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?

Ok, so the dogs came right up to you and invaded your personal space to the point of getting your clothes wet. In that case it wouldn't be unreasonable for you to ask this particular owner to keep them on the leads.

Basically no, you're not.

The dogs should be under control of off the lead. That's the basic rule of thumb.

As a dog owner you should realistically expect that some people do not like dogs and keep your dogs within a manageable distance.

Owners who feel their dog has more rights than the people around it are fucking idiots and shouldn't bloody have them.

Good PA strikethrough there Fucksbizz. I'm not in the least nervous of any dog but my boy is and no amount of teaching, explaining or showing him is currently making a difference. It's much more of a hassle for me than it is for you or any other dog owner and i wish it was different but it's not. In the meantime your attitude 'not my problem' and others' like it is why this world can be such a shitty place. No i don't think dogs should never be allowed off leads but i do absolutely think they should be when in places that have signs up saying so or if there is a genuinely terrified child visibly falling to bits..is it really do much of an ask to clip on a lead for a couple of minutes?

I have two dogs and I don’t like exercising them in parks, even though they are well behaved and dogs are allowed off lead. I know not everyone likes dogs and I would hate to stress people out.

That said, the huskies didn’t bother you or anyone else despite having opportunity. That’s enough control really. You can’t pre-emptively ask dog owners to put their dogs on a lead unless the park forbids off lead dogs.

It irritates me beyond belief when I am in wilder public places and people ask me to put my dogs on a lead because they don’t like dogs. My dogs do not bother people. One of them is so timid she doesn’t leave my side. Live and let live...

Yep. You cannot ask someone to put their dogs on a lead because you your children are nervous. It is your issue not theirs and you all have equal right to the space.

And what about them bounding up to on lead reactive dogs? My dog gets so stressed out in the presence of other dogs and if she happened to grab an off lead dog while no owner is in sight because shes so scared I'm not going to stop her. I do try and stop her but shes a 23kg mixed breed and when she's on full pull it's sometimes difficult to contain.

@FucksBizz is this a joke?
Are you forgetting that there are countless attacks on children from people's precious muts. Resulting in permanent damage or worse?

That's the most idiotic comment I've seen on mn in a while!!!

Yep. You cannot ask someone to put their dogs on a lead because you your children are nervous. It is your issue not theirs and you all have equal right to the space.

Yes you fucking can.

And a dog owner that refuses is a cunt who brings the rest of us responsible dog owners into disrepute.

I pay council tax too, and my dog can go where she likes if she isn’t dangerous (which she isn’t.) I don’t particularly like other people’s children, but they have a right to allow the odious beasts out I suppose!

Pets don't have the same rights as children. If your dog is bounding up to people or frightening people, you should be ashamed.
You can't be sure a dog isn't dangerous. Which is why I think they should be leashed or kept close by, just in case they attack or chase someone. That's common courtesy.

Yep. You cannot ask someone to put their dogs on a lead because you your children are nervous. It is your issue not theirs and you all have equal right to the space

You can and I do all the time. Most owners are decent people who don't want to frighten children.

If you let your dog bound up to people, don't be surprised if someone panics and kicks it, or gives it a whack with an umbrella.

You can also be sued if your dog causes someone to fall and injure themselves. I know of a family whose big friendly dog bounded up to a lady walking on a footpath- she panicked and stepped off the path, fell and fractured her ankle. The owners went to court and had to pay compensation, as their dog should have been under close control.
It's your responsibility to keep your dog away from people.

Lots of posters are getting quite angry here, there's a lot of unnessecary aggression. Try to retain a sense of perspective.

there are countless attacks on children from people's precious muts. Resulting in permanent damage or worse

True. But this isn't relevant to the OP which is about two dogs going near some children in a park.

I suspect the dog owner won't have realised how you feel about this encounter. Dogs near you are to be expected at the park - jumping up, aggression etc are obnoxious but you can't really train a dog to have a five metre radius around strangers that he's not allowed to go in. It sounds like you feel these dogs invaded your personal space, but didn't actually do anything actively wrong.

Dogs "roaming" is an important part of the walk - exploring what's there, sniffing, chasing squirrels etc - if they're always engaged in a specific activity like fetch they don't exercise their mind so much and are harder to tire out.

If my dog had been that close and you looked uncomfortable I would have called him back, and it does sound like his dogs could do with better recall training. That said, if you want to guarantee a 100% dog free experience, the play park is realistically the only way to do it (not saying it's right, but...)

However, even dogs that normally ignore strangers can have their moments - e.g. a couple of weeks ago my dog saw a child playing with sticks and sat down hopefully in front of him because he thought the child might throw them for him. Child looked a bit worried, I apologised, said he was interested in the sticks rather than the child and swiftly removed him from the situation. No harm done.

YANBU

Where I live there are loads of dogs and we have two local parks. One is very obviously for kids (fenced off play park and football field )the other is more like a woodland but with proper paths (it does have a ply area but only in one corner). It doesn't seem to make a difference to the dog owners, dogs are off the lead all of the time in both. Do they make me nervous? Of course they bloody do. My 2.5 year old has been knocked off her feet by one 'coming to play', try telling her that her nervousness is unreasonable. It would be like something the size of a horse bounding up to me. Dogs come up to the kids and sniff at their coats, even lick their faces which is just fucking ridiculous.

I have taught my children to leave dogs alone- just leave them be, but their owners seem to make that impossible by letting their dogs off the lead to bother us all of the time. Two very large dogs wandering far from their owner sniffing close enough to wet my children's coats woukd make me very nervous. Because I wouldn't know the dogs and the people responsible for them were clearly not in control of them. They should have either been on a lead or called back to their owners and should not have been allowed to approach young children who were just minding their own business.

Don't even get me started on the shit.

rightsaid that isn't even a way to get away from dogs! There was a thread on here this week where people said that they deliberately used fenced (but empty)play parks to exercise their dogs off the lead because they didn't have good recall and they wanted them somewhat fenced in so they couldn't run too far away. A few seemed to think it was ok because they made sure their dog had a crap before they went in. I regularly see dogs off their lead at the play park over the road from us, the owners usually say 'oh, they're big softies' or 'we have grandkids ourselves, so don't worry' or wave a little bag to indicate that they will pick up poo. Totally missing the point that they should not be there off the lead. It's a pita when I just want to take my kids to play.

Some of the dog owners on this thread are something else.
The reason my partner doesn’t really want dogs near him or our baby is because he was attacked by an off lead Doberman when playing outside his home as a 3 year old.
He tries his best not to show fear especially in front of the children but that fear is there.
The fact there are so many people on here that have so little compassion or understanding for someone whose been through that amazes me.
Sadly it’s the minority’s of irresponsible dog owners that make parks difficult .
Oh and dogs shouldn’t be in a pedestrianised zone off lead as mentioned up thread, ever, it’s illegal even if the dog is under control.

• minority not minority’s 😳

Dog owners generally don't get it. We don't want to be sniffed at approached or barked at by your animal. Saying " he doesn't bite makes no difference to the situation.

People should not have to be mithered by dogs.

I'm a dog owner and I don't want to be sniffed at by other dogs so I don't think the issue is that 'dog owners' don't 'get it'. I think the issue is that some people don't care if they do and they can't understand why other people do care.

I wouldn't come up and touch a stranger on their arm in a park and therefore I extend that to my dog who should not touch or sniff anyone else and I would be mortified if they did.

But off lead dogs minding their own business have as much right to be with their owners as people with their children.

It seems to be an issue that people can't agree as to what is acceptable or not for everyone and what a dog under control but off lead means.

I hate this. I have a dog and only walk in areas away from children's play areas. I regularly get other dogs jumping up at me though, big dirty paws all over me and the owners don't react. Mostly men that allow this in my experience. Too manly to use a lead?

No dogs are not the same as children. Their rights are not the same.
Children do not (predominantly) have the ability to bite and leave life long scars. Children are part of the human race.

Mostly men that allow this in my experience

Not in my experience at all, in fact the biggest problem at our local park is a woman with 3 aggressive huskies who refuses to accept that her dogs are the problem and blames all other dogs for 'provoking' them.

As a dog owner I feel fine to say the op is Not being at all unreasonable - if dogs are 'bounding' up to children then they are not well controlled and should be on a lead.

All dogs in public should be on a lead.
Why does a dog have to be on a lead on the street but not in a park where there’s more chance if there being children around? Bizarre. Should be made law that any dog in public outside of the owner’s home has to be on a lead

When I take my nieces to the park I don’t want random dogs coming up and sniffing them, how often do we hear of dogs who “it isn’t in their nature” biting/mauling children? If people want to own a dog then fine, that’s their business, but don’t subject the rest if ya to it. A lot of dog owners seem to think they’re above the law and can do what they like.

@KimmySchmidt1

I have to say - and I think I'm being very polite here - thats a very unhelpful comment, firstly to group a breed of dog - and then insult as a group - and their owners.

You may not be a fan of Jared Leto, Ben Stiller or others. But is there a particular or personal reason for the group insult? I own a husky. A breed know for (hell they're actually raised and bred for) highly social and intelligent interaction. I cannot speak for others (and you seem happy to) but my dog is well behaved and simply ignores or looks on with disinterest at the occasional (but not universal) snapping yapping dogs and status breeds that can sometimes run amok.

I fear you may simply have made your ignorance all too conspicuous in your sweeping dismissal. I can see other's here seem to agree.

There are a lot of parks/playing fields by me that are for dog walkers, as well as for ball games etc, then there are definite children’s play areas fenced so no dogs can go in. So not sure why people think dogs have to be on a lead all of the time. In our area, the dog walkers are part of the campaign to keep green areas rather than build on any free land.

I do think dog owners have a responsibility to train their dogs to have excellent recall and the bigger the dog, the better recall they need (as you can pick up a small dog).

Don’t get me wrong, it’s really hard work with training them while puppies and you need to practice, but I don’t get why people just say my dog’s friendly and won’t hurt you. Well massive dogs can push over adults never mind a 5 year old and are terrifying when bounding up to you. I’m used to dogs coming up to sniff my dog, but I don’t want their dirty paws on me or their noses in my pocket. The very least owners can do is keep an eye on their dogs, keep them away from small children and apologise if the dog is still in training. If the child wants to pet your dog, the parent will ask.

To answer your original post, I think telling the owners their dogs are scaring your child because of their size, can you recall them is reasonable.