How to deal with bullying at the dog park
I have 2 border collies. One male, one female.
The male one loves to romp around and loves rough play with other dogs. The female one is quiet and calm and loves to play with same sized dogs but doesn't enjoy rough play.
So when I go to the dog park there are certain large dogs that have figured out that my female dog gets intimidated by barking. So the 3 individuals in question, if any one of them is present, will start by running after her and barking until she flees into a corner and sits down.
Then they keep barking and cornering her. It's pretty obvious that she does not enjoy it. I consider this bullying. There is no play going on anymore once she sits in the corner.
Usually I leave them to it but today a particularly unpleasant individual briefly grabbed her and she yelped so I went after them and in between until finally one of the other dog owners told the owner of the bully to call his dog off.
So what's the best way of dealing with this kind of thing at the dog
park?
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I've never been a fan of dog parks, we see a lot of dog attacks come into the clinic from these places. Some incredibly severe (bites to the throat, lacerating the jugular vein).
The beauty of social media (the internet as a whole even) is that you can find people with dogs that match the personality of your own, try to find some dog groups and get together with a few people. The situation is much more controlled as you don't have unknown dogs coming in, you'll know the personality of these dogs and it will be in smaller groups making it a positive experience for you and your pooch. Heck even you will make some new friends this way :).
I have a dog similar to this:
she loves to socialize
doesn't like too much rough play
gets intimidated by barking
Here are my tips:
stay near your dog at all times so you can watch
if another dog gets too close ask whose dog it is (so you and they are both paying attention)
when the play gets too rough call your dog away before it does
if all else fails and your dog starts being bullied walk over and tell both dogs "No" (I've found this one gets both the owner's and the other dog's attention)
Good luck!
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