for wanting to walk in the park without being bounced on by giant b*stard dogs?

I cant see any problem with what yo do Lilymolly. You seem a very responsible owner to me!

You dont understand hercules

I walk my labrador off the lead all the time, as I am surrounded by acres of fields as I live in the country, and she also comes with me when I ride.

All I am saying, is that on occasions, when dd and I are on a walk on our own with no other adults to look after dog, I do take the dog into play areas. I have dog on lead very close to me, will NOT allow any child to come up to us, without express permission from an adult, and always wait until after dog has had poo.

I did this the other evening at a local park where a father and his children where playing and I asked with him if it was ok, and he said it was fine.

I am a extremely responable dog owner, and I can not see how my dog would harm anyone under these circumstances.

Labradours do not need 2 hours walk a day! It would kill them! Labs, German shepherds and other large dogs are prone to hip displaysier and that much excersise is just too much!

While I don't have a problem with dogs off the leash in open areas, I think it is silly to do this in the play park area.

Yes, parks are there for all, but lots of people have explained that their small children are often frightened by over enthusiastic dogs. I have explained how such dogs actually make my son ill.

Dogs need exercise, and so does my son. It isn't enough for you to take your dog away if asked, by the time I ask you, my son may very well have started to wheeze.

I'm with hercules on this one lily. please kepp your dog out of play areas. It isn't the place for them

I disagree with you, lilymoly. I dont understand the you have no option but to take your dog to a park where it's not allowed. How can a labrador get enough exercise this way being kept on the lead? Presumably you would need to walk about 2 hours each day this way to achieve it's exercise needs. And do that with your kids?

I have 2 kids and a 2 dogs. I either take the kids with me and walk where the dogs are allowed. We all agreed to having a dog and they understand this means that they dont get to go so often to play areas but do get to climb trees etc. oR I walk them when someone else is at home to look after the kids. We checked before we got the dogs that walking them sufficienlty would be feasible.

If I saw you in a park where your dog wasnt allowed I would seeth inside but unless your dog was charging about I would rather avoid confronting someone.

As posted earlier, I am one of those monsters who allows dog into play areas on occasison, as explained in an earlier post. I am NOT irresponsable and would immediatley remove dog if asked.

261 posts. honestly.

But Icing, the sort of person who allows their dogs into a fenced off child's play area is prob not the sort of person who will be reasonable and remove their dog from said area if asked. At the very least they'll prob give you some abuse.

I agree that 'most' dogs are fine but hey it only takes one to ruin your day. If a dog comes up to me and my family I try to encourage the children to stand still and let it sniff their hand before patting it. I do this so that they don't grow up afraid of dogs. This happens most of the time but there are other times when it's just not acceptable:

• bouncy dog leaps out of car straight onto beach, straight through our picnic, slobbering all over DS (6 months) and bouncing back round again for another go. Lovely friendly dog but our fecking picnic is ruined and DS is screaming the place down

• out for another walk on the beach and another bouncy friendly dog jumps all over me with it's muddy paws resulting in a total mess of my trousers and jacket. As on holiday I've no clean stuff left. Great!

• very large bouncy friendly dog runs a full pelt towards DD & DS. The equivalent for adults would be a Shire horse galloping straight towards you. No one can say that this is not alarming whether intentions are friendly or not.

• meet a beautiful, cut, adorable alsation puppy out on a woodland walk. It bounces up on DS and he falls right over, would have gone right off the path and down an embankment into a loch if I'd not grabbed him.

Nut then you see, without meaning offence to your friend, if someone has a big fear of dogs then thats not the dog owners fault and the dog owner and their dog shouldn't be punished for it. No one is denying that children are more important than dogs, but we need a bit of perspective here. Most childrens play areas areas are fenced off with no dogs allowed and if someone does let their dog in then surely its not hard to ask its owner to take the dog out the play area.

I tend to agree Icing. But if you are nervous of dogs I suppose every biggish mutt that you see has the potential to be a problem. When I was at uni one of my friend was terrified of dogs and I've see her reduced to tears by the sight of a unleashed dog within a hundred yards.

hercules1, you said my words exactly! I don't know what parks these people are going to but in the parks in my local area there is a mixture of children playing in the play area and dog walkers walking their dogs. I don't recall ever seeing any flesh eating, sex mad dogs in the park What i do see is happy children playing and running about, happy dogs running about or walking with their owner on a lead. I think everyones over reacting, the average family dog isn't coming up to you to eat you, hes probably coming up to you to be fussed because hes excited. It sounds to me like its not the children but the grown ups who are frightened of the dogs and a dog only bites if it is threatened or teased. This is the most rediculus thread i have come across in a long while. Its not so much the op, its the posters in it!

My remark wasnt to anyone specific. Just the general people who come out with ridiculous crap! Black dogs - racism, People shouldnt have dogs at all. Stuff like that. Complete nievety!
What on earth mekes you think I was getting at you?! Maybe you should read my comments properly.
Dogs should be on leads in play parks and off leads in woodland areas and downs. Thats my view really. Very simple.

Actually martionbishop I wasnt getting at you at all. Im trying to say that I agree with you FGS! My view on this is very simple which I have stated acouple of times in this thread!
I am sorry fro your DH. I have just beaten cancer myself and I nursed my MIL who dyed of cancer. So I completely sympathise.

I must be going to the wrong parks. I never see dogs doing these sorts of things to people. I'm not saying it never happens but this thread makes it sound like you cant walk down the street without being constantly molested by a rabid giant dog intent on sniffing your vagina.

If I went for a walk in the park, saw an interesting looking person, went up to sniff their arse, jump on them, lick their face and then try to hump their leg I'd be prosecuted. So why is it OK for owners' to allow their dogs to do it. I'm not blaming the dogs here, but the owners are at fault. My friend's father bought the kids a German Shepherd when they were young. He insisted that there was no way they were going to own a dog of any sort without it being trained and they all went to dog training school. It was the best trained, most well behaved dog I've ever known. So it is possible to keep a dog under control but lazy owners don't bother their arse to do it properly.

You miss the point yet again - we are not talking about 'dangerous illegal dogs'. We are talking about the average family pet who wants to have some exercise in the park and have a sniff of the bushes.

Get some perspective.

connie - i don't really care what anyone thinks about what i am saying. that is exactly how i feel about owners of pets who think their pets are more valuable than my son. what is so hysterical about that ?

a lot of people in this country own dangerous dogs and breeds that are illegal. apparently when the little girl was killed by a pit bull terrier (which also turned out to be on illegal drugs),
I quote from the Observer (last Sunday) again:

"hundreds of people in the Merseyside area hand in their dogs to police during an amnesty amid concerns they might be prosecuted. Hogan-Howe said that over a 7 day period in February police received 600 calls and looked at 461 dogs. 'As a result there are now 200 fewer illegal dangerous dogs in Merseyside', he said."

200 just in one part of the country were listed as dangerous. So go figure, if i didn't know the facts, i would be less complacent.

Yet another sensible, non-hysterical post from yellowrose I see.

Off to walk my dogs.

Actually I must be a freak (i hate that word) because I prefer dogs to kids. However I also know that humans are far more important and not even on the same scale as a dog. Why is there an assumption that if you like dogs you mustnt mind what they do to other people?

i don't think it is the children or dogs who are the PROBLEM - it is quite clearly the HUMANS who own them who are a f* pain in the arse and a menace to small children. Humans can and should control the animls they own.

I think someone should set up a training school for irresponsible, selfish animal owners who love their animlas more than anything in the world, like my neighbour who has no children but WORSHIPS her 2 bloody cats that come and crap in my son's sand pit. I really like cats, always had one when I was a child, but I won't have one now until my son is much older.

No Martian, it was aimed at me. What people who make these type of comments don't realise is that they have no idea who their dog is approaching. My ds2 is immunocompromised due to Crohn's but that's not their worry, just that dogs should be able to run free despite the consequences.

By all means feel free to take your dogs to run in a field at a time of day when it's less likely to be occupied by children playing but don't assume that it's not a problem for anyone.

I wasn't going to respond to the jibes, but I couldn't sit on my hands any longer.

Dionne, I'm not sure if your' Don't these people have real life worries' was aimed at me.

I have pleanty of real life worries, my dh s dying of cancer. I'd rather not have my ds with an asthma attack to deal with as well.

Dods are often left off the lead, since dogs cannot read, they often go into the kids play ground part of the park. We have had many dogs bound up to us. I'd rathe it didn't happen.

We do share our world with other animals, however I do feel that humans shoul come first.

anyway going back to the OP.....no, not unreasonable at all. People who love their dogs more than other human beings are sad freaks . I effing hate big dogs with their stinking fur and slobbering mouths....boak.