If you ever go to Ocean Beach with your dog, PLEASE WATCH HER/HIM CAREFULLY!!! 

Dogs get separated from people (especially in a crowd), sometimes running to the road.

(scroll down if you want more information)

• Dogs have been getting separated from their humans every week, even running into the road.

• Big dogs, fighting dogs, leashed dogs, and other unwanted elements have been joining the walks.
  

• The walks are leaderless and unsafe.
  
• The founder has resigned as organizer because too many people have been irresponsible and uncooperative.
  
• This event was  designed and managed to be a safe play-space for small dogs. It is no longer that.

A message to attendees from the founder:

Hopefully my years of volunteer effort have served you and your dog in some way. The beach walks used to be fun for everybody and very safe and care-free for the small dogs, many of which have great fear of large dogs. After extensive trial and error, I kept it as having a minimum of rules to keep the events peaceful and incident-free... and that worked well for three years and thousands of dogs.

Unfortunately, the exponential growth of the group, increasingly irresponsible attendees, complaining, criticism, over-expectation among irresponsible people, and lack of willingness to help manage the group have far outweighed the minimally expressed gratitude for this wonderful event. It stopped being fun for me, and for many of the original attendees with whom I used to enjoy the walks. More importantly, it stopped being a safe play-space for our dogs. I  now strongly discourage your attendance because it is not safe.

Effective immediately:
* For those who still show up, the beach walks have no supervision, rules, or guidelines.
* I no longer hold any active role in organizing or promoting these activities.

* If you happen to see me on the beach, I do not welcome your administrative questions,

    lost dog or lost possession problems, complaints, etc.

The beach walks outgrew my ability to manage them alone. Multiple requests for help managing the event yielded many suggestions for additional things which I can do for the group,  but only one person actually offered to help make anything happen. With more than 150 dogs showing up at the beach on most Saturdays, that is unacceptable.

MANY people are simply not attentive, considerate, or responsible enough to participate in a large gathering of off-leash dogs in a public area. This event has always been FOR THE DOGS (thus "forthedogs.net"), but quite a few people seem to forget that, and forget to be responsible for their dog's safety and behavior.

If you do go to the beach, please do your part to keep all dogs safe from getting lost, hurt, or killed by traffic. Please watch your own dog carefully and glance over toward the road periodically to see if any neglected dogs are running that way.

I wish you and your dog safe fun wherever you choose to play.