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.
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Comment by Sunni A. on July 7, 2010 at 7:47pm
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Also I go to various parks with Eddy, not just one, and not just dog parks. There was an incident recently where a dog, OFF leash in a public park, NOT the dog park, ripped a bunny to shreds in front of a bunch of kids. Their parents cried bloody murder, and fought and fought, but the owner didn't even get slapped with an off-leash fine. So Oregon's not even enforcing this law...? It's obvious that different parks have different crowds and what is 'normal' varies even to the law enforcement. I don't just let him off leash because I feel that I have the right to or something like that. I just do whatever the other owners seem to be doing. I'm posting on this because dogs RARELY are on leashes at this particular park I go to, and it seemed extremely bizzare that I get in trouble for it twice in one half hour walk.
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Comment by christy fry on July 7, 2010 at 7:20pm
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Most Oregon Parks at least in the Portland Metro area have off-leashe hours I take mine to Mt. Tabor sometimes, anyways the off leashe hours as I remember and follow them are from 5am-8am every morning so If your at one of these parks during these hours it's perfectly ok for Eddy to be off leashe. These hours were ok'd 2 yrs ago if I remember correctly =) If your outside this area you may be able to contact your local Parks anr Rec. Department and see if your area has off-leashe hours also.
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Comment by Kieu Huynh on July 7, 2010 at 7:19pm
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I understand your frustration Sunni! It sucks but kids/humans will always get more rights then dogs will. A dog can get in huge trouble for knocking a kid over whereas a kid can do a lot of harm to a dog and get away with it. :(
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Yet children run up to me all the time and pull on my skirt and put their sticky hands on my clothes, and I can't sue anyone? That is about as bad of a time people will have with Eddy, and I have to protect myself from lawsuits? A child could just as easily poke my eye out or destroy a $4000 purse or something. Yet they have free reign of the public park and are allowed to run everywhere, they are not confined to the playground or basketball court like my dog is confined to the dog park. What if I had a traumatic experience with children, and I don't want kids running up to me or I'll snap and start crying? Hmm...
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Comment by Beth on July 7, 2010 at 6:55pm
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I too walk my dogs off-leash on the wooded trails in our local park. I feel a bit guilty doing so, but then again there is exactly one legal dog-park in our rather large metropolitan area, and it is the size of a small little league field. WIth dozens of parks, three of them over 100 acres, and no legal areas to take dogs, people (not just myself) tend to make up their own areas. You would think that parks with various swimming pools, tennis courts, and playgrounds would set aside a corner or two for dogs to play, but no.
Anyway, I only let mine off-leash on the wooded trails if no one is around and call them back to me if anyone shows up. Some people are deathly afraid of dogs, and really don't deserve to be accosted by one in what they know is a leash-restricted area. I have seen and known children terrified of dogs, and yes sometimes it's the parents, but it could be other circumstances. They might have been bitten, seen someone attacked, or just have a phobia. So my personal rule is they never go off-leash unless I have a pocketful of treats, I keep them close, and I call them back to me and keep them right next to me if people do come into view. Then if someone asks to pet the dogs I will release them to say hello.
With little kids I never let them pet the dogs unless I am right there with a steady hand on them. Kids might poke, pull, or jab at a dog and even the best-trained, best-behaved dog might react badly if in physical pain. I also worry that if my dogs jumped on a toddler they could hurt the child, or leave the child terrified of dogs, so I generally hold collars when toddlers approach.
I hope the rest of your summer is better than this morning. :-)
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Comment by Sam Tsang on July 7, 2010 at 6:49pm
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I can see your frustration Sunni, unfortunately no one knows Eddy like you do. Basic mother father instinct + state leash law = Eddy must be on leash period. The law is there to protect you from lawsuits and others from suing you. If you were one of those "rowdy kid's" parents and your kid had an incident while under their care, you would make sure they are liable. Don't give the haters your Achilles heel, we need to demonstrate good dog ownership by obeying the law, only introduce our dogs to the right audience in the right setting.
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I always think it's funny too!... but the adults think that their kids are being scarred for life! Even with the crying girls, it's like, no harm done in the long run, but I bet the dad's going to reward their behavior all day: "I sure showed that meanie lady and her scary dog" and the girls will have to relay the story to their mother and grandparents later, further deepening and rewarding their fear of dogs.
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Comment by Monica, Orion, and Laika on July 7, 2010 at 6:41pm
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So sorry you had to deal with all that! I never understand people like that because I instinctively want to pet any dog that is within a 10 foot radius of me! I had to deal with a similar situation when my cousins came over and met Orion and Finn (my brother's autralian shepherd) for the first time. They're ages 7 and 11 and they have a cat at home so they at least like some animals but they were terrified of the dogs! I can kind of understand Finn because he's fairly big and like to lick faces but Orion was about 10 pounds at the time and he just approaches kids and puts his ears back and wags his tail, doesn't jump or bark or anything. At parks and pet stores the kids just follow Orion everywhere, but my cousins were very frightened of them. The problem was that somewhere they had picked up that "being a tree" makes dogs leave you alone. So they tucked in their arms and said "I'm a tree I'm a tree I'm a tree!!!" and kept spinning so they wouldn't face the dogs. Well "tree" sounds like "treat" and the dogs went absolutely nuts. I found the whole situation extremely humorous... my uncle and aunt, however, did not.
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