Godown Park — Attraction in Columbus

I should've read the reviews before bringing my dog here. I have a 4 1/2 month old Samoyed who is the sweetest boy. He's been to our local dog park a few times and loves it, no issues. He's friendly and gentle with other dogs.

Within TEN MINUTES of arriving here, he was attacked by another dog due to his inattentive and careless owners. My dog ran up to a small pug that did NOT belong in the large dog side, and was sniffing him. I'm very protective of my puppy, and so I was right on top of them the entire time, watching. I noticed the owners also had a Golden who started growling at my dog while circling from afar. Upon noticing this, I instantly got my puppy by the harness and attempted to lead him away, realizing him playing with the pug was annoying the Golden. The owners, standing right next to us and apparently oblivious to their growling dog, did nothing.

Backs turned and leaving the situation, I only made it a few steps before the Golden lunged and attacked my puppy. He managed to bite him several times before the owner pulled him off. My puppy was screaming and terrified and peed himself. He didn't even fight back at all, was simply crying trying to get away. My partner and I carried him out and as we were checking him outside of the gate the Golden ran up and continued GROWLING AND SNARLING at my puppy through the gate!

The owners did not apologize. They did not check if our puppy was ok. We had to track them down inside the park to get their information. And... THEY STAYED IN THE PARK WITH THEIR DOG AFTER WE LEFT, moving even further into the park. Our puppy ended up with two deep bite marks to his legs and had to be taken to an emergency vet.

Even after people seeing the attack, barely anyone left despite the attacking dog still being inside the gates. This should tell you all you need to know about the people who visit this park.

I would NOT take a dog here, EVER. It is a great park, but it is TOO BIG and there are TOO MANY DOGS. It's very popular and well known, and so you are bound to have more irresponsible and poorly trained dogs as well as owners. There are at least a dozen posts of others expressing the same concerns and voicing that they've seen dog fights on the regular at this park.

Learn from my mistake and find a smaller, less known local dog park and save your pups from trauma. The irresponsible owners of these aggressive/reactive/unfriendly dogs ruin dog park experiences for the people who actually take proper care of...

We started going to the Godown dog park about a month and a half ago with out Italian greyhound mix and were very excited about it in the beginning. The fact that the park has size restrictions on the small dog side seemed perfect. The weight limit is 25 lbs on the small dogs side which was great because our dog is about 13. We were also excited about the small dog side because our dog is very very afraid of larger dogs. We have tried attending regularly (at least twice a week).

I think we would have loved this park if the small dog side was actually for small dogs. There are usually dogs way over 25lbs and a lot of times they are very energetic and clobber our small dog. It is frustrating because the owners of the bigger dogs are usually not paying attention and take no care to make sure their big dogs behave around the small dogs that the small dog park was made for. Our dog has initiated play with a small dog or two only to be interrupted by dogs 3 and 4x her size and she does not feel comfortable playing anymore. We left particularly frustrated today because out of the 20ish dogs on the small dog side, only probably 4 were of the weight restriction and we had to leave because there were too many big dogs that were very practically trampling our small dog.

Every dog park that exists seems to be for big dogs and it’s not too often that you find a dog park with a small dog side so finding this was exciting. But now we don’t have anywhere close to go. I hope that the people with large dogs who bring them to the small dog side can read this and try to understand that while it may seem harmless, they are kind of ruining it for the people who actually need the...

"You can go to the hospital if you want to. I can't, I have other things to do." he said, "This is a dog park, you play at your own risk." I couldn't gather my language. So I watched him driving away in his shinny black Infinite. My dog standing next to me, bleeding from his ear and leg.

This is a comment of frustration. My dog was bitten yesterday, and I did let the middle-age white man owner get away with it. His tune was condesending as I politely asking him to take my dog to the hospital (my car wasn't there).

Here I'm borrowing this review place to address something I used to see as an underlying common sense: it is the owner's responsibility to ensure that their dog is trained enough to be in the park; it is the owner's responsibility to not bring aggresive dogs. And, if one dog is injuried by another, the two owners shall negotiate about the medical visit (e.g., depends on the behavior of the dogs).

Yes there isn't a law for it, but isn't this our own community?

To me, "Play at your own risk" as a park policy, means that the PARK is not responsible for doggo's injury. It doesn't free dog OWNERS from being responsible for their won dog's behavior. If anyone could bring their (aggressive/un-trained/diseased/...) dogs here, and be granted with no consequence, then the park won't be as safe or fun a place for any of us.

I hope you folks who read this post would never have to deal with situations like mine. But if you have to, I really hope you could argue better than I did (bitter smile

Anyway, Godown park is a nice place, enough doggos to social with and enough place to run around....