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 unleashed dogs - Latrobe Park
 
 8/8/2008 1:00:29 PM
groberry
1 posts


unleashed dogs - Latrobe Park
Hi neighbors,

My husband and I moved into the area in April of 2007 about 2 weeks before the birth of our second child.   We have two girls, 2.5 yrs and 15 months.   Yeah, we're busy!   Anyway, we love the neighborhood and the proximity of Latrobe Park, it was one of the things we noticed when we decided on the neighborhood.   So, what brings me to post?   Unleashed dogs in Latrobe Park, of course.   This is bound to create some heated responses, but my intent is to get some genuinely helpful advise.  Because really - I'm at a total loss. 

Last summer when my eldest little girl was about 16 months old we were walking in the park and two unleashed cocker spaniels ran up to us, very excited.   In their excitement, they knocked over my little girl.   She started crying and was very upset and visibly fearful, but otherwise unharmed.  Her  little head could have hit that concrete really hard.   The owner, an older woman, was apologetic.  I was absolutely LIVID (but didn't show it because I was in total shock), I think I handled the situation very well and told the owner that everything was fine and that my child appeared not to be injured and then I asked her to allow my little girl to briefly sit next to and talk to the dogs for a second.  My reasoning and what I said to the owner was that I did not want my little girl to be afraid of dogs.  I told my child that the doggies were just very excited to see her, etc.    And then we went on our way.  I'm pretty sure the woman felt horrible about the situation, although she seemed sort of angry as well as apologetic.   Not as angry as I am now.  Because fast forward to a year later and my little girl who used to LOVE dogs of any shape and size, over the course of the year, has completely done a 180.  She does not like dogs.    This really saddens me, especially because during her first year of life she grew up with my mother's two dogs - who she loved.   In one unfortunate, brief encounter - those two friendly cute cocker spaniels and their owner, washed away that love of dogs and replaced it with fear and apprehension.     Which is easy to do with a toddler.   It's pretty intimidating to have dogs running up to you when you are 2 foot nothing.

And then there is today.  I just got back from the park this morning after an incident that has now prompted me to locate this site and post on it.    My girls and I were walking out of the playground and through the park on our way home when two very cute sheepdogs came bounding into the park.  Now, I see these sheepdogs frequently with their owner and they are NEVER leashed.   And they are pretty big dogs.   Last year, I may not have even noticed.  This year - absolutely.   My 2 year old is walking and her sister is in the stroller.  I stop and wait for the dogs and the owner to move past, when she eventually catches up to them - hoping that they will get far enough away that we can continue out of the park.   At the same time another mother and her two children are walking up to the playground.  The kids go in and the owner of the dogs and the other mother start to chat outside the gate.   We would have to pass them and the dogs to get out of the park.  Lucy, my eldest, has not noticed the dogs yet and I'm deciding whether or not to double back and go the other way round the playground out of the park.  The dogs spot us and run up to us (all happening very fast) and Lucy shrieks "dogs!!!!" and runs to me.  I pick her up and push the stoller forward and move past the owner and the other mother until we are away from the dogs.  I put Lucy down and we continue out of the park, while I try to downplay the incident to Lucy, who is babbling about " not liking doggies, and those doggies were getting me"....   and then she steps in dog poop.   

I'm at home now and totally peeved at myself for not saying anything.  The owner of the dogs never even stopped her conversation, she never even thought to call her dogs away from us.   She didn't even give us a second glance when we passed her by - me lugging a 27 pound toddler and pushing a double jogging stroller.   Not cute.
I'm peeved at myself for not saying something and i'm totally disgusted with the situation.    I've been working with Lucy for over a year now, trying to UNDO the damage done by unleashed dogs last year.  How am I supposed to do this with unleashed freakin sheepdogs in the park??   I love dogs!  I would even like for us to eventually get a dog.  
Irresponsible dog owners have made this impossible.  They would like for this to be about my kids being more important than their dogs - but it's totally not about that.  It's about respecting the rules and the space and making it welcome for everyone!  There were other dog owners in the park this morning and they were LEASHED.  And these sheepdogs ran up to them. 
It's unacceptable.  

So you tell me neighbors?  What am I supposed to do?  I didn't want to say anything, as I was nervous about how it would turn out and I had both the girls with me.  The last thing I need is some stranger screaming at me in front of my kids.  
Oh, and I should note that both of these incidents, a year apart, both took place withing 10 feet of the big sign that states DOGS MUST BE LEASHED.   I'm aware of the initiative to create a dog park at Latrobe and I even signed the petition when they came door to door in the neighborhood (we are in McHenry Pointe).   But that doesn't negate the fact that the dogs should and need to be leashed in the general park.  

Big sigh from a mother of two,
Jen
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