the dog park is for DOGS...
the child park is down the way...
i went to one in milford (where i was living with my now ex) i went once without the dogs to see what it was like...
i refuse to take them...flat out.
there were families ther in the fenced in dog park area with NO dogs...
when asked why they came...
"oh my kids just LOVE dogs and this is the only place i can let them run wild!"
after that, oh HELL no.
when talking to some of the dog owners (who all started to leave as soon as the kids showed up...)
this happens ALOT, families using it as some kind of petting zoo/energy outlet.
just before i left, i hear one of the kids crying, the child was about 3, mabe 4 tops...and one of the dogs at the park, a rambunctious young dane, he had been playing wonderfully with the other dogs all morning, sharing his toys, playing nice having a blast...
well this toddler (whos mother is about 10 ft away) decided he HAS to have the toy the dane and a shepard were playing with.
the dane lets him have the toy...but then it was a game as the kid waved it round in the air.
lets see huge rambunctious CLUMSY puppy, 3 mabe 4 yr old toddler and a toy...
DUMP, the whole thing took a few seconds, a blink and it was all over...the kid starts screaming, the puppies owner calls him and he leaves the kid imediatly...
but the mother gets all pissy, screaming at the puppies owner that he needs to have that dangerous dog on a leash, if theres even a scratch on her kid...blah blah...
another dog owner reamed the mother, told her this wasnt a petting zoo and she should have been keeping a better eye on her toddler...
the kid was fine...and the owner of the dane puppy left, the 2 families and their mass of children stayed to continue "letting them have some doggy playtime"
THAT drives me nuts.
yes i do feel that a dog at a dog park should have basic training socilization maners and a good recal, and i feel the owners of said dog should be watching their animals...
theres no question theres...
100% recall, no i dont think 100% is an absolute nesecity, a good solid recall incase of emergencies, sure, but 100%...not nessicarily, the park is fenced for a reason and sometimes you just need to let dogs be dogs...
but in some of these cases, the dogs were playing nicely and the mother of the kid is too busy chatting to watch the child and it gets dumped because it decided taking a large dogs toy and swinigng it round its head is a great idea...
the dog park is that, a DOG park not a playground, not a childs daycare...
i wish rules like no children under 10 were STRICTLY enforced, i wish when theres kids running round the park because the parent things its a good idea the people there with their dogs SHOULD say something, and not in a nicey nice kind of way...
i flat out said "you knwo the KIDS playground is just around the corner, this areas for the dogs, what happens if your kid falls in dog poop or gets bitten?" and i got shruged off...i think however if others said something as well they would have left rather than keep listening to people complaining about their presence...
i dunno, just bugs me when parents think its theri right to use other peoples dogs however they wish...
then again ive also been throughly reamed when i told a woman her obnoixious hyper SCREAMING child couldnt pet ruby because she was working!