Once you take a dog off his leash, he begins to explore everything around him without being under your direct control.  If you are in a place where there are a lot of other dogs, he may play with a few or them for a time and then wander off on his own.  Then he may re-engage in play with the others, and he may come up to another dog who is not as high ranking in this impromptu pack.  First, they may begin their encounter with a staring contest.  The other dog may just walk away.  After that encounter, your dog feels that he must establish his place in the pecking order of this new pack.  He will try to show his dominance any way that he can.  In the canine world, mounting other dogs is one of the most easily recognized form of showing dominance.  This aforementioned scenario can all take place in a matter of seconds, without you having understood what was going on or a chance to intervene.

In my home pack, I am a 110 pound alpha dog.  I also know that I am not allowed to mount other dogs, and Mom will not let me bully another dog.  Often, we go to places to play, but Mom does not allow me off leash when there a bunch of other strange dogs around.  Remember “Stranger Danger”?  Dogs can be unpredictable, and since most humans do not understand what we say with our body language.  This means off leash play among strangers is potentially dangerous.  Remember, dogs are pack animals.  It can only take a second for one dog to get angry with another and start a fight.  Within the blink of an eye, other dogs have come to help their pack member. This is a situation where no one is in control! No control usually means that someone is going to get hurt.

Trips to the dog park are great, and the socialization among the dogs there is even better.  If you want to continue this activity (and you should), go to a park where you leave his leash on while he plays and sniffs in the area around you.  When you do this, if he starts acting up, you are immediately in control.  If he starts acting inappropriately, what should you do?  If you said, “go home,” you are right.  He needs to know that he has lost the privilege of playing at the park.  Over time and with multiple visits, he will learn to play well with others, so that he can continue to go for the trip.

Mom is not a big fan of off leash dog parks.  It seems that about once a month or so, a story breaks about some dog mauling at a local dog park.  We have been to some of these parks, but we know that with 30+ dogs running around off leash (and out of control), it is only a matter of time before the trouble starts.  When we went, I sat by Mom with my leash on, and together we enjoyed watching the other dogs play.  Sure enough, within ten minutes, two dogs were going at it.  Seconds later, people started yelling, and the dogs kept fighting!  People have not figured out that when they yell at fighting dogs, the dogs think the people are in their cheering sections.  The fighting does not stop as long as the “cheering” continues.

When it is play time off leash with other dogs, we have a few close friends that I am allowed to play with off leash.  Mom calls them play dates.  I am never allowed to play with a dog that we do not know well.  For safe off leash play, you can do what we have done by forming a small group of friends and have play dates at each other’s homes until you get to know each other very well.  I suggest limiting the size of the group and maybe even giving the group a name, something like Spike’s Pack.  (Those guys are only my close online friends.)  After a few months of supervised off leash play at each other’s homes, you can find a park and announce a play date.  Start the play date with every dog still on his leash, and as things progress positively, take the leashes off.  Even though they are all very familiar with each other, there will probably still be some bickering among them.  Keep an eye out for the signs of real trouble.  You may find it helpful to use these body language clues to help you identify troublesome situations.  If you see something about to start, get your dog and put him on his leash by your side.

Remember, dogs are not children.  It is okay to take your children to the park to play with 30+ strange kids because your child understands your language.  After all, if Junior and Sally start fighting, all you need to do is say stop that!  When you yell stop that to a dog, you may as well be yelling at a brick wall.  As animals, we have a whole different set of values than humans and we do not care about right and wrong, because when it comes to a pack of dogs, it is a matter of survival of the fittest.  Not only that, we do not speak English, German or Japanese.

If you want to be able to communicate your beliefs about right and wrong to your dog, you better have a way to control the dog.  Put a leash on him! Mom always says that you can not train what you can not control, and there will be times that you can not control what you have trained without the proper equipment.