Take care near frozen lakes - dog rescued in 2024 but another dog died today 8th January 2026 in Dulwich

[IlonaM]

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/dulwich-frozen-lake-dog-animals-rescued-london-fire-brigade-b1133548.html

Edited January 8 by IlonaM
Updated for new warning 2026

[Rockets]

I wondered why there were so many fire-engines in the park this morning - glad the dog is ok

[alice]

I wonder what the charge would be for dog or other pet related incidents. 

[Rockets]

There were 4 fire engines in attendance!

[Nigello]

Four?! 

[Froglander]

Very irresponsible owners of that poor dog but I hope this story stops it happening to any other dog. 

[Rockets]

7 hours ago, Nigello said:

Four?! 

Yup....

[Jules-and-Boo]

Wow. The lake area is for wildlife, dogs should not be chasing the animals who live there. I’m glad the dog is ok but poor marks to the owners.

[Nigello]

Most dog owners/walkers let their animals off the lead but I’ve never seen any squirrel/crow/goose getting caught. 

[Jules-and-Boo]

Dogs shouldn’t be off the lead if they cannot be controlled and have recall.

It’s not acceptable to say that dogs chase the wildlife and it’s ok because they don’t catch anything. 
If you have a dog you can’t control you shouldn’t have it off lead, especially in that area.

 

[Spartacus]

Fascinating 

The report said "The poodle cross named Ponzo - believed to be a goldendoodle - was reportedly chasing something" and it has been concluded it was wildlife and not a stick or a ball.

Can we establish the actual facts before jumping on the owners 🤔 

[kiera]

It's up to the owners to ensure their dogs are only off-lead where it is allowed in the Park - i.e. on the perimeter path. 

https://www.southwark.gov.uk/parks-and-open-spaces/parks/dulwich-park 

• dog walking area - dogs may be walked off the lead on the perimeter path around the park

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

22 hours ago, alice said:

I wonder what the charge would be for dog  

I think they should pay a fiver to go on the lake like everyone else

[Guest]

Dogs are not meant to be off lead around the lake, they have the whole perimeter of the park to run around loose.

 

[MaryT]

I am the owner of said dog! Thank you to those who asked after her. She's absolutely fine and none the worse for her dip, a veritable Wim Hoff of the canine world!! My partner was astonished to see all the fire engines rock up (not at his insistence!) but the team were brilliant as were the groundstaff. She had swum to the central island and much combined head-scratching could not work out how to safely retrieve her. I'll ignore all the sanctimonious, ill-informed commentary from those who weren't there and don't know what happened. Suffice to say she was not savaging any wildlife.  Do feel free to tut and finger-wag in person; we are in the park most days with our friendly and (mostly) well-behaved dog.

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

Probably a good occasion to train for human rescue in realistic circumstances too 🙂

[Angelina]

You are lucky it wasn’t worse, perhaps a little lesson

[IlonaM]

MaryT - I'm very pleased that's she's none the worse for her experience. Very clever girl to get to the island!

Many years ago (back in the '70s) my cousin's very new puppy chased a stick thrown by someone on the otherside of a lake near West Malling onto the ice and fell through. My uncle waded out to rescue her and luckily all was well and she lived to a ripe old age.

I posted the story remembering that incident as things could easily have been so different. I think the emergency services attend animals in distress to avoid owners or other potential rescuers getting into trouble effecting a rescue, but FOUR fire crews!! Must have been a sight to behold.

[Rockets]

12 hours ago, Dogkennelhillbilly said:

Probably a good occasion to train for human rescue in realistic circumstances too 🙂

Most definitely...you know how the fire brigade love to play with their toys and getting the boats out probably doesn't happen too often - no wonder it drew engines from all different parts of South London - it was probably a quiet morning!

[malumbu]

Not really sure how useful this is as, from my understanding, dogs can't read.....

[IlonaM]

23 minutes ago, malumbu said:

Not really sure how useful this is as, from my understanding, dogs can't read.....

You might be surprised how clever they are ... 😉

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/michigan-dog-rescue-ice-lake-b2481910.html

[Froglander]

15 hours ago, MaryT said:

I am the owner of said dog! Thank you to those who asked after her. She's absolutely fine and none the worse for her dip, a veritable Wim Hoff of the canine world!! My partner was astonished to see all the fire engines rock up (not at his insistence!) but the team were brilliant as were the groundstaff. She had swum to the central island and much combined head-scratching could not work out how to safely retrieve her. I'll ignore all the sanctimonious, ill-informed commentary from those who weren't there and don't know what happened. Suffice to say she was not savaging any wildlife.  Do feel free to tut and finger-wag in person; we are in the park most days with our friendly and (mostly) well-behaved dog.

Tell us what really happened. Why was she off the lead there?  But, you weren’t there were you?

[Spartacus]

This thread has turned from.a genuine warning about dogs on Ice, something that is the cause of most human cold water drownings when they go to rescue their dogs, to a modern day villagers vs Franenstiens monster with the edf masses marching through the street screaming for the monstes blood !

99.99% of us weren't there so speculation and rumours are flying.

Guess I need to start a pitchfork business and make some cash whilst the mob gets angry. 

Incident over, dog safe, no-one or no animals harmed in making of this epic but good initial advice, take care on frozen water 🤔

[malumbu]

There was an nice article on a rescue of a dog that had fallen down on a cliff walk onto a ledge.  The locals following a WhatsApp post all helped to look for it then mountain rescue volunteers climbed down to rescue it.  In terms of time and effort you could argue not worth it, but life would be rather sad without the occasional good news story.

[Guest]

Can we ALL just try to be nice to each other.