Stay Safe at the Magnuson Dog Park, Everyone!

I bet this is going a different direction than you’re expecting.

On Wednesday afternoon my dog and I had a lovely visit to the off-leash area. A few of the usual poorly behaved dogs, but nothing aggressive and my dog brushes them off anyway. UUUUUUUNTIL…

I leash my dog up and we head to the parking lot. She’s tired, so she takes her time jumping up into her car crate. The older lady that just parked next to me looks like she’s trying to see where my dog is. I hear her scramble with her dog for a minute and assume the dog is just pumped to go run around. Well, turns out she must’ve been trying to make sure my dog was in the car and out of sight (without, you know, outright asking me), because her 70+lbs out of control yellow lab corners my dog and I in the rear passenger door and is trying to attack my dog.

I do my best to block sensitive areas of my dog (but she’s also protective and doesn’t tolerate disrespect so she’s defending herself and me), and it takes this lady waaaaaaaaay too long to reel in her dog and get it behind a gate. I get my dog in the car and do a quick check, luckily she wasn’t hurt at all, just a bit shaken.

The lady’s response? “Your dog ok?” “I think so.” “Ok, sorry.”

And then she proceeded to take an aggressive dog she obviously can’t control into the off-leash area, much to the alarm of witnesses. I thought about telling her off but I’m not confrontational and was also a bit shaken. Plus if you have a dog like that and choose to take it to the park, you probably can’t be reasoned with.

So yeah, apparently getting out of the off-leash area doesn’t mean you’re safe! And DON’T TAKE YOUR HUGE REACTIVE DOGS TO THE DOG PARK UNLESS YOU’VE DONE PROPER TRAINING FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.