Going to a dog park is usually a nice experience for dogs and their owners, but every now and then a situation presents itself that can cause a lot of stress to all the parties involved. There are certain rules that owners must follow at dog parks, when this doesn't happen, we often see problems and serious accidents.
It turns out there is no shortage of dog park horror stories online, so we've scoured the internet to see what other pet owners have to say about their personal experience. These are 20 dog park horror stories, if not mildly entertaining, will surely be a good example of what you can occasionally expect in a dog park, things not to do and what to avoid.
The Unprovoked Attack
Broken arrow, a user of at Sherdog.com forum, brought his 4-month old puppy to the dog park. When a special needs kid came to him and asked him to pet his puppy, he, of course, gave him permission. However, after a few futile attempts to pet the dog who was running around, the kid just kicked the puppy in the ribs with full strength, sending the dog flying 10 feet away!
Fortunately, the owner saw this and managed to stop the kid from kicking the dog again, punching the kid in the shoulder in order to protect his dog, causing the anger from the kid’s mom and other people at the park.
The Dog Riot
Reddit user local_weather shares a story about a couple who brought their 50-pound dog to the small side of the park. Of course, the large canine, not used to small dogs, starts chasing them around and that aggression ultimately led to the big dog attacking a smaller dog. This caused all of the small dogs to go after the big dog, leading to an all-out fight.
Hit with a Leash
Forum user at justlabradors.com under a nickname LuvMyLabs2 tells a story of a lady who came to the dog park with her whippet. Since she and her dog were new, a big group of dogs started chasing her dog, causing him to roll a little. The new lady freaked out about it and started calling her dog. Of course, the group followed her dog to her, which is when she started hitting them with a leash, hitting the user’s dog Chloe in the process.
Scuffle at the Gates
This story by Reddit user LadyGodiva21 doesn’t have anything to do with dogs, but with people. Dog parks usually have double gates at the entrance, to prevent dogs from escaping when somebody comes in. One lady left the first gate open and then opened the second gate as well. Of course, a dog ran out of the park and she just took her dog and left without a word to anyone.
Death Grip
Germansheperds.com user Anitsisqua witnessed a scary bloodbath at one dog park as she was chilling with her dog Gable. She heard yelping while she sat on the bench and saw a small Yorkie surrounded by a group of bigger dogs.
When the little dog started running, a black lab went after her and grabbed her. Anitsisqua ran towards them, pulled the lab by the collar to make him let go of the Yorkie. However, she couldn’t do it and until the lab’s owner showed up, the lab wouldn’t let go. The small dog was urgently taken to the vet with blood coming out of her neck wound.
Precious Yoga Pants
Reddit user a_calder shared a story that isn’t as scary as the others. He and his date were walking his dog Toller and saw a woman walking her toy Pom. The woman saw a Great Dane and started petting it and playing with him. However, the Dane was drooling and got a bit of it on her yoga pants. The woman had a hissy fit over a little bit of drool. Perhaps funny for others, but certainly stressful for the Great Dane owner.
Another Gate Problem
Laurel Scarioni of dogstardaily.com had an unpleasant experience with an aggressive man at a dog park. Similar to one of our previous stories, it involved a rude person at the double gate entrance. Laurel was with 3 of her dogs in the area between the gates when the man entered. She asked him to close the first gate and when he refused, she reached to close the gate herself. However, the man reached over and pushed her so he can open the gate again! Laurel left, appalled.
The Careless Father
At the dog park at the time when this happened, Reddit user cdflrcp was the only one with another guy. Their dogs were getting along, playing with a tennis ball and each other. The two owners were chatting when a man with a little girl came to the fence, picked up the girl and put her in the yard to play with dogs, without asking the owners if that’s alright to do. To make the matters worse, she had food in her hand! Thankfully, nothing happened since both dogs were well-behaved.
The Dog Hitter
Forum user chocco_23 at justlabradors.com was walking with her dog Belle when she encountered a woman with 3 dogs. One of the dogs was on a leash since he can’t behave well, while the other two started playing with Belle.
Then Belle went to the woman to greet her and the dog on the leash started growling and barking. Belle started to back off, but the woman still hit her and said that she was aggressive!
The Ball Chaser
Reddit user parakeetprincess was at a dog park with Bullet, her 70lb German Sheppard, throwing him his tennis ball. A little 2-year-old girl was running around the park and at one point picked up the dog’s ball. Bullet started running towards her, full speed, to get his ball. When parakeetprincess saw this, she called him and he tried to stop, but couldn’t. He rolled over and then plunged into her, causing the parents of the girl to overreact and yell. The dad even hit the dog with a water bottle.
A Dangerous Pond
On the sherdog.com forum a user named RerouteToRemain told a story about one big black lab who would always try to force other dogs underwater when in the pond. One man, who had a young Australian shepherd, saw that his dog was practically being assaulted and jumped in the water. He picked the lab by the neck and tossed him out, leaving right after this happened.
The Soccer Ball
Reddit user taraep was with her dog at the park when somebody came in with a couple of dogs, one of them a shepherd mix, and a soccer ball. Since the user’s dog goes crazy for soccer balls, she immediately stole the ball from the other dog. After taraep managed to get the ball from her dog and throw it to the shepherd, her dog started chasing it again and was greeted with a warning snarl from the shepherd.
The user then started to get her dog to the other side of the park and as she was walking away, she saw that the shepherd in question had bitten another dog owner. The owner of the attacker just watched everything, not even offering an apology to the bitten man.
A Fight over Yorkie
One user at the germansheperds.com forum, x0emiroxy0x, tells a story of his dad’s golden retriever who attacked a Yorkie who came at the dog park. The small pooch started running around the retriever, causing the big dog to grab him and shake him. Thankfully, the user’s dad saw this and got his dog to drop the Yorkie. However, four other dogs jumped in and attacked the small dog after, leading to three hurt dogs as a result.
Nervous Nellie
Redditor cofveve1234 went into a dog park one day with his puppy. There was some girl who was abusive to her dog, dragging him by his collar to get him out of the park for a drink of water. The user’s puppy tried to play with the other dog, but she raised the tensions and the puppy ended up biting her dog. She then raised her hand to hit cofveve1234’s dog, but he managed to stop her, after which she started yelling like crazy.
Easily Triggered Owner
Forum user Trickster shared his story at justlabradors.com about a time when he took his dogs Joker and Murph to the park.
They were playing with each other and a Golden retriever Molly, when a big man entered the park with his German Shepherd. As they approached the group, Joker went to greet them and sniffed the Shepherd’s butt along the way. For some reason, that triggered a gross over-reaction from the owner, leading to a verbal conflict.
The Exodus
Another story with the gate comes from Reddit user expibotou. While she was playing with her greyhound mix, a woman with a kid came in. The kid held the gate open, and even though everybody yelled at them to shut the gate, she just stared at them as at least seven dogs went out, including the user’s dog. Fortunately, everything ended up without an accident.
Irresponsible Owners
A user FierceRedBelt shared a story on a sherdog.com forum about her female retriever mix that is usually very submissive and doesn’t like dogs her own size. When they came to the dog park, one male dog of her size started picking on her. The dog’s owners completely ignored FierceRedBelt and her plea to make the dog stop doing it. In the end, she was forced to leave the park.
The Pee Story
Reddit user prehistoricshark recalls a story of his dog peeing on a kid’s face. Since his dog loves peeing on the fence of the park, when the kid put his face on the fence to look at the dog, the inevitable happened. The pooch even kicked some sand in his face, making the kid cry.
Displaced Fire Hydrant
Nonsense from sherdog.com forum tells an accident horror story. As she was playing with her pooch in the park, she tossed a ball for her and the dog got so excited that she ran into a fire hydrant. Full speed, at the pointy part of it. After a couple of spins in the air, she landed and screamed in pain.
Fast-Food Jerk
Reddit user MistressVanilla witnessed a very strange behavior from a man who came to a dog park with a huge bag of McDonald’s and sat at a picnic table. Of course, dogs came flocking to him, and he started elbowing them in the face, one after another. He even pushed a puppy that jumped on the table completely off it!
READ NEXT: 20 Dog Walking and Sitting Horror Stories
