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Two Questions: Entire males and Dog Parks? / Rough puppy play, how to calm him down?

Behavioral Issues
  • Hi,

    The last time I wrote on here I was concerned my boys were not getting along. Well things have progressed nicely in that regard, they now share bones, groom each other and sun bake. Though the older boy (Taco - neutered) is still unwilling to share his night time nest.

    I have socialised both of them from the date of their second shot, and did puppy school before that. Unfortunately Taco still thinks he's a puppy, or perhaps he has a dominance issue (small man syndrome?) - he picks on submissive puppies. He's always loved playing, but these days the only dogs that really get him going are very young puppies that don't want to play, the kind of puppies that are owned by protective owners and get me into trouble :D - Now, if they were my puppies, I'd probably let them go rather than fuss over them and/or pick them up, but I can't change owners. Any ideas how I can get him to play nice? The arbitrary "Gen-tle" command that most dog owners use has no effect, my only solution so far is to put him on the lead until the puppy leaves the park - letting him off at any point prior sees him make a bee line back to the puppy without fail…

    I'm also after some comment about entire males at dog parks. Our other boy, Ghostface has grown quite nicely and I am considering showing/studding him if there is any interest from basenji bitches. This hasn't changed his personality much, he plays really well, he's very affectionate and isn't dominant with people at all - though he is currently pining to get out of the house every waking minute... And when we encounter another entire male, no matter how big and how quickly he could have his head bitten off, he growls at them. He has an impressive growl too - one that has also gotten me in the bad books of fellow dog owners. My question is, do other owners of entire males just avoid dog parks?

    Thanks for reading :)

  • In the US most all dog parks do not allow intact males or females

1/2

31 Mar 2015, 22:50

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    I've taken my previous basenjis to the closest dog park and everything was fine for the most part. There were occasional dominance type snarkiness events but only once did a real fight start (and the owners pulled their dog immediately). Never encountered a jerky owner. But I was very careful not to go when the prime times were - Saturday mornings (and if I had a day off then around noon) were usually the times only a handful of dogs were there and it was easy to keep an eye on them. I haven't taken Gossy since she goes to doggy care once a week and has a lot of fun there. Also I've discovered that though she is exceptionally friendly, if another dog becomes nasty aggressive to her, she will definitely fight back. So the dog park will require more vigilence on my part I think - this park is half wooded and kind of large - I'm a firm believer in owner socialization comimg second to keeping a watchful eye on the dogs.
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