#dog - #Did I behave wrongly in the OFF LEASH dog park?

Did I behave wrongly in the OFF LEASH dog park?

There's an off leash dog park a few minutes from my house. (thank god because I've got a beag and no yard lol). After overcoming his anxieties, and stopped hiding under the bench I sat on, he's always rushed head first into the park to greet his friends. He has never bit any dog, (he's only growled/barked angrily at them, when he is provoked). He rarely tries to hump for dominance (has only happened three-four times in the more than six months we've been going there on a weekly basis) and has only once been involved in a "serious" fight, cause another French bulldog wouldn't leave him alone lmao. But no blood was drawn and they were separated as soon as the first loud bark was heard.

Anyway, point is, he's not a troublemaker. (Except for when there's food involved, if that's the case he will kill me and everyone in the room I'm convinced, but that's a subject for another post.). Today we went to the park like usual. I opened the gate, and he started running forward, greeting the first dog he met. Now, I saw that there were about five dogs in the park. Three were big dogs that were hanging around their owners benches, but I didn't give it much thought because I know those dogs and they tend to do that sometimes instead of sniff around. Another dog was leashed to a bench, but I know that that particular dog gets sent to time out like that sometimes. Another dog was leashed, his owner firmly holding onto his leash a few meters away from the gate. People sometimes take their dogs to this park leashed so I didn't think much of it either. I hadn't seen that dog before, but I went to the park earlier than usual, so I guessed that it was just someone that came and left earlier than the regulars I'm used to seeing. I've never had a problem with new dogs either, they just sniff each other and move on.

I saw my dog go up to the other leashed dog. Running at him, and stopping before bumping into him to smell him. Instead of sniffing each other's butts and moving on, however, that dog locked his jaws on some of my dogs skin around his neck. The owner did not scold his dog. He scolded me for letting my dog ATTACK his dog and not having him on a leash when he might ATTACK other dogs. WHAT? Are we for REAL SIR? I tried to talk to him and explain but that bitch would just ramble on and on and would not shut up. It's an off leash dog park. An area with tall fences where we bring our dogs to socialize and run around OFF LEASH. It's an OFF LEASH DOG PARK. We are encouraged by the administrators of the dog park to set our dogs free, let them back bark at each other and fend for them selves (as long as they are not about to start a serous fight) so they can get used to being around other dogs.

After he left, all the dogs near their owners were set free to run around and play. Turns out that fricker is a dude who comes earlier than everyone else, with a dog who he KNOWS is aggressive towards other dogs, without a muzzle, and blames me for letting my dog run without a leash IN AN OFF LEASH DOG PARK! BITCH GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER!

Don't really want to get something to get out of this, maybe start a discussion or criticism about the way I acted. The other dog owners were on my side but advised me to first have my dog leashed when going in and ask if there are aggressive dogs before letting mine off leash, which I did out of habit and was my bad indeed.

Submitted November 02, 2019 at 02:59PM by mpompomastoras
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/DOG/comments/dqqd0v/did_i_behave_wrongly_in_the_off_leash_dog_park/?utm_source=ifttt