Dog Parks

[Mansi]

My Mini GD Joy is 10 months old and she loves the dog parks. We generally let her play in the big dog area, since she is big for the small dog section and she loves to play with big dogs. She also loves to run in grass and romp like every other doodle. But, every time we enter the dog park and let her off leash, she just riles up other dogs by running too fast around them, and in most cases the other dogs gang up and start barking at her. Today she almost got bitten buy a huge GSD, we had to pick Joy up and walk away. She settles down eventually and plays normal with other dogs, but we dont know how to control this initial burst of excitement. How do we help her control this excitement burst ? What is the appropriate etiquette here, should we let joy play in dog parks with other big dogs or just let her play in the small dog area ? Does anyone else have similar experiences at dog parks?  

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Honestly she is a puppy and a lot of adult dogs don't tolerate puppies being over-enthusiastic and will put them in their place.

Did the GSD look like it was actually going to start a fight or just snap at her?  It may have been trying to teach her etiquette.

What about keeping her on leash for a few minutes after entering the park just to quell the initial excitement?  

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I wouldn't keep any dog leashed in a dog park, even for a few minutes. It puts them in a very vulnerable position. 

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

I guess it depends on the dog park, but you're right it might make things worse.

What about keeping her leashed just outside of the dog park to let her "observe" for a bit?  Her reward for calming down a bit would be to get released inside.

[Mansi]

Even if i tire her out before taking her to the dog park or keep her outside for a few minutes, her first reaction to greeting other dogs is running very fast and energetic and it creates a ruckus everytime almost. We will try the small dog area and see if that helps. 

[Adina P]

When I was actively training Boca, we did a lot of work (on leash) on the outside of the dog park, at varying distances from the fence.  Eventually, we worked our way into the inside of the dog park and yes I kept her on leash--but at that point I had certain expectations and it was all obedience work (heel, sit, stay).  It was short and sweet and we had our successes and left.  I think in such situations it is 100% reasonable to expect your dog to focus on their work with dogs running around and not feel cornered because they've done this work for a long time.  

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We have leashed Charlie for inappropriate behavior at  dog parks at our romps. He sits next to Skip and doesn’t mind. Perhaps it’s because he is sitting with Skip we’ve never had a problem with another dog. However, this is a more sheltered situation and one I would never do at a strange park not surrounded by many familiar friends- human and dog. 

[Mansi]

She was running very fast and energetic around the big dogs who were peacefully playing and we though the big dogs just got annoyed by it. The GSD actually almost pinned her down, we had to intervene to get Joy out of the ruckus. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

How about starting out in the small dog area and then once she's calmed down, allowing her to go into the big dog area?

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Would the owners of the small dogs get annoyed with that though if she is larger? Especially if she is being very boisterous?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

They might. 
In my local dog park, the small dog side is almost always empty. People with big reactive dogs use that space to play ball with their dogs away from others.
Other people come in through the small dog part(when it's empty) to give their dogs a chance to see and sniff the dogs on the big dog side through the fence. Then when everyone is calmer, they bring the dog into the big part. 
I think the key is to go during off-hours. That's what I do. 

The vast majority of the dogs who go to my dog park are all larger dogs. Which makes sense, because those are the dogs who need space to run. It makes it hard when you have a little guy like mine who is a social butterfly, lol. He's been rolled more times than I can count. He just loves to run with the big guys. 

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Riley loves nothing more than to have a nice, civilized meet and greet with a small dog lol.  She is a shy small dog in the body of a bear.  

I think there are some smaller ones downtown but all the dog parks out in the suburbs here are of the forest trail/wide open spaces variety.  There are mostly large dogs but many small dogs too, though a lot of the dogs are poorly behaved and gang up on timid Riley.  Owners are usually pretty good at calling off their in-your-face dogs (often GSDs, sadly she's scared of them specifically now) but not always.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The funny thing is that aside from one intact male Malamute who didn't belong is a dog park, period, the dogs who have had to be called off from harassing and potentially hurting Jasper have mostly been big doodles. Just yesterday, there was one who kept swooping down on him every time he tried to run, biting his neck and his ear. She was there with her big doodle sister and another large dog, and she kept honing in on my poor little guy every time he tried to run. 

I find the majority of GSDs at my dog park to be pretty calm and well-behaved. That might be because in my area, the people who are not afraid of GSDs are experienced dog people and don't get them if they can't/won't train them. People in my town are also very lawsuit conscious, lol.  I'm sure in other areas, there are a lot of less well- behaved GSDs at the parks. I know there are at the big forest preserve parks like the ones you're describing.