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.
Whole Dog Journal
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Don't know if many of you on this list subscribe to The Whole Dog Journal, but you should.. there are so many great articles from food to health to training…. This month is an article about resource-guarding. It is outstanding.. one of the books recommended is "Mine" by Jean Donaldson, available for about $13 at Dogwise.com
Many of us have resource-guarding problems and I would venture to bet that over 1/2 of us never even reconize it.....
