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[quote=Anonymous]We live in Arlington next door to a park.  We've lived here for years and in that time I've seen dog owners walking their dogs off leash and/or using the park as a dog run on a near-daily basis.

I've seen the whole gamut--on the "likely harmless" end, very well-behaved dogs or dogs who are so old they can barely walk and therefore pose little threat.   I've also seen owners who seem to think they have their dogs under voice command but are proven wrong when their dog runs full-speed onto the playground or out of the park entirely.

I have kids, one of whom is terrified of dogs, and the unpredictability of going to the park and finding dogs off-leash running all over has only made this worse.  I get that owners may feel that their dog needs exercise and/or is super well-behaved and therefore deserves to have some off-leash time to run and play.  And when the park is deserted I either don't know or,  if I notice it out my window, don't care.

But in recent weeks when either my DH or I has asked an owner to please leash their dog, we have gotten major attitude (and today, aggressive yelling).  I think I get the arguments against going to a dog park (there are 2 within 3 miles of where we live), but I really don't get the need to take your dog to a park full of kids and have them off-leash, in violation of the law.

Why do dog owners do this?  I should note that this is an unfenced park next to a very busy street, and I worry about a running toddler getting hit by a car--it seems like a dog owner might worry about their dog getting hit?

When this has been brought up on our local listServ the dialogue becomes super ugly so I don't have much hope of resolving this in a neighborly way--nor do I actually know any of the owners I see with off-leash dogs.  But I'm hoping to understand it a little better from the other side because after today I'm tempted to call the cops every time I see this. [/quote]

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