120 Lbs Dog Pins A Small Pup At The Dog Park, Then The Owner Blames The Smaller Dog For “Being Anxious”
Dog parks are supposed to be the easy solution for exercise and social time, but they can flip fast when one dog ignores boundaries and the owners don’t step in. That’s what OP says happened during a visit that started out calm and ended with an empty park and a whole lot of side-eye.
OP’s dog is a medium-sized 40-pound pup who’s generally gentle and playful. He doesn’t have a bite history and spends two days a week at doggy daycare with dogs his size or bigger. The only complication is that he gets anxious in crowded situations, so OP usually visits the park when it’s quieter, and the group is small.
Last weekend, the park looked perfect. Only four dogs were inside: two labs, an Aussie mix, and a huge Anatolian shepherd mix that OP estimates at around 120 pounds. OP let the dogs sniff through the fence first, everything seemed fine, and then he let his dog in.
Within seconds, the big dog rushed over, tried to mount and hump OP’s dog, and the weight landed hard on his hips. OP’s dog yelped, gave one quick nip toward the big dog’s neck, and backed away with raised hackles and his tail tucked.
OP grabbed his dog’s collar and tried to move him away to cool things down, but the big dog growled and backed them into a corner. OP called out for the owner to recall their dog, but the dog didn’t listen. The owner sent his kid in first, then eventually leashed the dog and told OP he shouldn’t bring an anxious dog to the park.
OP felt confident they weren’t the problem until they noticed something strange: the other owners left right after too.
Scroll through the screenshots below to see why this dog park moment turned into a debate about responsibility and what “defensive” really means.
Let’s dig into the details
A bit of backstory
Last weekend, OP took their dog to its favorite park. At first, everything seemed cool and calm
In a split second a much bigger dog of 120 lbs tried to mount OP’s 40 lbs dog. From the look of things, OP’s dog was very uncomfortable and was visibly anxious after the encounter
OP moved in to deescalate the situation, but the bigger dog became aggressive. The owner finally leashed it, but blamed OP instead of apologizing
OP decided to bring the matter to the Reddit community to find out who’s at fault in this situation
We gathered some interesting comments from the Reddit community
“NTA your dog was just defending itself tbh the owner should've properly intervened since his dog was the problem…”
“NTA. I think your pup will be happier if you avoid them in the future.“
“It is the owner of the humping dog to intervene, not the other way around.”
“NTA Hope pup is ok. Maybe there are better places for you and pup to hangout.”
“The other owner definitely overreacted. Your dog just reacted to getting hurt by his dog.”
“That owner was completely irresponsible for not controlling his dog and then trying to blame you for the situation he created.”
“It's the owners responsibility to make sure that dog behaves and that guy didn't.”
“They should have intervened as soon as their dog started mounting yours.”
OP did what responsible owners usually do: choose a quieter time, supervise closely, and step in the moment things got tense. The bigger issue is that the large dog ignored recall and escalated the situation, then the owner tried to make OP feel at fault for a normal reaction to pain. The other owners leaving might say more about wanting to avoid drama than blaming OP. Was OP wrong to be there at all, or did the other owner handle this badly? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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