Today I was at the dog park sitting in on the dog that I’m trying to adopt training and socialization. And my sister and I both were talking about how the smaller dog owners seem to never be told to leash their dog, but the larger dog owners are always criticized for unleashing their animals.

Now this is a dog friendly park, there’s an area that’s fenced for both sizes of animals and a larger area where a lot of owners just lounge and kids play etc. it’s rare someone goes outside the fence without their dog on a leash but typically when they do the dog is very well trained and kid/dog friendly. The most that happens is a kid gets knocked down by the dog running nothing major though. But there’s always those few people who just are weird about bigger dog off leash, either while simultaneously having their smaller dog off leash, or just being lets say“weird” & confrontational.

My sister mentioned, people generally have a misguided sense of security/safety when it comes to smaller dogs as opposed to big dogs. For example most small dogs who are off leash can easily be picked up and held by the owner as oppose to a bigger dog being a little harder to handle off leash. Which in a way makes sense.

Anyway, this brings me to my poll question. Would you say it’s more “socially acceptable” for for a small dog or a bigger dog to be off leash?