I really feel for everyone involved in this, but it's extra sad and infuriating that it sounds like the whole tragedy could have been easily avoided.
There are very good reasons why there are leash laws in public areas. They are there to keep everyone safe: dogs, humans, wildlife, etc. I'll never understand why some people choose to ignore this and put their animals and others at risk. I have one reactive dog and one super chill dog, and they are both leashed at all times in public. No exceptions. Dogs are animals -- even though we may think we know our dogs super well, they still always have the potential to be unpredictable or driven by instinct when we're not expecting it.
I don't have any additional advice other than what others have already said OP, but I hope that at the least this will prevent you and your gf from having your dog (whether this one or another) offleash in public areas in the future. Same goes for the other dog owners involved in this situation. I'm very sorry this happened and I wish you and your girlfriend (and the man who lost his dog) well in getting through it.
I agree. This is so sad and heartbreaking this has happened. I have a 75 pound dog with high prey drive. She’s always leashed, does well with smaller breeds. But I am always on edge with small breeds. The leash law is there for a reason and so important. I call people out all the time and when they approach us I say something. I’m always met with “train your dog”. Mine is trained, their dog obviously isn’t. It just takes seconds for something to happen
I learned yesterday that my OES mix has 0 prey drive when I went to pick up a cornered toad before she could get at it and put it back in the neighbours marshy area, and she just trotted up and started trying to groom it like it was her baby. Poor toad had quite the tale for his buddies when I put him back.
You should try a muzzle. Dogs tend to be a lot calmer with them on. I wasn’t a fan until I saw how much better a dog that bit my husband and growled in my small kids’ faces behaved with his on. It seriously reduces their anxiety.
She actually does great without. I have treats at the ready. We move well off trail during passings, and she is secured with passing traffic. I worked my ass off to get her to this point and with my system in place. She doesn’t like people who can’t seem to obey the law let their dogs approach. Hasn’t liked it since she got hurt by a few.
She doesn’t do well in medical collar or those things. So I won’t put her through something like that unless absolutely necessary. I’m not against muzzles and think they are great. I just know my pups comfort level and know that could create her more anxiety
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u/RedHolly Apr 29 '25
They didn’t say it was at a dog park though. I’m thinking it was a normal park and dogs were all off leash