I'm new around these parts but I have a couple of problems with my doggie Duchess. As some of you may know Duchess is english setter/border collie mix with the english setter being dominant. She does tend towards being "talkative" but she's much better in the house. But at the dog park she gets so excited when a new friend (or potential friend) comes to the park she greats them with a resounding round of barking. I'm not sure how to handle this. Ignore it, scold her (which does not work) or what?

I bring this up because I had an incident at the dog park this afternoon. My children and I were alone at the park when another dog and his person came along. Duchess loves other dogs and gets a bit obnoxious in trying to get them to play with her. My thought is that this woman assumed that since my dog was barking she therefore must be agressive. Unfortunately my kids opened the gate to the other side of the park and Duchess went to play with the other dog. The woman immediately grabs her dog and tries to shoo Duchess away which makes Duches want to play even more. I was a few yards away and I don't run so it took me a minute or so to get to Duchess. This woman was totally ticked at me and accused Duchess of growling at her dog and being agressive. I figure if she were being agressive the lady would have totally been bitten since she was putting herself between the two dogs. Bad move in my opinion. Anyways I tried to inform her that if she had allowed the dogs to be dogs and get acquainted they would have probably been better off. She wasn't having any of it, so we just left cause I was ticked off as well. I sure don't want my dog to get a reputation for being agressive....she likes to play with other dogs more than she likes to play with her people.

The other thing is she's got some separation anxiety going on. I know a dead horse topic. I have gained a lot of information on how to handle this one from previous threads and I think she's doing better. It's hard, when I have my kids with me, to ignore her when we get home. We also have to wait outside or in the car until she stops barking and carrying on inside the house. Thankfully she's slowly getting better.

thanks for letting me vent.

Cindy, who thinks she should just live on an acre of land and adopt a second dog for Duchess to play with.