{"id":313430,"date":"2026-10-24T14:14:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T14:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/313430\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T14:14:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T14:14:07","slug":"another-dog-owner-doesnt-care-that-his-dog-plays-too-rough-with-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/313430\/","title":{"rendered":"Another dog owner doesn’t care that his dog plays too rough with mine"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week\u2019s question (Have your own? Submit it here<\/a>.):<\/p>\n

Another dog owner lets his dog overwhelm mine at the park, then laughs it off as \u201cjust playing.\u201d My dog really does not like the intense physical play and yelps for help. But we keep running into each other. How do I set a boundary without making it totally uncomfortable every time I see this person? There is no other close dog park.<\/p>\n

Abigail Covington, Life & Culture Reporter<\/p>\n

I actually don\u2019t take my dog to the park because she is, objectively, a very bad dog. She\u2019s anxious, aggressive, and can\u2019t play for squat. Whenever she tries to play, her flight-or-fight instincts kick in and she ends up scaring all the other dogs and their owners away. Super fun for everyone!<\/p>\n

It sounds like you are dealing with a similar kind of dog, but, unfortunately, an obtuse owner. You are well within your rights to ask this person to keep their dog away from yours. The number one rule of dog ownership is don\u2019t let your dog be a jerk.<\/p>\n

Jason Nark, Life & Culture Reporter<\/p>\n

I agree. My least favorite type of pet owner is someone who rationalizes\/reinterprets clearly bad behavior, so I empathize. I\u2019ve had dogs who behaved poorly, so I kept them out of dog parks. It seems unlikely you\u2019d run into this specific dog every time you go there, but if that\u2019s the case, maybe try going there at completely different times: early morning, nighttime, etc.<\/p>\n

Abigail Covington<\/p>\n

That would be a very effective and nonconfrontational way of dealing with it. If you don\u2019t want it to be uncomfortable when you see them, just don\u2019t see them. Problem solved.<\/p>\n

Or you could choose to put this dog owner in their place, for everybody (and everydog\u2019s!) sake. Simply say, \u201cIt looks like our dogs have different ideas of what \u201cplaying\u201d means. Maybe we should keep them separate?\u201d It\u2019s for their dog\u2019s good, too, and you can say that. God forbid their dog hurt yours. That could get them in and the owner in serious trouble!<\/p>\n

Jason Nark<\/p>\n

Yes, this person likely knows their dog is misbehaving, but if they\u2019re not dealing with it, you should say something for your dog\u2019s sake. I have a pit bull who is super friendly and lovable and melts hearts wherever she goes. As a pit bull owner, though, I take even extra precautions around other dogs because, god forbid, she ever reacts to an out-of-control dog, she could do real damage.<\/p>\n

Abigail Covington<\/p>\n

Exactly. And she could get in trouble too! I believe Pennsylvania has a single-incident rule, so all anyone\u2019s dog has to do is hurt another dog or person, one time, for any reason, to face consequences.<\/p>\n

Maybe this dog owner doesn\u2019t know that. I think if you frame the conversation around protecting their dog too, they\u2019d welcome what you had to say and the distance between your two pups.<\/p>\n

\"Jason<\/a><\/p>\n

I write stories and narratives about the outdoors and rural parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the trails, towns, and people far from city life. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This week\u2019s question (Have your own? Submit it here.): Another dog owner lets his dog overwhelm mine at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,128000],"class_list":["post-313430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-wild-dog-park-behavior"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}