It’s called a DOG Park for a reason…

Dogs often move faster than their owners, so I’m pretty usedto being unsure who that new dog over there at the dog park belongs to. But, itusually doesn’t take too long to figure it out. And unless the dog is behavinginappropriately, its not a big deal.

With small children at the dog park, though, it is ALWAYS abig deal. I should NEVER have to guess who a child belongs to, nor should Ihave to be looking half the dog park away to spot the adults.

I should say that the vast majority of the time, thechildren we meet at dog parks are well mannered and never far from theirparents, who are keeping just as close an eye on them as they are on the dogs. Ilike kids, and I like that my dogs are exposed to them at dog parks.

But the other night, there was a little boy, around 4 yearsold (my guess) who was sprinting across the dog park (I’m talking footballfield size spaces) away from the adults he was there with.

When he first entered, he ran right up to June (who hadwandered a ways away from us) and started petting her. This wasn’t a concernfor us because June loves children and getting attention from them. We werealso expecting her and Larry to wander back our direction.

The little boy left June and followed his dog over to therest of the scrum, running screaming in to the midst of a pack of 6+ dogs, thatincluded a Great Dane and a Giant Schnauzer, as well as a lot of little dogs.

Many of the dogs shied away from him, obviously uncomfortablewith the little boy’s behavior. Luckily, they all reacted in that way.

We then started walking across the field to where our dogshad found an interesting smell. We passed the boy’s adults, who apologized fortheir dog luring ours to the smell but said nothing about the boy.

Leaving the scrum at the same time as us was a 4 month oldpit puppy- already 50lbs or so, but the sweetest most adorable thing- and twolittle Chihuahua/terrier mixes.  At theother side (and again, we’re talking the width of a football field) our dogsstopped to play with these other three dogs. Suddenly, the little boy comesbarreling in to the group of dogs, and decides to roll around on the ground.

Again, all of the dogs reacted by moving away from him,though he held on to one of the little terrier mixes.

We moved away, to an area of the dog park that is not onlysome distance from the scrum (where the boy’s adults were by now), but alsovisually by a fenced in area full of 3-4’ tall weeds.

The boy followed us and our dogs. He ran under some pushesto essentially grapple June. Again, she likes kids, lives for being petted, andat this time, had something really good to sniff, so she didn’t react at all.Of course, the boy was looking for a reaction, for a dog to play with him. So,he went after Larry.

Larry avoided him like a champ and came trotting over to us.

At this point, the adults (because I really don’t know ifthey were parents, or sibling, or what) finally started calling for the boy andhe headed back to them at a mad dash.

I was so very thankful we’d had the evening babysitting atoddler and had had the opportunity to teach Larry that little kids are not tobe chased. They are not to be treated like toys or other dogs. He is confusedas to why that is, but he learned it, and he remembered it.

Now, you could say the whole thing was no big deal. But tome it was. Because this is a DOG park, not a children’s park. If something hadhappened to that boy, his actions wouldn’t have been blamed; his adults wouldn’thave been blamed; the dog would have been. And that is a big deal when its notthe dog that instigates the bad behavior. (Or what if the Great Dane or GiantSchnauzer had simply knocked him down? Both weighed in the neighborhood oftriple the child.)

Again, I like seeing kids interact with dogs. I like my dogsgetting a chance to interact with kids, but parents, siblings, any adult that bringsa child to the dog park, you have to remember that this is a place for the dogsfirst and people second. Put the kid on a leash if you have to, but dosomething to keep them near you and under control. Because last night, everyonegot lucky.