Dog Park Etiquette?

So what is the appropriate action to take if your dog gets into a dog fight?

First time dog owner here. Dog's name is Pepper. She's a lab mix approximately 2 years old and we've had her for about 8 months. A few weeks ago my two daughters and I took Pepper to a local dog park.

When we got there we were the only ones there. Then after a while another lady showed up with her dog. Looked like a Pharaoh hound with pointy ears and about the same size as my dog. The dog kept wanting to play with our dog, and the lady kept calling to her dog to come with her. I didn't understand why the lady kept calling to her dog instead of letting the two dogs play, but later on after the situation that occured happened I thought that maybe she knew her dog was a trouble maker.

Anyway, things were fine for a while. The lady got her dog to follow her to another part of the park, and my girls and I played with our dog. About 30 min. later, the dog came back over to Pepper. They started sniffing each other, and then the other dog started snarling and biting Pepper. At first Pepper defended herself and snarled back. It was hard to tell who was biting who, but after a moment they stopped. Then the other dog started attacking Pepper again, and this time Pepper didn't fight back but turned away as if to say "Okay I give in."

I checked Pepper out and she seemed okay. The other lady did ask if my dog was okay but she didn't apologize for her dog's behavior. She had her dog sit and explained that she was giving her dog a "time out". Like I said before, I'm a new dog owner, so I didn't know what to do.

I did ask her if her dog had her rabies shots and she said yes. Should I have done anything else?

I'd of asked her if the dog did this before , and if so why is she bringing it to a place where it will meet other dogs. Your poor little girl must of been so upset.
I'd then tell her to muzzle the bloody dog if it is this way.
Time out my ass.sorry but it make me cross when ppl are so ignorant .but that just my thoughts im sure someone will give u better advice then me .

I'm sure that was scary for you and your dog. Sorry to hear that happened. Unfortunately, there are sometimes going to be people and dogs like that at the dog park and there's not a whole lot you can do. It's a risk you take when going to the park Hopefully your dog is fine and won't have any issues playing with dogs in the future.

I usually just try to stay away from people and dogs at the park who seem like they may be trouble, but of course you didn't really have that option when it was just the two of you in the park.

I guess one "good" thing is that dogs get into minor scuffles like that all the time and it looks and sounds a lot worse than it really is. They usually move on and it's no big deal. Hopefully that's all that was happening in this situation and your dog wasn't too fazed by it.

Here is a post I wrote about mistakes people make at the dog park. I don't think you've made any mistakes, but might help for brainstorming how to deal with other dog owners & dogs: http://www.dogids.com/blog/common-mi...-the-dog-park/

The problem with dog parks is that unless you know owners and dogs and even then...you cannot anticipate a dogs reaction from one time to another...I repeat you cannot anticipate what any dog is thinking at any time.

My Sophie was wonderful at the dog park for many years. Not on the big dog side. Dogs her size and bigger tended to scare her. But on the small dog side she was lovely. Some days she would have a flock of smaller dogs playing happily. She would even play bow her chest to the ground so she could meet her little friends more easily.

Little dogs and puppies brought out her maternal instinct and she would lay and groom them after playtime. Until early this year...out of nowhere she attacked a puppy on the trail. She was leashed, he was not. It wasn't a fatal wound. But bad enough for me to realize she can never be around other creatures except our house cats and male dog. If she turned on them we would have a difficult choice indeed.

With our Callie he is an easygoing AmBull. I do take him to the dog park sometimes. But I am very careful who is there. Any un-neutered males, any dominant dogs, any dog or owner that might present the slightest issue and we do not go in. My boy is very trusting and loving, but he also has a mouth like a Great White.
I will never put him in a position where he feels he has to defend himself, both for his safety and other dogs.

Thanks for the link, very helpful tips! We take her for a walk every day. I just wanted to take her to the dog park because it was such a beautiful day and we wanted to enjoy her at a park without worrying about her running off. I doubt she would run away, but we're still learning her ways and wanted to enjoy her in a "controlled" environment, if that makes sense.

And I wanted her to get a chance to socialize with other dogs. She's pretty good with other dogs in the neighborhood. I say "pretty good" because there's one dog she gets along with very well, and there's another dog she just does not like, LOL. I keep her away from that one.

The points in the article are well taken. I don't rely on dog parks for exercising our dog, I was looking at more for socializing her, but we might have to look at other ways to do that.

My girls weren't very upset so that was good but yeah, people are ignorant. Later on, after the "time out", the dogs seemed fine. I told my girls to keep Pepper away from the other dog and just to walk her on the other side of the park. Somehow the other dog came back up to Pepper and my youngest daughter was going to pet the dog. The lady ran up to them and quickly told my daughter "No, don't pet her."

Before when the dogs fought I thought it was just a random thing, but then when the lady told my daughter not to pet her dog, I realized that this lady probably knew that her dog would cause problems.

I started putting two and two together, and remembered that when they first got to the park she didn't want her dog playing with our dog. So that's when I told my girls we needed to go and we left the park.

I'll probably just do that next time.

Good point! I won't put Pepper in a situation like that ever again. You're right, you just never know how a dog will react to another dog. They have a language all their own. Even though I'm learning a dog's body language, there are still little things that you don't pick up, especially when they're interacting with another dog.

What's important from your end is to make sure she has lots of positive dog experiences with treats and no fights to make sure this doesn't develop into an issue for her.
I would try and expose her to some dogs you know are friendly and make sure to reward lots?