Temperament Considerations
at the Dog Park
1. Dog park dogs should be friendly and outgoing, without being overbearing, obnoxious or bullying.
2. Your dog should be reasonably confident and social. Those who are fearful, aggressive or reactive are not appropriate for dog parks.
3. Your dog should not body-slam, mouth, jump on kids, or mark (lift leg) humans in the park nor should he jump into laps of random sitting humans without invitation.
4. Your dog should be responsive to basic cues-at least “come when called”, “sit” and “leave it” so you can get control of him if necessary and prevent him from harassing others.
5. Barking should be kept to a reasonable level. Non-stop barking of a “fun police” type dog is not, nor is barking with more serious aggressive intent.
6. Owners must report all incidents, injuries and concerns to the park supervisors as soon as possible before leaving the facility.
5. Most of the time mounting behavior occurs between adult dogs to establish dominance; a dog that assumes the mounting posture is informing the “underdog” clearly that it is subordinate in rank. This is a very ritualized mode of canine interaction that helps dogs to establish ranking order without violence.
