To think some dog owners think they own the bloody park?

[MissThang]

Was just on way to the park with kids, saw a group of ladies standing having a chit chat quite loudly with about four dogs in tow, two huge ones and a couple of smaller ones. They were blocking the corner path but there was plenty of room in the middle of them. A young woman with a double buggy and toddler holding her hand walked through the middle, cue a load of horrible tutting and loud remarks about how rude it was/how children won't learn manners from parents etc. The woman looked a bit miffed but carried on walking. It just seemed so unnecessary, the woman's toddler looked like she was playing up and wanted to go near the dogs...which wouldn't always be safe, so she walked quickly through. No need for the loud rude comments from them IMO.

seems to happen lots in my local area, dog walkers blocking paths or letting the dogs all over forbidden parkland. Dogs all over seats at local outside cafés. Anyone have this problem where they live at all?

"Hold their hand if there a dogs about rather than making out the dog owners are in the wrong for dating to leave house with dogs on a lead and be in a public area"

This was in a PARK. Are you seriously saying that children's hands should be held at all times in a park?? Most parents take their kids to parks BECAUSE it's a place where they will be able to run freely. If you can't trust your dog around people, leave it at home.

If you think the thread is boring everlong why on earth keep posting on it?

It's the middle class sense of entitlement of the owners that I object to, not the social status of the dogs.

The same applies for the middle class sense of entitlement that some parents emanate (although I've never been bitten by a random child in the park as I have a dog).

I'm saying hold their hands if they have to walk past them to get o where they are going, or to stop them running over to the dogs if they are likely to do so.

Dog owners can't do more than out their dogs on a lead and keep as at away as possible, oarebts have to take some responsibility for stopping kids running over

Giles: what should we do if we want to play ball with our children in the park? It's pretty impossible to keep hold of your child whilst playing ball games and also pretty impossible to prevent dogs from chasing after the ball and drooling on it and possibly popping it.
Should people not play ball games with their children in the park in order to prevent interference from dogs? Bearing in mind that my children never approach dogs or chase them or run off with their balls. I never allow my children to interfere with dogs but the same can't be said in reverse.

That's why I said that we all just need to think a bit. If there's an area with dogs and an area without dogs, use the area without dogs rather than picking a place out of principle which is what many people seem to do.

Dogs should be kept under control I've not once said that they shouldn't but I've seen plenty of kids running screaming up to dogs even though owners have changed direction or put their dog back on a lead in order to avoid the whole situation. And parents have done nothing about it.

For instance one of out parks has a play park and a ball area that's fenced in. And plenty of space for running around in. Dog owners keep to the far end (with exception of people walking across the field from the hoses at the other end on their way to the far end.

Still kids will pick that one spot instead of the rest of it. Why? They have loads of space. Why pick the one area where the dogs are playing.

I'm all for apartheid in parks in regards to dogs.

It works well in one of the parks round here - I wish others would follow suit with separate dog only/dog free areas, dog free areas in the outside cafe.

Impatient does have a point.

'Swings and roundabouts' on a park thread. Brilliant

Giles: the parks near me don't have any areas without dogs except for the play area which has a bit of play equipment. You can't play ball games in the area with the play equipment because there isn't the space, so where do people play ball games? These parks are very big BTW but I am yet to set up cricket stumps and play cricket in any area without having to stop after 10 mins due to constant interference from dogs.
I would happily support all parks having designated areas for dogs to roam free and other people to play ball games but in my area nothing like that exists.

We don't have designated areas either. Just the dog owners choose to keep to places away from the playing children.

Can be done without needing child like instructions to give eachother space or sticking to areas where kids aren't playing. The dog owners I see manage that just fine. It's not their charges doin the bounding over.

As I said before, consideration all round. Look at the whole area and make a judgement as to where's best to walk your dog or plonk your kids.

And also as I stated earlier, yes dogs should be under control but so should children. Don't allow low opinions of dogs and point proving "I'm human this is my space sod you" excercised stop oarebts from teaching their children how to be considerate of dogs in public areas. Ie keeping their distance, passing slowly on bikes , kicking balls away and not towards dogs and not leaving litter that dogs could choke or cut themselves on.

And perhaps instead of berating all dog owners, panicking at the mere sight of a canine in the distance or being determined to stand your ground even though the dogs were there first etc, it would be more constructive to report the problem with dogs that aren't under control ( not talking about those off the lead as many have good recall and are controlled) to the local council or police station.

Don't let the bad ones put you off sharing the space because we really should all be able to use it together and be respectful/mindful of eachothers space.

I had my toddler in the park recently, and a man with a big dog told me to take him away before he let his dog of the lead, or he would be knocked over.

I was marathon training in the same park yesterday, and a different dog, ( a puppy) with a woman started jumping up all over me. I called to the woman to get her dog off me, but she just said "what do you expect, the more you run, the more she will jump on you"

i like dogs, but sometimes could quite cheerfully slap the owners.

Oh goodness, yes luggage I hear you.

These sorts of things happen to be frequently in our local parks, with and without children.

There's no way I expect anyone to move their dog, child or themselves to accommodate me or my children, or say 'what do you expect?' if my children were bothering them, and it really grates when dog owners act like this.

And giles, I'm afraid that I do internally 'panic at the mere sight of a canine in the distance' although am skilled at managing this panic reaction and now showing it. It's a very normal phobic response to having been bitten twice by oh-he's-ever-so-friendly dogs and having been barked at and jumped up at numerous times. Oh, and watching a dog run up to a friend of mine and bite him on the leg last weekend (owner - "Oh, I don't know why he did that, he's been much better lately" WTAF??) obviously contributes.

YNBU. Our local ones think the childrens' play area belongs to them too.