Managing a reactive Malinois at packed summer dog parks
Raya's drivey and honestly a lot to handle in a crowded park, especially now that everyone and their cousin is out there all summer. I've switched to off-peak hours only and I'm doing structured parallel walks instead of off-leash free-for-alls when it's busy. Curious how other handlers of high-drive breeds are navigating the summer crowd surge without just avoiding parks entirely.
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I think this is such a responsible approach honestly, not every dog needs the free-for-all environment and it's nice to see someone actually reading what their dog needs instead of forcing it
Parallel walks over dog parks. Every time. Especially for this breed. Listing page has current Malinois options if anyone's considering one: https://allinpets.com/pets/dogs/belgian-malinois/
Off-peak hours is the right call, high-drive breeds don't need a packed park to get good output anyway, structured work does more good than chaos does. General piece on managing outdoor time safely covers some of this too: https://allinpets.com/blog/dogs/rules-for-spending-time-with-your-pet-outdoors-in-summer-20/