Thursday, May 17, 2012

Not Again!

I have been very cautious about letting Luna loose in dog parks because I don't want her to build up too much speed or forget that she needs to focus on her feet placement.  I have also been very worried about other dogs crashing in to her.  Some dogs are just too big or play too rough.  For these reasons, Luna and I have only been visiting the smaller (and less popular) dog park by our house.

However, yesterday Luna came to work with me and it was a beautiful day.  I decided we should take a break to visit the much larger (and much more popular) dog park by the office.  Luna was very comfortable at the park and actually interacted with a few dogs at different times.  A rottie mix was very interested in Luna and it looked like they wanted to play together.  Sadly, I had to be the bad guy and break up the would-be fun.  A rottweiler is just too big to play safely.

So, Luna and I went to a part of the field that the other dogs were not playing around.  We were enjoying a little bit of our typical playtime growling, chasing, and spinning.  I found a large mesh ball and decided to give it a toss for Luna to chase.  What I didn't see was the pit mix who also wanted the ball.  As Luna reached the ball the other dog crashed into her.  Luna let out a scream/yelp and I flashed back to our December accident.  Luckily, the other dog was half Luna's size and was not running fast enough to knock her over.  Luna was just scared by the incident which caused her to cry out.

Obviously, Luna was not interested in sticking around.  She quickly trotted away towards the exit (constantly looking over her shoulder).  I didn't want her to leave on such a negative note, so I encouraged her to come back to me which she did.  She then mingled with a few overweight labs before we left the park.

This experience has solidified my decision that Luna may not run at a dog park when other dogs are present.  I'm thankful that neither dog was injured, but it is obvious that I cannot trust Luna's safety to other park users.  It is also unlikely that we will visit this particular park again since it is so popular.  I would prefer to stay at our smaller park where we can play safely.


5 comments:

Hiking Hounds said...

That is scary. I can definitely understand why you wouldn't want her to run with others at the park. I love the idea of dog parks and used to take mine. But, I stopped because of two encounters we had. You just never know about the other dogs, even if they aren't being aggressive.

Charlene and Storm said...

yeh i know exactly what you mean, stormy is so dainty and even tho he thinks he can handle it he always ends up getting trampled whenever we go and play around lots of other dogs. its ok if there the same size as him but if there any bigger he just gets barreled over and squished so if we ever see one coming our way we just stand still and dont throw his toy or the exact same thing happens just like with poor luna and the tackle for the ball xxx

Sue said...

Glad Luna is ok.

Auntie M said...

Oh my! How scary. My heart was thumping until I read that she was ok.

genji said...

Glad Luna wasn't hurt. I think most of the time, nothing bad happens, but I hear enough stories about bad things happening to greyhounds at dog parks, that I'd be wary of letting them run free.