I've fallen and I can't get up!

[Cassidy's Mom]

Originally Posted by Debbieg

DH, DD and I are planning to take Benny to Point Isabel for the first time this Friday. Hope he comes home as relaxed as Halo!

Hopefully it won't be a rainy day! Let me know if you decide to go for sure, I'm off work on Fridays and might be able to join you - one dog only though!

[Debbieg]

Originally Posted by Cassidy's Mom

Hopefully it won't be a rainy day! Let me know if you decide to go for sure, I'm off work on Fridays and might be able to join you - one dog only though!

That would be great! We may go to Fort Funston instead of Point Isabel though. DH just realized Point Isabel is in Richmond and said he does not want to drive an extra hour It is just 6 am and he is in the midst of his morning growlies so may change his mind ! Are you closer to Point Isabel or Richmond?

Benny has never been to the beach so I am pretty excited. He has never been to a dog park either, excpet once when there were no other dogs!
We do have an unofficial dog park that I take him. It is a fenced school yard near my house and the principal leaves one gate unlocked for us to bring our dogs as long as we promise to clean up after them and do not bring them when children are out. On Saturday I ran into two friends and their husbands who were with their 5 rescue GSD's ranging in ages 3 years down to two 7 month brothers. Benny was in GSD heaven running and wrestling with all of them. I wish I had my phone to snap a picture. The best news is I called him and he stopped playing and came from about 50 yards away!

[Cassidy's Mom]

Fort Funston is about twice as far as Point Isabel for me, so I probably wouldn't make it if you decide to go there. It's a lot of fun though, Benny should have a great time at the beach.

Be careful though, there's a board member who went on a weekday and I guess there are some dog walkers that go there with several dogs, and his GSD was attacked while the walker was chatting up another walker instead of paying attention to the dogs in her care. I don't know if this is a totally random thing, or if a lot of dog walkers are there during the week (maybe not controlling the dogs as well as they should be), but we've never seen anything like that there on the weekend. He was concerned about how this dog was acting, and said something to the dog walker, but she blew him off, and then it attacked, biting Mikko pretty badly. His owner (Ray?) got injured pulling the other dog off Mikko.

This happened at the top of the dunes near the parking lot, not down on the beach. Any time we're at an off leash park we watch the dogs in the area and even in the distance. The places we go are all big and wide open enough that you can usually see and avoid the bullies. I also watch MY dogs carefully to make sure that they're being nice and that other dogs aren't throwing dominance displays at them. Keefer is fairly tolerant to a point, and then he's had enough and will tell a dog off if it tries to hump him or puts its head over his neck. I'll move a dog out of the way as soon as I see rude behavior or any signs that he's starting to get uncomfortable, to prevent him from having to defend himself.

[Debbieg]

Thanks for the heads up. I had hoped Friday would be less crowded at Fort Funston than on a weekend. I remember about Miko being attacked.
Maybe this is not such a good idea? We will definitely scope out the area first. I am very protective of Benny and also want to make sure that he behaves . DH is a pretty big guy so that may deter any aggressive dogs.
I think we will just play it be ear.

[Cassidy's Mom]

Debbie, it would not deter me from continuing to go to Fort Funston, I'd just be very aware of the people and dogs nearby so I could move away to avoid them if necessary. My dogs absolutely love going there, and we have never witnessed an incident like that.

I do wonder if the dynamic is different on a weekday where there may be more dog walkers with multiple dogs vs people with their own dogs on the weekend. I really have no idea though since we've only ever been there on the weekend.

Usually it's less crowded on the weekend if the weather is not great. The last time we were at FF was with Melissa and Tony (Levi & Leyna) - it was a grey overcast day and we practically had the beach to ourselves. Point Isabel is actually very busy (at least on the weekend, never been there mid-week), but the dogs tend to be well socialized, and pretty well behaved.