Dogs off the lead in children’s play areas

[Runnersknee]

Just got back from a country park with my toddler - the children’s play area wasn’t fenced off but it was full of little children playing.

A group of mums came along with 2 huge dogs off the lead - one was a Doberman and the other I’m not sure of the breed but it was also really big.

The mums just let their dogs run in amongst all the play apparatus and get in all the children’s spaces - the Doberman ran up to a dad with his tiny toddler and licked him on the face and the owner didn’t even apologize or take any action whatsoever.

Aibu to think it’s completely unacceptable to allow your dog to roam around a play area ?? The park emptied out extremely quickly needless to say.

As a side note, does anyone have any advice on how to handle this if it happens again? All the mums in the park were quite shocked and didn’t say anything apart from one mum shouting at the dog to shoo it away. Particularly if a dog licks you as surely dog owners shouldn’t be allowed get away with that ?

Are dogs actually allowed in that area? In our local play area, it states no dogs. I’ve only seen someone take a dog in once

And it would piss me off too!

Very annoying but tbh if it’s not fenced off I don’t know how you can really stop dogs going in anyway?

The owners children were playing in the park so surely keeping their dog on a lead would have been the safest option

Well it’s a playground as part of the country park, there’s no signs to say they can’t be there and as I said it wasn’t fenced off but can’t believe they thought it was okay for their dogs to roam around

Yes I personally would have kept dogs on the lead which would be the safest but an un fenced playground is at risk of other dogs running in. You say the playground emptied pretty quickly which I wonder could have been their plan all along so their own children got to play on all the equipment without queueing?

I have a dog and kids and this is so out of order. What you do is put your dog on a lead. That’s what you do. I would never ever take my extremely child-friendly dog into any space like that, it’s not fair on anyone. I’ve had to say to my kids since they were little ‘someone has to wait with the dog’ it is what it is when you get a pet 🤷‍♀️ these types will be sitting in restaurants with their kids watching Peppa Pig on full blast with no headphones

Shouldn’t be in the play area at all, on lead or not! Disclaimer I love dogs and have one.

Dogs should be on lead and muzzled in all public spaces. Always.

Why muzzled?

🤔no notices, not fenced off, maybe complain to the country park.

I’ve been the dog owner in this scenario once in the past. I can’t really justify it as I agree with you (now) but at the time I genuinely didn’t think it was a problem. I didn’t have children but we were visiting a friend and their two young children and so their kids went off to play and we followed. There was no sign to say ‘no dogs’ and no fence. I thought of my dog as gentle and friendly and I just didn’t really know that people we averse to dogs. That sounds ridiculous, I know, but I didn’t know.

People were a bit hostile to it so we got the message and took dog away and waited for friends’ kids at a distance. I would have preferred that someone just said quite calmly and politely, ‘would you mind taking the dog away and give the children space to play as we don’t really like animals and it can be scary for the children’, but I also understand why they didn’t do that as they presumably thought we couldn’t give a shit (although that’s not true at all).

Tbf it had have been muzzled then it wouldn’t have been able to lick the dad in the park. Thank goodness it was the Dad and not the toddler !!

As a side note, does anyone have any advice on how to handle this if it happens again?

You call over "excuse me, could you please put your dogs on a lead so the children can play".

this is a good idea, I think I will make the suggestion seeing as not every dog owner can be trusted to make sensible decisions

No, it’s not acceptable and that’s coming from a dog owner.

my park actually has 2 sides, one side where the swings and skate park etc are is dog free. There is a children’s play area in the other side with sand pits and toddler play equipment but this is fenced off. From April to October dogs are only allowed off lead early morning and late evening anyway.

I don’t have kids but I do understand that people with a dog and kids need to walk the dog and take the kids to the park at the same time but the dog needs to be kept out of the swings area eg by tying it to the railings etc so you can keep an eye on it while playing with the kids but kids can be frightened of dogs. Also while my dog is generally good with kids I wouldn’t want one to approach her because I’d worry how she’d react….especially babies or toddlers who don’t understand ‘be gentle, don’t pull her tail’ etc. She did almost snap at a toddler but I had her on a very short lead and the mum was there so the situation was under control, but since then I’ve refused to let babies or toddlers fuss her, I just can’t take the risk that my dog could hurt a baby. Once kids are 5 or more I’m more relaxed but still very cautious. And I’ve got a dog who 99.9% of the time is chilled and happy and loves being fussed over. At the end of the day though she’s a dog and dogs can be unpredictable.

I was nervous to say anything because their dogs were off the lead and I don’t know their nature. So my concern was that if the owners were hostile then the situation could have escalated with the dogs becoming protective.

It does appear though that threatening looking dogs appear to be owned by threatening looking people…..

You genuinely thought people would want a strange off lead dog wandering up to them and their children?

Jeez.

I'm not surprised though as I'm often jumped at by "friendly" dogs in parks.

We seem to be living in a time of people doing whatever the fuck they want, without any thought for anyone else.

I was nervous about confronting them in case the dogs became protective

But mainly I mean, if a dog runs up to you and licks you, does this count as an out of control dog and therefore could it be reported ? If a dog did that to my child I would want there to be consequences to the owner

@CurbsideProphet I accept I was in the wrong. People do make mistakes. As mistakes go, I don’t think it’s the crime of the century particularly as I realised the error at the time, corrected it, and haven’t repeated it. I am not defending what these people did in the park, I’m just saying this is what happened to me from the other side of the fence at one point in time.

”We seem to be living in a time of people doing whatever the fuck they want, without any thought for anyone else.” Its funny that you say this, after your condescending and argumentative words to a complete stranger online.

That poster has a point though.. you had absolutely zero thought for anyone else when you let your dogs occupy the same space as children playing.

I think that is the point that poster is trying to make, too many people now will do whatever they want whenever they want with zero consideration for other people, it's like it doesn't even occur to them, as it didn't you at the time. Unfortunately it is common now.

I'm glad the hostile behaviour made you re-think your stance, and think about things from other people's point of view, unfortunately IME when people do this sort of thing they couldn't give two shits about other people's point of view, they do things knowing it may impact others, and do not take kindly to it being pointed out to them, probably even goading for a confrontation,.

YANBU. I’m a big dog lover with a large dog who is off lead a lot. I’d never let him off in or near a child’s play park. There seems to be number of people in my area who are using the actual enclosed play parks to let their dogs off the lead because they have poor recall! These people don’t even have children with them, they’re using it as a dog park. There are signs saying no dogs but they obviously don’t care.

Although I don’t understand your fixation on the dog licking someone, no the dog shouldn’t have been there and it’s not acceptable but a lick isn’t exactly going to hurt anyone.

I would have absolutely said something to the owners and asked them to put their dogs on leads, I don’t think I’ve ever been to a children’s play area where dogs are allowed

Tell them you or your kids are either allergic or you have a phobia based on being attacked by 'dog breed infront of you' when you were a child