Now I know why I don't go to the park in the mornings! Long, angry RANT!
Because it's full of crazies I guess! Oregon has the leash law, but at this park I have been going to for well over a year, everyone seems to always have their dogs off leash, even outside of the designated dog park. No one has ever admonished me for it, and I've never heard of anyone being yelled at for it at this particular park. Even when Eddy was a puppy and still jumped up on people, no one cared as they encountered us on walks. Anyways, it was boring in the dog park so we went out on our loop out in the regular park. There's tons of walking trails. Eddy ran over to greet a guy with his two little daughters... and they Flippppped out. They started crying! Running, hopping, squealing, freaking out, running in circles around their dad, pulling on his pants, screaming. Eddy doesn't jump on anyone or bark anymore, so he just kind of followed them in a circle a few times and then lost interest and walked into the woods.
I approached the dad and he chewed me out of course. I was like, "What if I make my dog lay on his back and your daughters can pet him and see that he's just a nice corgi?" And he was like, "NO JUST TAKE DOG AWAY!!!!" He was foreign and had trouble expressing his anger and hatred. By this time Eddy was laying around in the shade of the trees, waiting for me. I just walked away. I think it's unnatural for those girls to be terrified of Eddy (you've all seen pictures of his sweet face, and he's very polite and submissive, children love him). They probably developed this fear from their overbearing parents or something? They think all dogs are like the infamous pitbull that bit their mother in her youth? I don't know. But usually when strange children see Eddy they squat on the ground and open their arms for corgi kisses. Like the kids I will tell you about next....
So we kept walking. It was hot so we took a deep-woods loop. It's a wetlands refuge, but the walking trails are all bordered by wire-and-wood fences, so dogs have no choice but to stay on the trails. There's no access to streams or squirrels or anything, and it's usually just used as a short-cut between different parts of the park. Eddy was running around, exploring, and he approached a group of kids and 2 adults to greet them. There were like 8 kids, and they had weird tents set up and the adults were dressed like forest rangers. When I approached them, one of the adults was dragging Eddy by his collar and threw him... I don't know, just away from her? Yeah. Tossed him down a trail. She was like, "IS THIS YOUR DOG?!?!??!" And all the kids loved Eddy and were trying to call him back to play. I said yes. She said, "We are conducting preschool outdoor adventure classes and your dog needs to be ON. A. LEASH."
I remained silent and just kept walking... GREAT. The park is going to be infested with preschool groups who hate dogs all summer long??? I wanted to say, "Well you should put those children on leashes so that there's no chance of them running up to me to say hello, ever, please." I wanted to say that their presence in the park is just as inconvenient for me as it is for them. What if one of those children ran up to me and Eddy, and I picked the kid up by the collar and tossed him back to where he came from????? I don't hate kids or anything! I hate the adults' reactions. But why did this happen, twice in one day, when I've never had problems for so long? I saw a woman with her two little Norwich terriers up the trail, and I was like, "Put those beasts on a leash!! There's a crazy preschool teacher up ahead who will yell at you for it!!" And the woman was like, "REALLY? I always walk them off leash here." She looked at the three dogs that stood before her and added, "I don't think our dogs could do anyone any harm.."
And lastly... we went back to the dog park since Eddy obviously wasn't going to be getting any exercise walking on his stupid leash with slow me. And there were these dumb idiots having a picnic in there!! On the GROUND. They kept yelling at everyone's dogs, who were, of course, surrounding them and trying to get into their chips and soda and whatnot. Everyone kept saying, "Oh I'm soo sorry!" and ripping their dogs off of them. Except me. I just let Eddy keep bothering them. Because it's a big risk to bring food INSIDE the dog park and eat it on THE GRASS which is the dogs' territory. There are 3 picnic tables provided for us!!!! PLUS these idiots had a 4 month old german shepherd, and they weren't even watching it because they were so distracted with their picnic and all the dogs trying to steal their food. Their puppy was always out of their sight, so all the other owners had to babysit it. And no one's dogs wanted to run or play or anything, they just wanted to sit and stare and drool at the picnic people. Never going there in the mornings.
Comment
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Comment by Sunni A. on July 9, 2010 at 2:36am
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It was not so much like this last summer with tons of kids. I can wait til school starts again and then Eddy and I can get back to our normal exercise at the park.
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Comment by Sarah C. on July 8, 2010 at 12:39pm
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I also agree that it was unfortunate that Eddy was yelled at by the girls, but yea.. you should have used a leash. I mean, some people just don't like dogs, and that's alright. That's why we have dog parks, so that we can be offleash away from people who don't like dogs, and people who dont like dogs can have their own space.
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Comment by Bev Levy on July 8, 2010 at 11:53am
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Sounds like Eddy got some unfair treatment. Unfortunately just a few irresponsible dog owners can ruin it for the rest of us. We are camping at a state park that actually has a nice dog area on the beach. There is a fence and poop bags with a trash can. Unfortunately there is a lot of poop that people did not pick up and people have put all kinds of trash in the waste bin. Makes me afraid it won't be here next year. I like to err on the side of caution when out with my dogs just because I do understand that some folks do fear dogs. If Eddy has a really good recall you could call him to you when encountering strangers. Eating in a dog park is just plain dumb though..Lol.
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Comment by Carol Rea on July 8, 2010 at 11:25am
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Sunni, I am sorry that Eddy was thrown by the teacher, no excuse for that, but...he should never have been off leash in the first place! I too live in Oregon and there are many places you can take him off leash, or walk him on the leash. There ARE many people who are afraid of dogs for one reason or another and you must be aware of this, it is not your place to try to change their mind. The other thing you need to remember is that just because YOU know that Eddy is friendly and won't hurt anyone, no one else does.
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Comment by Rebecca Marie O'Bryan on July 8, 2010 at 8:21am
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i understand your frustration and im horrified that someone would just throw eddy! thats not right. if that happened to me i know i would have flipped(just the way i am) and the little kids freaking out is a little strange. i use to baby set these kids who (when i had 3dogs) would wait in the car till they were on the sun porch and then have to see them outside before they would come in and flip id they maid a noise at all O_O but they LOVED kids! i think kids being scared of animals is a learned behavior from the parents..(could be wrong though) i do walk teddy of leash too but only if there isnt people around if there is i will call him over and put it back on. seems like u always have someone to ruin the fun. im sorry your morning was bad and i hope it gets better in the future. maybe try going later in the day so there isnt that much ppl?
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I guess I'll just take him at night? And always bring some pepper spray with me I guess? I've seen tons of dogs at this park "trotting off" by themselves and I won't see the owner for like an entire 60 seconds after the dog. And that's a normal, regular sight and every set of parents with children I've encountered never even look twice. I I'm not saying this is how all parks should be. It is this specific park, the way people generally always behave at this park was completely opposite of what I'm used to and I go every week which is why I said in my post that it was as if everyone had gone crazy. An odd occurence.
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Comment by Alison Prasavath on July 8, 2010 at 12:29am
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I'm sorry Sunni about your experience and since I live in Oregon as well, after the dog attacking the bunny in the park, I'm VERY careful about letting Noodles off his leash. If people are around, he is on his leash. If we are the only ones down at the park, I let him off. I trust him even when people are around, but I don't want anyone complaining. I've had bad days as well and that is even when Noodles is on his leash...people just glare at me since we walk past their kids. Ugh!
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Comment by Stanley & Charlotte on July 7, 2010 at 10:52pm
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I understand how you feel, especially when it comes to people having a picnic on the ground at the dog park. That's just straight nonsense! And I certainly don't agree with that teacher putting her hands on Eddy and pulling him by his collar. That being said, leash laws are in place for a reason and Sam said it best by saying we need to demonstrate good dog ownership. If Eddy was off leash but you were able to keep him right next to you when you see other people, that might be a good compromise. But it sounds like Eddy was just trotting off by himself to greet the humans. And normally I would say who wouldn't love to see a cute corgi bounding up to them but even I have to admit that not all people love dogs the way I do. And a child that maybe hasn't had a lot of exposure to dogs or had a bad experience with dogs could be terribly frightened by Eddy.
The discussion about whether to leash your dog or not tends to really get people stirred up and everyone's got a different take on it. I'm not at the point where I can let Stanley off leash because we're still working on his recall command. I have a neighbor who always lets his dog off leash in our apt complex and he's not shy about telling me I should do the same for Stanley. It gets pretty annoying actually but to each is own I guess...
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Comment by Nancy Geddes on July 7, 2010 at 8:21pm
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Thank you, Sam. I have three corgis, and if you feel that life with one corgi is restrictive, try the multiple dog household. For the safety of all concerned, I orchestrate the meetings of my three corgis with other humans and dogs. I am the leader. We have very strict laws in Virginia, and I obey them to protect my short legged sweeties' well being and to guard against unpleasantness. Not everyone here loves my dogs. Hard to swallow, but I need to protect Bear, Tasha and Linus from the few hysterics. When possible, we practice our socialization at Colonial Williamsburg among throngs of teenagers, families, crying children and other dogs. It is a sensory assault for the dogs but I spend the time kneeling, directly involved with my corgis interactions with young children. I also keep my dogs away from displays of food. It brings out the worst and is best confined to our quiet household. I hope Eddie gets all the admiration and public lovies he deserves. I am sorry for the ignorance and bad behaviors of others....one reason we no longer participate in our local dog park.
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Comment by christy fry on July 7, 2010 at 8:09pm
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I agree that some parks, rules or not, seem to be more off-leashe like Forest Park hardly ever see dogs on leashe there....but this is also summer with the fair weather people out in-force....Wintler Park in Vancouver is deserted October through June-July(till nice weather hits) but becomes unusable during the summer months. I agree for those of us that use these areas year round the summer months can become frustrating.
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