Ignoring "No Dogs" sign

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Our small local park has a top area with a playground that displays "No Dogs" signs. There is a grassy area for ball games, picnics etc where dogs are not allowed, although they can be walked through the path next to it on a lead to the large dog-friendly bit of the park.

I constantly see people letting their dogs run round there.

Every now and again I politely point out the sign and about 50% of the time they will push back with "oh, I didn't think it mattered" "No kids here at the moment are there?" "He/she is no trouble" "it's not for people like me who pick up after their dogs" or something much ruder. Sometimes I will be interrogated about why I care, as if the Council sign is irrelevant.

AIBU to wonder what goes on in these people's minds? These are middle class people with labradors etc, not louts with devil dogs on strings.

(And for what it's worth, I care because grass is not wiped clean of poo when it's picked up, dog pee burns the grass and my son is scared of dogs).

The middle classes not following the rules? Fetch the smelling salts. It’s a truism, but you can’t change other peoples’ behaviour, only your reaction to it. Are there alternatives?

I always say something about this and in one park where there was a keeper I fetched him when the dog owner wouldn’t leave.
Some people with small dogs think it is OK as their dog is afraid of the big dogs in the rest of the park.

A few months ago I had an argument with someone in the gated playground with signs saying no dogs all over the place. She said ‘I don’t think anyone minds’ and I said ‘I did’. She eventually went outside with her dog and left the kids alone in the playground.

You probably don’t want to make a big fuss if you are with your son. Fortunately when we take the grandkids out, there are two of us and one deal with the dog owner and one takes the grandkids away. Definitely some dog breeds and owners I wouldn’t take on.

I was in a shop today and a woman who works there was loudly talking about how she took her dog to the beach - where dogs are banned - and was laughing about the complaints she got from other people there. As far as she was concerned if you have a well behaved dog then it’s fine to do it, and she was justified in this by a random man at the beach who told the objectors to shut up. Which they then did, of course.

I give up. Where are you supposed to go if you don’t want dogs running off the lead and peeing and shitting everywhere?

Unfortunately on the South Downs dog walkers are invariably incapable of keeping their dogs on leads. Blatantly walking past signs requesting such. The dogs often run riot , disturbing the ground nesting birds, other animals and small children. They simply don't give a shit about anything but themselves

It pisses me right off. I was in a playground a couple of weeks ago where anyone coming in had passed at least two “no dogs” signs but still there were multiple dogs in there. The sheer entitlement of the owners is ridiculous. One woman said “well my children wouldn’t be able to come in if the dog didn’t come in too” - maybe leave the fucking dog at home for once then?

There’s barely anywhere left that children can play outdoors without dogs being there.

I have a dog and he’s always on a lead when out for walk or in a park, wood etc. The dog owners you mention need to be fined heavily for disrespecting the signs to keep their dog on a lead.

Some dog owners are very entitled and selfish thinking that rules do not apply to them. My children's school has a no dog policy but in the last couple weeks before the half term I noticed one woman carrying her dog in the playground in her arms several occasions and then today I saw someone else doing the same - obviously think they are better and above it all with small dogs they can carry!

I am a dog owner and can confirm that it does NOT go down better from a fellow dog owner. The only time it helps is if I see people not picking up, I whip out a poo bag (I have some in every pocket whether I'm with the dog or not) and say, oh it's nightmare when you get caught without a bag, isn't it? I haven't so far been insulted in that situation!

Makes the rest of us look bad. Hate this kind of behaviour.

This seems to have just been outsourced to a private company by my council. Suddenly people are being fined left, right and centre. It’ll be a huge income stream for a while until the message gets through.

Well done OP. Definitely not being unreasonable.
Myself and my children are frightened of dogs due to numerous incidents with dogs jumping up, running up and barking, bowling us over, running over our picnic (when we were sat there) and eating our food (out of our hands), covering us with mud, scratching us, shoving their heads in our groins. These aren’t one off incidents but multiple. Owner usually then says something along the lines of “Oh, they’re just being friendly/Oh, don’t you like dogs then/Oh, are you frightened of dogs then/Oh, they just want to get to know you”.
Opinions are formed by personal experiences and my opinion of dogs is resolutely negative as my experiences have been overwhelmingly negative.
Plus (with the exception of assistance and working dogs) they are terrible for climate change as they have a high carbon footprint. No one should be getting dogs as pets, the environment cost is too high. They might be nice to have but the planet is experiencing a climate emergency and we all need to take urgent action.

I'm not anti dogs at all. I'm anti people who think rules don't apply to them.

I am allergic to dogs so can't pet them or have them in my home- make me sneeze and get itchy eyes and if their saliva gets on me I come up in hives. (No allergy risk whatsoever crossing paths with them in the park).

I'm definitely not afraid of them and I think some dogs are beautiful- I love whippets in particular. I encourage my son to play with our neighbour's and relative's dogs and I have tried not to stoke his fear, which has come out of nowhere.

Alternatives to the park? Stopping going there would not be changing my response, it would be depriving myself of a nice facility be side of their behaviour.

Also, I can live with the dogs being there, it just annoys me that they ignore a rule that is supposed to benefit others.

I suppose I could decide not to let it make me angry. But that's how society falls apart, if good people ignore bad things...

The signs aren't to keep the dogs on a lead, they are "no dogs". The dog free part of the park actually has a sign at the entrance which states "dog-free gate" and there is a 5 foot fence separating the dog-friendly and dog-free sections, with a gate in the middle to pass from one part to the other. The lawn in question has a big "no dogs" sign on the fence that is legible from all parts of it.

It's not really allowed to walk your dog in a lead along the path through the middle of the dog-free bit, but it does feel more unreasonable to object to that as it's quite a long way round by road to the dog gate.

That's awful. No, the dog area is enclosed too.

I get that if you are someone who has a dog in your living space all day every day, maybe even on your bed or sofa, it must be really really weird to think that a dog could remotely bother someone who has to share a park with it.

I'm trying to think of an equivalent, I dunno, maybe a park that doesn't allow picnics? We all have food in our homes, everyone loves food, right? We all need to eat. I clear up after myself, what's the issue?

Would I have a picnic anyway under a No Picnic sign? If I could not work out what on earth might be the reason for banning picnics there? And the picnic area next door was very busy?

I like to think I wouldn't. But maybe that's unrealistic.

At the beach the other day there were loads of people walking their dogs despite the signs saying no dogs allowed

We were on the beach at Wells in Norfolk Easter weekend, there was a bloke who's only job was to patrol the beach telling people when they'd taken their dogs over to The non-dog side, he must have racked up a lot of.steps that day!!

They are just entitled- that's it.

As a dog owner I agree with following signs where there are any, and generally keeping dogs on leash around children. You never know when a loud car will go by, something in the distance makes noise etc and the dog gets scared (or the child does). I will say that some non dog owners can be overzealous at times without checking the signs in the location they are in. I've been at a children's park which was not fenced in, and had signs saying "dogs on leash". My lab mix was on the leash (for context I do not frequently take my dog to childrens parks, my toddler demanded to go to the park while we were out on a dog walk, the poor dog had not been out for 8 hours, and I had no one to help and couldn't leave children alone as they are far too young), I was there with my two very young children, pushing my littlest one on the swing for a few minutes. My dog was happily lapping up attention from children who wanted to pet him while on leash and he was attached to me the entire time. A middle aged man who was a complete stranger, with no children at the park, came up and started shouting at me to take my dog out as he could spread worms to the children and aggressively telling me that I was going against the park signs and rules. I was truly shocked, pointed to the signs, asked what I was doing against the rules, After some very incorrect and rude statements from him, he stormed off to get help from park workers. Not wanting a confrontation I picked up a screaming toddler and made her leave the park and went home.. I later checked the rules and the only one I found for that park that applied was one saying that there was to be no intimidation, harassment or bullying behaviours in the park. I am still too nevervous to go back there with my children and dog, and actually get worried taking my children alone in case he comes back. FYI there were other dogs on leash at that park, just not attached to an owner at the swing set. It sounds ridiculous, but this experience really had a lasting impact on me. So yes, where there are signs, I believe that they absolutely should be followed, and I do not appreciate dog owners going against them, but also, some people do take things much too far as vigilantes when not doing research properly (a very small portion of people though).

Nope, doesn't land any better from dog owners.

I often remind people a certain park I walk through is on lead only - but it apparently doesn't include their 'he's friendlyyyyyyyyyyyyy' dog jumping around mine or shitting over there under a tree.

They're usually defensive and ready to be pretty rude and often the reason is their dog is not well trained, and absolutely fucking awful on the lead pulling them all over, so its easier to leave the dog off and let it do 'whatever'.

Theres another 'no dogs' park I go through with mine as he's an assistance dog and again, the number of dogs in there is huge - we only go through it as it cuts out a really inaccessible route (cars parked on pavements, not enough dropped kerbs etc) for the wheelchair otherwise I'd not bother at all.

It pisses me off because when enough people complain, we will end up with more and more dog control orders and fewer places to take them - they're fucking it up for all the responsible owners.

Absolutely - no dogs means no dogs. My dog doesn’t go into non dog areas. To add that I see mainly selfish dog owners out there.

I wouldn't take my dog in there, but you also need to be addressing you son's terror of dogs for his own benefit.

That's in hand, as I explained in my post at 18:27 yesterday.