In this situation?
Okay, so, I go to my local dog park almost every day. I love it, and have never really had any issues aside from a couple aggressive dogs (first timers) and I've been going for about a year. It's a small dog park, we have about 12-14 people that go regularly and we all know each other pretty well and we have a Facebook group. There's another 12-14 people that come as well, just not quite as regularly. Every day we will have one or two new people show up, but they usually don't come back. I like my dog park because its small and the people and dogs are nice. The location though, has lately become a problem.
It's located where all the other recreational areas are... Right next to the public ball fields and courts (football, soccer, baseball, basketball, tennis etc.) where a couple of the local schools bring their students for sports practice. Since school and sports are in season, there have usually been a good bit of kids and parents at the surrounding areas. This wouldn't be an issue if the kids who didn't participate in sports (younger siblings of the ones who do I'm guessing) didn't come wandering into the dog park. (Which is fenced separately and clearly says on the giant rule sign "No children under the age of 16 unless accompanied by an adult).
Now Chevelle, she is spectacular with kids. She won't jump on them, is gentle with them, will let them stick their hands in her mouth... She's great. One snotty child even stomped on her tail and hit her in the head and she did nothing except for look at him expecting a scolding. (Of course I tore him a new one...he claimed he was trying to get her to "run".) But she's awesome with kids...
Baloo, however, is NOT. Polite kids, he's fine with. But he does not like kids chasing him, and he does not like kids taking things out of his mouth. He will tolerate these things from adults, but not children. A couple weeks ago, we had an incident where an 11 year old boy chased Baloo for about 15 minutes (even though I yelled at him to stop..and I tried to catch Baloo to leave, but once he gets into "run away" mode, it's not so easy) because Baloo had "his ball". Once he cornered him, he shoved his hand straight into his mouth and sure enough, Baloo bit him. He didn't draw blood or even bite that hard, but he freaked the kid out and me. I was on the phone with park service immediately telling them about the issue with unattended children in the park.
Since then, park service has been coming to escort kids out of the park, but not every day. The days they don't come, sure enough, we have kids running around in the park. We call park service and nothing happens on those days...they don't come. Today was the straw that broke the camels back for me, because Baloo was laying down, minding his own business, when a child TACKLED him. He said he wanted to wrestle, but Baloo certainly didn't. Luckily I was close by, and was able to grab a hold of Baloo before he caught the kid.
I just...ugh. Is this a training issue with Baloo? I don't really blame my dog for not having a high tolerance for unruly and rude children. However, I don't want this to continue happening. Stopping park visits isn't out of the question, but it's last resort. Baloo loves the park. Should I step up more and ask every child to leave when I get there? That leaves me open to their parents wrath (which we have had to deal with a few times), but it does keep my dog safe. So... I don't know. I don't bring my dogs to play with kids... I bring them to play with dogs. /:
In this situation, what would YOU do?
Okay, so, I go to my local dog park almost every day. I love it, and have never really had any issues aside from a couple aggressive dogs (first timers) and I've been going for about a year. It's a small dog park, we have about 12-14 people that go regularly and we all know each other pretty well and we have a Facebook group. There's another 12-14 people that come as well, just not quite as regularly. Every day we will have one or two new people show up, but they usually don't come back. I like my dog park because its small and the people and dogs are nice. The location though, has lately become a problem.
It's located where all the other recreational areas are... Right next to the public ball fields and courts (football, soccer, baseball, basketball, tennis etc.) where a couple of the local schools bring their students for sports practice. Since school and sports are in season, there have usually been a good bit of kids and parents at the surrounding areas. This wouldn't be an issue if the kids who didn't participate in sports (younger siblings of the ones who do I'm guessing) didn't come wandering into the dog park. (Which is fenced separately and clearly says on the giant rule sign "No children under the age of 16 unless accompanied by an adult).
Now Chevelle, she is spectacular with kids. She won't jump on them, is gentle with them, will let them stick their hands in her mouth... She's great. One snotty child even stomped on her tail and hit her in the head and she did nothing except for look at him expecting a scolding. (Of course I tore him a new one...he claimed he was trying to get her to "run".) But she's awesome with kids...
Baloo, however, is NOT. Polite kids, he's fine with. But he does not like kids chasing him, and he does not like kids taking things out of his mouth. He will tolerate these things from adults, but not children. A couple weeks ago, we had an incident where an 11 year old boy chased Baloo for about 15 minutes (even though I yelled at him to stop..and I tried to catch Baloo to leave, but once he gets into "run away" mode, it's not so easy) because Baloo had "his ball". Once he cornered him, he shoved his hand straight into his mouth and sure enough, Baloo bit him. He didn't draw blood or even bite that hard, but he freaked the kid out and me. I was on the phone with park service immediately telling them about the issue with unattended children in the park.
Since then, park service has been coming to escort kids out of the park, but not every day. The days they don't come, sure enough, we have kids running around in the park. We call park service and nothing happens on those days...they don't come. Today was the straw that broke the camels back for me, because Baloo was laying down, minding his own business, when a child TACKLED him. He said he wanted to wrestle, but Baloo certainly didn't. Luckily I was close by, and was able to grab a hold of Baloo before he caught the kid.
I just...ugh. Is this a training issue with Baloo? I don't really blame my dog for not having a high tolerance for unruly and rude children. However, I don't want this to continue happening. Stopping park visits isn't out of the question, but it's last resort. Baloo loves the park. Should I step up more and ask every child to leave when I get there? That leaves me open to their parents wrath (which we have had to deal with a few times), but it does keep my dog safe. So... I don't know. I don't bring my dogs to play with kids... I bring them to play with dogs. /:
In this situation, what would YOU do?