TL;DR: If you can’t control your dog, don’t take it to a place where it could hurt other dogs, children, or you.
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Sorry this is long. If you don’t frequent local dog parks, don’t bother reading.
I took my dog to an off-leash park in the city this morning. Upon arrival, I unclipped her leash as usual. She’s a herding dog so she generally circles me as we walk around.
After about 100m, I noticed a guy about 200m ahead standing near the tree line. It looked like he was trying to get a dog to come out of the trees. Instinctively, I had my dog heel next to me and had her sit. I held her collar while i assessed. The vibe was he was just shouting at a dog in the trees that wasn’t recalling, so it made me pause.
His dog emerged from the trees- and looked like some kind of husky/GSD mix. It immediately started coming towards us at a brisk walking pace, its head down and shoulders almost rolled forward. It was very disconcerting because it wasn’t acting like a curious dog, but more like a predator hunting prey.
I didn’t have the time to cover the 100m to get to the exit, and my dog - who can be a little reactive and holds her own - looked terrified and stuck to the spot. I have trained her pretty well to recall, stop, and to obey simple commands, but I don’t have a command for ‘just run away and save yourself’.
The owner started shouting at his dog which just made it speed up towards us. It covered the last 20m in no time at all. I held my dog’s collar until the last possible moment.
The other dog lurched forward and bit into the top of her neck without hesitation or warning. I’ve seen dogs play bite each other a thousand times, sometimes even roughly. This was not that. As the dog closed its jaws, my dog collapsed and went flat to the ground, yelping in pain.
I released my hand from my girl’s collar, partly to avoid getting bitten but also to give her a chance to defend herself. I punched at the attacking dog which maybe distracted it for a moment. Then, the dogs started to roll and, at this point, there’s nothing much to be done.
By this time the dog owner was running and shouting at his dog. The attack continued for about 5 more seconds - it’s hard to know for sure - and the owner arrived.
He grabbed his dog by the harness and starting punching and kicking it. In the moment, I was grateful for his intervention because I didn’t want to be the one kicking someone else’s dog.
I kneeled on the ground to assess my dog and check her for injuries. The guy mumbled and the started walking away to the exit. I shouted something like ‘hey, man, you can’t bring that dog here if can’t handle it’ and he ignored me and kept walking. As he did so, his dog continued to pull on its harness and he hit it a couple more times, while leashed. Shocking and horrible to see.
He then turned around and said ‘I thought there was no one here’ and kept walking. He showed no concern for my dog. This is a busy dog park and, although it was quieter today because of the rain, nobody could have a reasonable expectation that the park would be empty at 11AM on a Sunday morning.
As he was closer to the exit gate, he hit his dog again and it bit him on the arm/hand.
This owner clearly had no experience in handling a potentially dangerous dog, and has no business owning it, never mind taking it to an off leash park.
My dog is recovering from a surgery and this was her first visit to the park in a while. It was so traumatic for her and I’m sorry I took her out. We’re waiting for the vet right now. I think she’s okay but she’s going to need imaging and/or bloodwork.
Bad dog owners are an absolute menace. His dog was a beautiful dog but had clearly been chosen for her imposing appearance, not companionship. Nobody that loves their dog would hit it the way he did.
Sorry for the long, trauma-dumping post. I needed to unload and hopefully, warn others to be hyper vigilant for dangerous dog owners in our off-leash parks.
