It's okay to let dogs exercise in a fenced off children's playground if there are no kids there

[Bambamrubblesmum]

Someone has just said to me

Woman exercising 3 dogs with her friend and two children in said playground. Dogs running loose everywhere. Playground fenced off with gate and very clear signs that say 'dogs not allowed in playground'.

Couldn't believe it and felt I had to say something because there have been numerous occasions of dog waste in bags left around the playground. I'll be honest I was annoyed. But I was calm and polite and said 'you do realise dogs shouldn't be in the playground' which she got flustered and said she'd already removed them when she saw us coming (she had literally just scampered through the gate) I said that wasn't really the point, that dogs create mess and there's a whole field next door for them to play in! And so on. She claimed that we just had a difference of opinion.

Fwiw I love dogs and have two. So not a dog basher at all.

Was I being the fun police or was she a self entitled twat

She should say that to my friend who got dog shit in her eye when she was a toddler. After 35 years of pain she finally had to have it taken out

I love dogs but they do NOT belong in a playground where small children play.

You were definitely right. A few weeks a ago I took my son to a park just like the one you described and someone had left dog mess right at the bottom of the slide! Inevitably he stepped in it but I'm just glad he didn't go down the slide and land in it. I wouldn't have known what to do.

Here's another one:

www.google.co.uk/amp/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/toddler-infected-by-playground-dog-mess-896637.amp

I used to let my ex Racing greyhound off in the tennis court and the play park if there was no one around, he NEVER poo'd or wee'd whilst out, he'd had a fucking shit life, raced 'til 5 and dumped in kennels for 3 years until he came to us for his last 18mths

This is the same as the op is complaining about.Its a tennis court not a play area for dogs.
Do people have so little regard that dog come before kids or other humans.

You were totally right to speak to her , and to the few posters who are saying they let their dogs off in empty playgrounds as they have poor recall that's no excuse there are secure fields / riding schools that you can rent which are safe for dogs .

Completely unacceptable. My dog is a puppy with unreliable recall. She's on a longline. If I still can't trust her when she is older I will pay to use a fenced safe field. Not let her wee and poo where toddler fall over, put their hands in their mouths and then suck their thumbs.

X post!

Parents need to be able to trust that when they are in a children's playground, they don't need to be constantly checking the ground for dog mess, or if their toddler puts their hands on the ground, they don't need to be panicking about what's on them.

I had an arguement with a dogwalker over similar.
I was taking DD in her buggy through the park (DS school was 20+ minutes walk) there was a man with a dog walking through the fenced off play area (you had to physically open the gate so its not like you could wander in) we were on the path (which had regular deposits of shit at the edge where onlead dogs go to the grass and their owners don't bother to pick up)

As his dog squatted , I shouted over (classy bird me) "That's a childrens play area, not for dogs"
"So what I'm just cutting through" he shouts
"So what? You wouldn't say that if you had to clean dog-shit off your kids shoes" pointing to his dog doing the turd pose.
"Fuck off" he replies.

Charming !

No

As a dog owner, I am saying no frigging way - that is so wrong!

We pass a playwark on the way home form school which has a fence in bit with play equipment and a more general park bit. It is well accepted that all dog accompanying their owners on the school run (mine and many others) can wander about the park but NOT the play area.
That's what the whole point of a fence is all about, surely?!

Thank you all for your views. I'm glad it's not just me then!

Couldn't believe the front on the woman!

Also couldn't believe that she was basically teaching her kids that rules don't apply to them just everyone else

I’m deliberately posting on this because dogs in playgrounds is a recurrent problem. And now summer is coming in our village playground is seeing the return of the dogs.

I have just asked an older lady with a dog and grandchildren if she knew there was a hook for tying up dogs just outside the gate, in full view. She kept telling me she couldn’t ‘leave the children’. I offered to tie him up for her. She looked blank.

I gave up. No doubt someone in the village will complain that I was mean to their elderly mother. I was actually very polite and friendly.

No, not ok. Dog muck might not get picked up. Yuck.