What To Do When Your Rushed By A Dog?

[TheMadDogLady]

I think it is really dangerous there for dogs so small. At the moment, there are a lot of very exuberant youngsters that play with each other and the older dogs. Whilst they are having fun, it would be very easy to see a time where they could unintentionally severely damage dogs as small as yours, simply by crashing into them when running. As well, there are a lot of overly friendly staffies there all of the time and whilst they just want to play, their weight and momentum make them dangerous to small dogs.

I would pick my times until your dogs grow and harden up a bit, go during non-peak times if you can

Greyt - mine will ALWAYS be on a lead at a venue like that except when we are sitting at our campsite and they're visited by friendly locals. I will always put myself between my pups and any other dog that approaches us out in the open until the owner manages to recall it, or come over & drag it away (as so many seem to do). As you say, they are way too tiny to be let loose, regardless of how much they harden up. Having my 2 Mastiffs there in future means that my tinies will never have to harden up.

However, the utter dorks that go there need to respect that not everyone who goes to any off leash venue desires to take their dog off leash, regardless of how small, big, old, young their animal is, for their own reasons, which is not up to any other weirdo to question or lecture.

Why the bloody hell suburban dog parks aren't divided in a civilised fashion so that 3/4 of the total area is available for medium/large dogs and the remaining 1/4 is dedicated to medium/small dogs has always been a constant source of puzzlement and annoyance to me.

[Greyt]

However, the utter dorks that go there need to respect that not everyone who goes to any off leash venue desires to take their dog off leash, regardless of how small, big, old, young their animal is, for their own reasons, which is not up to any other weirdo to question or lecture.

Why the bloody hell suburban dog parks aren't divided in a civilised fashion so that 3/4 of the total area is available for medium/large dogs and the remaining 1/4 is dedicated to medium/small dogs has always been a constant source of puzzlement and annoyance to me.

It is such a good venue that would lend itself to having a treed or hedged area for the littlies without there being a "racing up and down the fence" scenario that some divided parks have.

Good on you for thinking of a practical approach to protect your dogs. So many people get caught up in what "should" happen only to find repeatedly, what DOES happen is very different.

I find the owners there, overwhelmingly, to be very supportive of each other and dog welfare be it their own or others but many are uneducated about responsible socialisation so it pays to be proactive yourself in protecting your and others dogs.

I also really worry about tiny kids in the park and have asked parents to pick their children up in some circumstances eg, 3 dogs chasing each other with a baby crawling around.... it horrifies me to think what could happen.