Alot to read in this thread, and I probably will with time (I always read long threads through. Interesting!
), but I just wanted to comment with dog parks.
The one we have nearest to my house, is TERRIBLE with people bringing their PITA dogs.
In the sense that they are either males who try to hump females (and sometimes males) constantly, causing annoyance to the owner of the humped dog, and the dog getting overheated while the owner "lols" at it. Dogs who hate other dogs, and try to attack or avoid other dogs from hating them (WTF to their owners, really.)! Or dogs who haven't been socialized until being brought to the dog park, and are full of fear!
With that, I don't even go near there anymore. I went every couple months for a couple years, to see if anything had changed with times, or at the least I could get lucky and have an enjoyable time. Neither happened.
Not to say I wouldn't go to one ever again! If maybe I had a friend, family member, trainer, whatever who went there and could let me know how it would be before I went, or dogs and owners to avoid! But from my past experiences, I just plow past them to start. Which does stink as I enjoy meeting other dogs of breeds and mixes, and my dogs love meeting other dogs to play with, but other owners who can't understand their dog just isn't meant to go to the park have to ruin it!
On the point of dog park go-ers being lazy, I don't understand that! I think they
can be a good place to go if you can avoid what I mentioned above and your personal dogs don't fall into those (or others I haven't mentioned). Your dogs can get a good run/play with other dogs, and even if not many others are there, they usually are a pretty good area in size for doing activities!