Labradors, model yachts and off-leash dog parks

[MangoSeason]

This has taken place in Australia, COVID-thread police.

Met up with two other labrador owners and took our three labs to the park. The park is enormous with a very large pond in the middle. Half of the park is a fenced off-leash dog area with the pond forming part of one boundary. The other half of the park is an on-leash dog area. The pond is enormous so dogs swimming on the off-leash side never seem to swim over to the on-leash side.

The labradors were playing fetch in the pond from the off-leash side when a man launched his remote control model yacht from the bank of the pond from the on-leash side. He sailed his yacht right past our labradors in the water who were playing fetch. About 2 metres away from then. Two of the labradors ( not mine fortunately) grabbed the yacht and had a game of tug-of-war in which the yacht sails were torn and it got scratched and battered about.

The yacht owner was furious and wants my friends to pay for the replacement of his “bespoke sails” and general scratch and dent repairs.

YABU- Owners should have complete control of their dogs at all time, even in an off-leash area, and if you are not confident that your dog will leave an item in the water, even in the middle of a game of fetch in the water, you should not have them off leash

YANBU- Yacht man was a complete idiot and no one with half a brain would sail an expensive model yacht right past excited labradors playing fetch in the water.

I personally think yacht man was a complete fool but I would expect my friends are legally responsible for repairing the yacht as their dogs damaged it in a public place. They don’t think they are, so it will be interesting to see if yacht man takes it further.

@Fieldofyellowflowers but that’s not non-dog people encroaching on dog only spaces. That is people who don’t care about the environment and have no respect for the places they visit. These people will also light sky lanterns, leave litter on the beach, trample a crop, leave a gate open. Some of these will have dogs and some won’t but those with dogs are the ones that likely don’t pick up after their dogs, don’t put them on leads near livestock and say “don’t worry they’re friendly”. There are people who go to any open space and complain that the area if filled with cyclists, runners, dog walkers, kids - basically anyone other than them.

Firstly I have no idea if there are any rules about model boats on the lake, in the UK most such lakes DO have rules that say 'nope' or you have to be part of a model boat club that has specific permission.

Secondly, he sailed his boat into the off leash dog area - his boat, his responsibility to keep it where it ought to be (if indeed it ought be there at all which it very well might not!).

Thirdly, he as a model boat owner would know any time he sails it he is at risk of damaging it, sinking it, losing it irretrievably to unseen obstacles in the water. It is up to him to assess the risk and choose whether to take that risk and if he failed to correctly assess the risk of sailing his boat into an off leash dog area... that's entirely on him.

Finally - yes, you should be able to recall your dog from any object, however most people using an off leash secure dog park are doing so because they don't yet have that full control.
I know (and as a dog trainer, its a lot of folk and a lot of dogs) NO dog thats been trained to ignore model boats. I know plenty taught to recall from ducks and swans but those are very different and in dog training you do need to practice with a variety of situations and contexts before a behaviour is proofed and considered reliable.

It is therefore massively unreasonable to assume an owner even one who can call their dog off a bird or a ball, would be able to call their dog off such an unusual, novel, object as a boat.