Dogs and Babies (dog jumping up Dulwich Park)

[souc1a]

At about 12 o?clock yesterday I was giving my baby her luch in Dulwich Park, when from nowhere a dog ran over to us and jumped on her face. Fortunately with a panicked effort on my behalf I managed to remove him/her before any damage was done, but this was quite a frightening incident. I then heard two girls trying to call after the dog, calling him ?other dog? ? they obviously didn?t know its name. After I checked my daughter was OK I went over to the girls, who were apologetic, but they had six dogs, not on leads, which they weren?t in control of. It turned out they were dog walkers, who clearly didn?t know the dogs very well nor were they aware of the chances of dogs running away when not on leads.

As I pointed out to the girls, there were many mums and dads with their babies and young children enjoying the fine weather in the park and dogs can be unpredictable (as can young children) and the combination can be quite dangerous. Fortunately my little girl was Ok today and other than being quite disgruntled that the dog then stole her lunch she bares no scars, but I can?t help but think it could have been much worse.

So.......if you use a dog walker could you please remind them to keep the dogs on a lead at all times and make sure they are aware of their surroundings.

Thanks

[cate]

Perhaps you could describe the two girls walking the dogs as it would be useful for the company that employs them, assuming there is one, to know. Whereabouts in the park were you? There is a dog walking side where dogs are 'allowed' to go off lead. The other parts of the park that has signs asking for dogs to be put on the lead are actually not enforceable but are put there in the hope that dog walkers will leash their dogs. A fair few dogs are attracted to food in the park and that is all they are interested in. There was another discussion on here about dogs coming up to babies in buggies and it usually because of the food lying about.

[souc1a]

We were on the grass in front of the cafe. My baby was't in a pram she was sitting on a blanket and her lunch was in my hand so the dog wasn't after her food (until afterwards!) I'm not sure about where dogs are allowed on and off leads, however I still think that wherever they are owners/walkers should still exert some kind of responsibility in ensuring that their dog(s) don't cause any harm to anyone else. The girls looked to be about seventeen, one with long dark hair and th the other was blonde. It's not my intention to get these girls into trouble, they made a mistake, apologised for it and in this case no real harm was done. The purpose of my thread was more of a reminder/warning to dog owners/walkers that we must all rsepect each others space and be aware that dogs can move very quickly which could endanger or at least frighten little children and babies.