[GooseAndGypsy]

In the interest of allowing my 5 month old medium sized puppy to have playtime and social interaction I take him to different off leash areas for walks.
More times than not, he meets pleasant dogs and sometimes he meets wonderful matches for some playtime.
But then there are the ones who "play" by chasing and bullying. Or the downright mean ones.
I try to disengage from these dogs as quickly as possible and keep walking because I think this isn't healthy socializing.
What do you think? I'd love to hear some opinions on this topic.

 

[Canyx]

If your dog isn't having a good time with another dog, I'd recommend going away rather than letting your dog get bullied. I don't ever think there are "necessary evils" in socialization. It's either a good experience that will further appropriate dog social skills in the future, or it's a bad interaction that can sully your dog's social skills and view of other dogs over time. Sure, sometimes good play interactions can go south for a bit. And almost every dog experiences a difficult dog interaction or a moment where they might need to tell another dog off. But no one needs to put their dog in a hard situation deliberately for them to learn that.