So we went to the dog park, as usual. I live 5minutes away from one, so its perfect. Aevyn gets much of his daily exercise there, and we know many, many of the dogs. Very good fun. HOWEVER.

I ran into a situation that I was a little uncomfortable with. Someone brought their eight year old son with them, which is fine, except this kid was in love with Aevyn and wouldn't leave him alone. He even went as far as to try to hold Aevyn back from playing with the other dogs, and then tried to make Aevyn jump to get the stick he'd been chewing on. The mother and the son wouldn't listen to me when I asked them to stop. What should I do in this situation?

I'm very very glad to report Aevyn was a wonderful sport about it. He didn't jump, just waited patiently until the kid gave it to him, and when he was being held back he just laid down to wait until he was 'allowed' to play again. I was very frustrated, but I'm not the type to start a scene with people at the dog park. Should've I?

Anyway, the good news is Aevyn got to play with a 6 month Springer for about an hour, and after he did this:



And this:



And all was good.

Sometimes there are kids at our dog park too. Normally I leave them alone unless they're making my dogs uncomfortable or me uncomfortable. Mishka is OK with some kids, but the really wild ones freak her out. Of course those are the ones who want to chase her and pick on her.

I usually just take my dogs to a different part of the park and say something like "OK you have to go be a dog now." So they don't think i'm being rude. I don't like causing a scene either but the fact is: It's a dog park, not a playgroud. My dogs have the right to play and be dogs without being harassed by little kids. Truthfully I wish people would teach their kids some sort of dog manners rather than just letting them pet, grab, and mess with any dog they want.

Koda loves kids and when we would go to the park, the kids always would put him real quick and then be on their merry way. I've never had a kid try to sort of 'torment' my dog or keep him from playing though. Koda would never knock a kid over or anything, he is really calm and gentle around kids, but if I asked them to stop and they didn't, I would probably tell the mother not to give me grief then when he son gets knocked over and is crying over it- just because I think this would make her actually care. But I don't have a problem confronting people ever so.