owner in question was very complacent about their dog's propensity to bite other dogs.  Some even admire their dog acting dominant, I suspect that was part of this antagonist's mindset.  Last Fall a dog that could've been this one's sister nipped Kal on the butt.  I checked it at the park, didn't see anything & put it out of my mind.  Then, a couple of days later discovered a puss filled wound under Kal's skin from a nip.  There's still a bald spot & scar.  The same dog has insitigated dozens of dog fights.  I had a serious talk w/the overwelmed owners, who've made great strides.  Also had a serious talk w/that 'Pit mix' & she responds to me better than her owner If I catch her nipping at Kal.  I've seen Kal flip & don't ever want to see Kal go off on a dog that harrasses him.  To all the world Kal might look like Gumby, but I've seen his Fighting Face.  That can be 70 lbs of Baddazz GSP!  Friends have a GSD that's very protective/territorial around the kitchen & feeding time.  Somehow the Shepard got all bent out of shape & Kal turned into the 'Alien'!  I restrained him & was shocked by his fiercely bared teeth & snarled faced-so out of character.  Of course I could put my hand in his mouth.

Good advice Marie, we have a dog park that just opened last fall and we were just talking about taking Cody to see how he does. I will use your advice, great time to read this thread.

I don't blame you for stepping up on behalf of your dog.  I think it is easy to see what is normal play and what is domineering, aggressive behavior.  I think some people secretly like to see their dog turn aggressive as it satisfies their desire to do the same. 

Good for you for standing up. 

I stopped taking Joe to our local dog park. He was attacked by a terrier as we walked in. The dog grapped Joe by the neck and wouldn't let go. The owner was useless but another erson squirted water in his face and he let go. Thankfull not physical damage done but I did insist on gettting the name and phone# in case we needed a vet visit. I later found out the terrier had done this many times. I won't go back not worth it.

Personally I do think dog parks are very useful and can be an important part of socializing a dog.  You can call the county animal control if there is an aggressive dog in the park and the owner won't control it.  I sometimes leave the park when there is an aggressive dog, but I have also recently seen a number of "good" dog owners form a consensus and ask someone to leave.  The two people with the wreckless dogs did leave immediately.  It seemed more effective than just one person confronting them.

Why post this thread as a question if you already have such strongly held positions, or is this just an opportunity to vent?

I am not a big fan of dog parks for the obvious reasons described in this thread.  However, we do have a 3 mile hiking loop where dogs are allowed off leash.  My girls love it and if you go early enough you rarely meet other people on the trail. However, when we do encounter someone with dogs off leash I call both my dogs back to me and make them heal until we pass the other folks.  When the others see this they usually call their dogs back and everyone is happy.  Haven't had any problems at least on this hiking trail.

However, we did have a problem this weekend at our flyball training class. Halo, my 3 year old, is a happy go lucky girl and loves to play with dogs she knows.  One of the other dogs in the class is an Australian Shepherd.  She has been aggressive with other dogs, but never my girls until this weekend.  Halo got a little close to here (several feet away) playing with a ball and minding her own business when this Aussie went berzerk and grabbed Halo by the neck and wouldn't let go.  I quickly intervened and the owner called her dog off.  Thankfully no one was hurt.  The owner was very apologetic and made every effort to keep her dog in control.  Also, the instructors talked to the owner and were working with her on how to correct that type of behaviour as you obviously can't run an agressive dog in flyball.

Anyway, Halo got over the experience quicker than I did with the exception of she kept me between her and the dog for the rest of the class.

Now if that dog had tried that with Belle, my 4.5 year old GSP, I am sure Belle would have thrown that dog to the ground and held her down.  I have seen her do it with other agressive dogs.  She flips them and holds them down with her mouth until they straighten up.  Never bites, just holds them down.

I guess the moral of all this is you have to be ever vigilant of other dogs and owners in all situations, and if your dog is threatened do whatever you need to to protect your dog.  There are allot of owners that just don't establish themselves with their dogs and the result is often unfortunate for their dog and others.

Thankfully, Kal is ok from his most recent experience, and hopefuly the jerk of an owner of the other dog won't come back to the dog park. 

Bev and the Pointer Sisters (Belle and Halo)

I am somewhat new to this - Have had a GSP rescue for 5 months now, and were excited when we recently(last 2 weeks)found out a local park of ours has a group of dog owners that meet every evening around 5pm.  Its not a dog park per se, but everyone is comfortable with letting their dogs play off leash.  My wife and I are very cautious because our GSP is very playful, but as you all know are one of the faster breeds and somewhat clumsy compared to other dogs.  Something that some other breed owners don't necessarily understand.  As the newbies to the group, we were very cautious of Bosco to make sure he got along with the other dogs.  My point is, I think it gets down to what someone else said - the owners need to be midful of the situation and respect others and their dogs.  If not, they shouldn't be there.  If Bosco didn't get along with the other dogs, we would not go there anymore.

Npping is a form of play, but it sounds like this other owner was immature, and obviously not very respectful of other people's feelings or property.

I would be curious what the other owners thought of the young owner - if they have had problems in the past with him. 

The more I read on here about the dog parks, I am having second thoughts on taking Cody to check out the one they built not to far away. Sounds like they are rough places to visit.. Has anyone gone to one and have good stories to share?