I had an incident at a park last weekend with my dog and I feel the need to share it and educate people about good dog manners.

I take my dog to a near by park every day to play ball games and train her. She is friendly, calm, kind and very well socialised with other dogs, people and kids. Sansa comes to work with me a few times per week (in the above photo with Bingo the lab). What it means is that she has calm and friendly manners when she meets other dogs, people and kids.

She sniffs other dogs in a friendly and calm way, plays nicely and never gets in to fights with them. She ignores running people, playing kids, bicycles, skateboards, roller skates, cars and pretty much anything and everything around her. She is also very well trained. Meaning, she doesn’t go anywhere I don’t allow her to go and she has very good recall. Even off the lead she doesn’t walk up to other dogs (on lead or not). All this isn’t something dogs naturally do, I’ve trained her from day one.

Last Saturday we were at a park and there was another dog playing fetch too. That dog ran up to us a few times, jumping on my dog while growling and biting her neck. This was not a polite way to play but because Sansa is well socialised she was able to handle it and we simply moved away from the dog. That dog was also managed by the owner playing fetch. Fetch was more important to him than Sansa.

Then another dog arrived. This dog did not have good manners at all. He ran straight up to the other dog,  jumping on him while growling and trying to pin him down.  Because the other dog wasn’t well socialised either they got into a fight right away. The owners had to physically separate the dogs. By then, we had moved to another part of the park because I never stay close to dogs that might become a negative experience to my dog.

Unfortunately the other dog followed us exhibiting the same behaviours as before. Sansa was trying to turn and run away from him and as a last resort lied down (this is submissive behaviour!). This is when the dog jumped on her pinning her down, while biting her neck, and she started yelping in pain. Even this didn’t stop the dog. My partner had to jump in and pull the dog away. The other owner didn’t like it and started insulting him and telling us that we haven’t socialised our dog.

So let’s make one thing clear. There are signs dogs show to express how they feel. A well socialised dog can read these signs and respect them. Sansa was showing many calming signs and submissive behaviours trying to get rid of this dog. Yelping is a very clear sign of dog in distress and dogs that ignore it have not been well socialised or trained. Growling and pinning other dogs down isn’t playing, it’s bullying. If your dog bullies other dogs instead of playing with them, keep him or her on the lead and get a trainer to help you. It’s as simple as that!

P.S. Our puppy school focuses on understanding dog language and the right way of socialising your new puppy so that you can avoid situations like this or at least be well prepared like I was by having a balanced and confident dog!