Here on Manhattan's upper West Side we are lucky enough to have 3 dog runs within walking distance of each other and Benji and I often visit all three in the course of a day. Going from one to the other is almost two miles so good exercise for us both. Benji is very friendly with other dogs and for the most part the other dogs mix and mingle peacefully. Luckily if there's a fracas Benji will stay on the edge of it and his recall is very good even then.
However, the dog run I like most has a few dogs whose owners let them bark obsessively for no good reason. These dogs are not socializing or playing; they're just barking for minutes at a time, either at their owners or at other dogs. There can be 25 dogs in there at once and only one dog barking continuously.
You'd think the owner would respond in some way. Play with the dog, get off their butt and move around the park, temporarily leash the dog off to one side. I know I would. None of these dogs sound happy; rather they seem really stressed.
Of course every time I suggest to one of the owners that they take some action, they blow me off. Yesterday a man said defensively, while his dog stood ten feet away barking at him, "You know what I'm doing here? I'm socializing him. If I play ball with him he gets too excited." I didn't see this dog interact with another dog or another human the whole time we were there.
Another woman sits fifty feet away from her Sheltie while the dog runs the common fence between the big dogs and the little dogs enclosure, barking continuously at the little dogs. She never makes any effort to get the dog to follow her to the other end of the run. Told me, "She's a herding dog. That's what they do."
I know I should probably just leave and sometimes we do but the lack of consideration for the dogs and other people really burns me up.
Has anyone dealt with this kind of situation positively?
