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Permalink Reply by christy fry on June 30, 2010 at 9:51pm

Teagen and Jordan don't respond in any way to the other being picked up...I've never seen that behavoir either very weird indeed!!!

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Permalink Reply by Monica, Orion, and Laika on June 30, 2010 at 11:44pm

I don't know why it happens but I used to work at a dog daycare and we'd let all the dogs run together (divided by size of course) and there was a strict rule not to pick up any dogs because it was such a risk to the dog you're picking up because they can get severely hurt by the dogs on the ground that go nuts jumping and nipping at it. I really don't know why they do this. We discipline our dogs by pinning them down by the scruff if they're being really bad. Not long, just hold them down for a few seconds and they know they're not acting appropriately. So what you could do is have two people: one person picks up one dog, when the other dog starts jumping/nipping have the second person pin the dog for a few seconds with a firm "leave it!" or "no"

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Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on July 1, 2010 at 12:49am

Not Jealousy. A lot of times dog parents make mistake by "rescuing" their dogs the wrong way.

Lets talk about the proper way of rescue first, I call it the bear hug retrieve and go. Meaning you first examine the situation, find your best entry, one leg forward with your back facing the other dog, bend down, put one hand to around your dog's torso, swing him up towards your chest, then use your other arm to cradle him like an infant, make sure his 4 legs are pointing up in the air and his belly is facing you. Proceed to walk and exit the dog park immediately, do not talk, do not yell, just be calm and leave. When done properly, none of the dogs will be able to jump up and nip his legs.

Most people make mistake by:
1. jumping in without thinking the best escape route
2. reach in with their hand first or finger spread
3. holding their dog up like a baby with 4 limps hanging down
4. standing there and wait for other dogs to calm down
5. owners yelling / screaming like mad, which makes the situation even worst. (most dogs are driven by either sight, sound, don't excite them further)
6. Alpha rolling them on the spot, it is not for the inexperienced, remember safety first, get yourself and your dog out of danger is your priority.

When you go to the dog park next time, pay attention and you'll see that when two dogs play, one will take the top position, one will volunteer at the bottom, sometimes they take turns, sometimes not, they nip at each other's legs, ears, neck, sometimes one may bite the other a little harder, the other dog may yelp and let the playmate know that he bit too hard. However, both of them may also get into argument just like human kids do. Most owners don't know what to do and react so badly that they don't give their dogs a chance to sort it out, some dogs purposely play on their owner's reaction and act out accordingly. Yes, there are situation where our dogs really need to be rescued, in this day and age, it is harder to find other like minded dog owners who would allow their own dogs to work it out on their own or get discipline by another well behave dog. That's why the dog park experience may vary depending on who you meet.

Since you cannot control other dogs, what you can do is work on a reliable recall, I've found clicker training the best, we use it as our corgi remote control, since I don't have a clicker with me at all times, I've developed a sound that is only used during emergency. Whenever I suck my lips, it create this high pitch vibration, my dogs would literally drop whatever they were doing and come straight to me for a yummy treat. This method have proven successful even with 100 corgis present, if you ask the attendees from the florida picnic, they've seen my dogs stop in the middle of a hot pursuit and come running to me instead.

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Permalink Reply by Stephanie on July 1, 2010 at 2:12pm

Thanks for the good info! I'm glad to know that I'm not alone. Sam, I have started doing the pick up where I turn them basically upside down in my arms, with legs/limbs out of reach of the other.

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