Dogs at the park AIBU

[Shadow1986]

I’m not a dog owner so genuinely don’t know about this. But this weekend at the park, we were in the playing field playing football and at the pond looking at ducks when two husky type dogs came bounding over (off the lead) - I lifted up my 18 month old just in case, and my other older children were a bit freaked. They didn’t do anything just sniffed around etc.

I watched the owner follow them around the park for another half hour/45 mins and then he had to basically pounce on them to get them back on the lead. Which makes me question if he had the dogs under control or not!

What are the rules about dogs off leads at the park?

I saw lots of lovely dogs off the lead playing catch etc...but these big dogs were just roaming. If this occurs again would it be ok to ask the owner politely to put them on the lead around the kids, or would it be down to me to stay in the playpark only?

There is a gov.uk section about dogs. Dog owners can be prosecuted if their dogs are out of control, that includes people thinking they are under threat. Dogs should be kept on leads and not be allowed to bound over to people, what would happen if someone got injured or had the fright of their life. How many times are people going to keep saying the same old thing, dogs can be dangerous and not everyone likes them or wants them running up or bounding over.

Having signs up in parks saying dogs must be kept on leads at all times seems a total waste of time, many people just ignore it. What excuse would you give if your dog bounded over and someone fell over and injured themselves? - "oh it's out of character, he's usually so gentle', 'there are no signs up about leads'.

@monkeywithacowface
Who could like dogs and resist this?

People who keep huskies are utter twats u lesss they live in the wilds of the mountains and can give them the miles and miles of exercise and cold weather they need to live normal husky lives and behave naturally and normally.
Tell that to my parents husky who will glue herself to the fire / radiator / warmest part of the house. Oh, and she gets plenty of exercise (alongside the border collie they have) pulling my DDad around on his bike for at least 2 hrs a day. Perhaps you should change that to “People who keeps dogs and don’t give them the enough mental and physical stimulation to ensure they are happy and healthy are twats”
OP, at any point did you witness the owner try to call and they didn’t respond? I’m not sure just ‘pouncing’ on the warrants ‘they were out of control’. You are more than in your right to say, “please can you get your dog, my children are afraid” if they are approaching you (not sniffing around you). I’m not sure why these dogs in particular you seem to have the problem with, but not other (I’m assuming, smaller) dogs.

Same old, same old, from a few on here. Utterly offended that someone doesn't love their dog like they do.

How dare your child go to a public park and get nervous around a dog! Everybody knows parks are there solely for dog owners enjoyment (or to use as a toilet)if you don't like it don't go!

I'm sorry but a child's enjoyment of a park trumps a dogs everyday. If you haven got full control of your dog put in on a lead, it shouldn't be approaching other people's children, I don't care how big or how friendly it is.

Wolfie your dog has a great smile

Our ddog doesn't tend to be viewed as scary by anybody fortunately and is too worried that he might miss out on a hotdog sausage to bother with anybody else when we are out and about.

The pouncing on to get them on a lead doesn't necessarily mean they are out of control. Mine often steps back about 2 foot when he knows we are going back on lead to the car so I do a quick 'pounce' as he just wants to carry on playing ball.

However, I don't think any dog should be approaching other people unless invited and mine doesn't but if he looks like he is getting close I call him away so as not to bother anyone.

It really depends on the distance between you and the dog. If they approached then YANBU but if they were a suitable distance away and not bothering anyone then YABU.

I'm sorry but a child's enjoyment of a park trumps a dogs everyday. Or people should be considerate of one another regardless, but there's always one.

Here is my vicious specimen.... As you can see she is exhausted from savaging my dc. Here's the ones she was to full to manage...

People don't own the spaces. Part of parenting is teaching them that they share the spaces don't own them. YABU!

Oh cobblers - I didn't say that anyone owns the space. The issue is the few, not all, dog owners whose dogs have poor recall yet insist on having them off lead. My local parks are dominated by them. Often the owners are so far away they (helpfully) can't see the animal take a crap either.
If anyone's acting like they 'own the space' and being inconsiderate its them.
In my opinion any child's wish to enjoy their local park is more important.

Oh and to be able to bring the kids home not covered in crap would be nice too....

By the sound of it there’s a bit of the park where dogs can be off their leads and a fenced area with a playground where they can’t?
If it bothers you to have dogs off their leads, maybe stay in the dog free bit?

Wow some of you!!!

Dogs off the lead don’t bother me - like I said there were lots of dogs off the lead having a lovely time. We stayed well away from them and they stayed away from us. What bothers me is very large dogs bounding towards my 3 young children, one who is only 18 months and probably would have been knocked over if I hadn’t picked him up. No attempt at calling them back by the owner despite my 5 year old son being clearly very scared - enough to run which made the dog chase him. I haven’t once slagged off the owner, dog etc - I couldn’t have been more polite in my opening post about whether in future I could politely say could you put them on the lead.

The owner pouncing on them to put them on the lead them at the end concerned me but a PP said she also has to do this, fair enough, I thought that might have been a sign he didn’t have everything under control.

For all of you posting pictures of your dogs, great, but save it for a thread where people are actually having a problem about your dogs. I didn’t once (and neither did anyone else) call huskies vicious or savage. I don’t have a problem with huskies, or any breed for that matter - the point of mentioning the breed was to give you a picture because they were very big in comparison to my children.

Others also commenting on my parenting, really?! A child’s natural instinct is to try and get away from something they don’t want near them. I can explain to my child a million times to stay still etc but doesn’t mean they’ll listen when they feel threatened.

Well the dogs should only be off lead if they're under close control - i.e. they should be heading back to the owner at the first call - and the owner should be paying enough attention to call them back before they approach or bother anyone else.

It's hard to say from the description in the OP if that was the case here, although it sounds like the dogs were some distance from their owner, and, in a busy public place, I don't feel that's overly acceptable.

That's certainly how I tend to think of things when I have my dogs in public, anyway. They're only off if they come at the first call, and even then I keep them close, out of other people's way, and interact with them so that their attention is on me.

We still haven't established whether the dogs actually approached you or your children, OP. You say they "bounded over", which is very vague. How close did the dogs come to you before your son started running? Were they looking at you, or were they looking at the pond/ducks?

Our boy wouldn't pay any attention to random strangers if there was a pond and ducks anywhere in the vicinity.

They ran over to the pond which we were next to, went in the pond, came out the pond, came over to me, DH and toddler on bench where I picked up toddler, then the wet dogs bounded over to 5 year olds who were about 2 metres behind me looking into the woods. Son ran and they chased. We called, son stopped. Owner approached, said ‘sorry’ - we said ‘that’s ok they’re just not sure about dogs’ he said ‘their only babies’ in reference to his dogs to maybe explain why they were so hyper. They were close enough to wipe their wet fur on our clothes - while only investigating I’m sure - but we didn’t like it and I don’t see why that’s an issue for people!! My question was if we as parents don’t want big dogs running up to my children - is it reasonable to say that to an owner.

Oh I could eat him up wolfie!

YABU - nothing went wrong, you shared some public space with someone else. They were polite.
There’s no need to tell them off.
And if you really don’t like dogs and their owners sharing space then go in the bit where dogs aren’t allowed.

YWNBU to ask a dog owner (politely) to put their dogs on lead because your children are nervous - in certain situations such as specific dog parks or farmland you would be but in a shared space no. Most reasonable dog owners would be respectful of this and would hopefully understand a frightened child can be a danger to the dog and itself.

By the same token you need to educate your children on proper behaviour around dogs off lead. The size of the dog makes absolutely no difference to their level of aggression or not and makes no difference to how much control the owner has. By teaching your children you take away half the risk involved and no age is too early to start. Plus if your children behave appropriately then no dog owner could say it was your fault if their dog is overly bouncy and you will have the high ground.

Yanbu
My 5 year old dog is trained not to approach anyone without my express permission, both for other people's benefit and for her own safety.......kids grabbing at her,screaming, running etc all have the potential to scare a dog and not everyone knows how to behave around them. Far more sensible all round to keep everyone separate unless I'm there supervising the interaction and all parties consent.

My younger dog is 7 months old and an untrained (very friendly)idiot. He is kept on a lead/longline around the distraction of other people and dogs and will be until suitable manners have been installed. Letting him loose without proper training just lets him get practised at doing the wrong thing

madrainbow - thanks, but disagree when you say the size of the dog makes no difference to the level of control the owner has. A small dog an owner can just pick up. Two large dogs that I witnessed him having to pounce on to put them on the lead would be more difficult to control.
Really don’t understand why people keep saying educate my kids, like I’ve already said it’s their natural instinct if they are scared to react that way. OBVIOUSLY we’ve told them they will think your playing if you run etc, but try telling that to a scared 5 year old.

So basically about half of you are saying if you don’t like dogs running up to your children don’t go to the park... and obviously it’s my fault for not educating my children on how to behave around dogs

**YABU - nothing went wrong, you shared some public space with someone else. They were polite.
There’s no need to tell them off.
And if you really don’t like dogs and their owners sharing space then go in the bit where dogs aren’t allowed.

I never said anything about telling them off. Or disliking dogs. What’s the point of commenting if you make things up.

We ‘shared space’ with lots of dogs and dog owners for the two hours we were at the park. We even played ball with a dog for about half hour! The issue the fact they bounded over to us - very hyper, sniffing at the kids, getting them wet, and they were big dogs, yes no harm was done - but we didn’t know the temperament of the dogs so unsure whether to be nervous or not. In my opinion, it’s not on to let two big dogs go up to 3 small children. AND like I said, he didn’t seem to have them under control (not calling them back, roaming around for ages with the owner really far behind and he had to pounce on them to get their leads back on!)

Unfortunately Shadow these kind of answers are typical.

Basically the answer for some it seems is 'We can't be bothered to stop our dogs going up to children, so how about your children just stay home'

How caring.

A small dog an owner can just pick up.

Lol, you've got to catch them first. My first lakie was a git from 4 months old to about a year. He would come close enough for you to touch a bit of his beard, but nowhere near enough for you to grab his collar or any part of his body, unless you were holding a very enticing treat or an exciting toy.

What constituted exciting or enticing changed several times a day. He would look at the proffered toy or treat and if it wasn't good enough, he would give me a disparaging look and bog off again.

I ended up training him by going out armed with such a variety of goodies I practically had to carry them in a rucksack. It worked. Eventually.