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Comment by Jane on August 16, 2013 at 9:43am

He's only like 9 weeks isn't he? One parvo shot is not enough to protect them...it's a series (of 3 I believe?). If he hasn't received any vaccines while living with you, then he probably hasn't even had his second round. And often times if the first one is given before the mother's antibodies have worn off, it's useless. I would not risk it.

Comment by Rebecca on August 16, 2013 at 12:50am

I agree completely with what Mai said. One of our dogs is really fearful to the point of reacting aggressively and one of the changes I made when I came into the household was to not pet or even allow him to lean/be on my lap when he was being like that. Still working on it with my in laws but they also do that high pitched baby talk that excites the dogs and let their dog bef for food when they eat. Just a couple of my major pet peaves lol. Suffice to say a lot of his issues have resolved themselves just by how we deal with his insecurities

Comment by Autumn and Jonathan on August 15, 2013 at 8:59pm

He's already had his parvo shot. The breeder we got him from gave us his medical record and the contact information for the vet they were taking him to. And so far he's been great with people and with other dogs, it's just the pitbulls in the neighborhood that aren't too fond of him. They keep getting aggressive with him and I don't mean a "put you in your place" type of thing either. I use to volunteer at a pitbull rescue center and the pits in our neighborhood certainly have that aggression that the rescue dealt with. Otherwise he does really good and obeys all commands that he's given when he's around new people and other dogs.

Comment by Jane on August 15, 2013 at 11:49am

I wouldn't take him to a dog park until he's closer to maybe 6 months old, or at the very least until after his shots are done. There are quite a few diseases that can be transferred just from the ground, parvo being one of them. He's also in a very sensitive socialization period when you want all his interactions with people and other dogs to be good ones.

Comment by Nicholas, Kailee, & Gilby on August 15, 2013 at 7:34am

Well Said Mai!

Comment by Mai on August 15, 2013 at 2:25am

There is this border collie mix female at the dog park that Chucky and I frequent who goes for Chucky's neck too.  She ALWAYS goes for the back of his neck and Chucky does NOT like it.  Needless to say, I don't like it too. 

It's not an "I'm gonna tear you apart" bite or attack but, to me it's like an "I'm gonna pick on or bully you bite" and then other dogs join in to pick on my Chucky. 

I just want to point out that it's not HIM that is not ready to go back to the dog park.  It's YOU.  YOU'RE scared, not him.  I just want to say, don't nurture fears.  You create a fearful dog unintentionally when you love on them when they're scared.  Basically, you're telling them it's OK to be scared.  Don't pet them when they're scared!

I've never pet Chucky or loved on him when he was in a scared or unsure mode.  I don't allow my family members to do it too.  Just the other day, we were at my mom's house and my niece took out a HUGE helium balloon to play with.  Chucky totally freaked and jumped onto the couch to go to my sister.  My sister was like, 'Oh, he's scared!' and started petting him. I turned to her and yelled, 'Don't touch him!  Get your hands off him now!'  She's like, 'Why? He's scared.'  I told her 'Because I don't want you to tell him it's OK to be scared. I don't nurture his fears.'  Once Chucky got over the fear mode, that's when I picked him up and kissed him.  
It works.  Chucky's not scared of loud noises.  Firecracker noises are nothing to him.  He actually loves them and runs around barking at them.  His nemesis is the vacuum cleaner or any electrical item that makes loud noises. 

When you go to dog parks, incidents might happen.  It's how you react to the incidents.  Chucky's had two incidents where he was pinned down by two larger dogs just because he told the big dogs to back off.  They weren't happy about being told to back off and felt like they needed to put Chucky in his place by pinning him down.  It's a lot of growling noises and sounds AWFUL but, no bites.  Both of those times, after the other dogs were pulled off, I just checked him over, he was fine, and told him to go play.  So, he's never developed a fear of going back to that dog park.  Every time we go back to the dog park he's excited about it.   Even though we've had bad memories there, I've never nurtured his fears at the time and so he's never retained fear about going back there.  Of course, I just know which dogs I don't want near my Chucky.