Dog owner angers mom when she lets dog of leash in park and puts toddler 'in danger.'
When this dogowner is angry at a young child, they ask Reddit:
'AITA for prioritizing my dog over a random toddler?'
I have a dog - a 2 y.o. Welsh Corgi. Unfortunately, I currently reside in a city without any large, dedicated dog parks. In this city of over 1m people, only two public parks have small, fenced-off yards for people to let their dogs off the leash. The one I live closest to is very small (roughly 18x12m), but it contains some dog training equipment - weave poles, hoops, and a dog walk. It's not great, but it's better than nothing.
There is a playground right next to the dog yard, so kids tend to bleed over to play with the dogs and their equipment quite often. It usually is not a problem, as most parents who bring their children to the dog yard do not mind their children being around dogs, and/or are considerate enough to lead them away when they feel like the dogs are getting rowdy or if the equipment needs to be used for its intended purpose.
So a few days ago I took my dog to the yard for some agility training and off-the-leash time outside. When I arrived, there were no other dog owners. Instead, there was a woman (sitting on a bench with her face buried in her phone) and a toddler (attempting to climb the dog walk). Paying them no mind, I let my dog off the leash and we went straight to the weave poles.
However, the woman yelled at me. She asked me what I was doing, said something along the lines of 'Don't you see there is a child here?', and demanded I take my dog 'away from her child' (who was still trying to climb the dog walk, on the opposite end of the obstacle course). I responded by pointing out to her that her child was playing in a dog yard, and there was a perfectly good - and as of then empty - playground right next to it. She exploded, claiming her child was 'more important than some dog', 'nobody asked [me] to bring the dog here', and that she 'got here first'.
I decided not to respond and just tried to keep my dog busy by playing with her. Fortunately, after about a minute of ranting in a language I do not speak, the woman picked up her child and left. In the moment I believed I was in the right. However, I do have doubts now. Maybe I should have just leashed my dog and taken her for a walk around the park proper. AITA?
Let's find out.
plumpotato writes:
NTA. The kid was in a spot for dogs and she got upset that a dog entered that area... maybe if she looked up off her phone for once she would notice this happening and be a normal human being and take her kid to the playground.
You did everything right here though and didn't go off on her or make a scene like most people, including me, would have done haha you took the high road and played with your dog, so good on you! She doesn't have to care about your dog and you don't have to care about her kid, that simple.
aggravatingpain writes:
NTA. You were in the dog park. you were training you dog, paying attention to your dog. She was ignoring the toddler. If she had been a decent minder she should have redirected the toddler to the playground area and not the dog park area. Not sure how it could be done, but maybe the city needs to put a fence between the two areas?
heroolympia writes:
NTA. Dog park = dog and play park = child. As a dog owner and parent, I always keep to the separate areas as required because I know how dogs pee up everything so don't want a child playing in the dog park or want the dog peeing on the play equipment.