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[quote=Anonymous]I often go to Rock Creek Park with my young kid and see unleashed dogs. Many kinds of unleashed dogs are fine with me. I don't mind dogs who, when they see other people, stop and look back to their owners to see what they should do. Or dogs who completely ignore people as they wander the woods. Or dogs who stay close to their owners but off leash. Or dogs who instantly obey commands when their owner sees other people and tells the dog to come back.

What really, really bothers me are large dogs bounding all over the place, far from their owners and sometimes out of their owners' sight, who ignore their owners repeated commands to come back and instead run right up to people, including my small preschooler who was once bitten in the face by a "friendly" dog at a friend's house (no they were not roughhousing...my kid surprised the dog by putting its face close to the dog's before I could stop him and the dog just reacted).

I frequently take my preschooler out to Rock Creek Park to enjoy nature, walk the trails, etc. What I frequently want to do is let kid wander a bit up the trail to foster independence (always within my sight, of course!). I *hate* it when a dog, off leash, comes running down the trail and aims for my kid. Often the dog is far, far away from its owner, who may not even see that he dog is headed for a small kid.

Surely the friendly dog just wants to say hi! But my kid's natural instinct, on seeing a large unfamiliar animal with teeth headed its way, is to feel fear.

Often, on seeing my small child, the dog owner will start to call to their dog. But most of the time, the dog just ignores them. Here is my feeling--if you call your dog repeatedly, and it does not immediately come, your dog should not be off a leash in a public place, because you do not control your dog.

I am not going to stop going to Rock Creek Park, and I am not going to stop letting my kid wander, and I don't hate people who keep their dogs off leash. But dog-owners, if you can't control and watch your dog, it has no business being off-leash in a public place, no matter how friendly it seems to you. [/quote]

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