Dogs on Wallingford Playfield: Two years ago I adopted a rescue dog. He was a country dog, and I was working on getting him accustomed to city life. I never let him off leash except in a dog park, because that is illegal. For good reason. But every morning after dropping my child off at Hamiliton I did walk him, on leash, at the Wallingford playfield, to work on commands, especially "Heel." However, I was ultimately driven from the playfield by owners who insisted that it was their prerogative to run their loose dogs there.
These loose dogs would come up and try to fight with my poor dog, who being on leash, felt defenseless. So I started insisting that dog owners leash their dogs. I told them that not doing so was illegal and that if they did not leash their dogs, I would call Animal Control. This often worked, but I was nastily insulted many times. Finally the problem got so bad I gave up approaching the owners first and just called Animal Control before I even spoke to them. Having made the call, I would then tell the owners that Animal Control had been called and they needed to leash their dogs. At this, many dog owners became not just insulting, but quite hostile. Two or three times this actually escalated to verbal threats. Those times I called the police. The dog owners left when they saw the squad car coming.
Finally, I realized that lax enforcement of leash laws (which I myself was unwilling to violate) together with the arrogant attitude of many dog owners who seem to think that they are above the law meant that, as a practical matter, I would never be able to acclimatize my country-born rescue dog to city life. My dog was miserable being on leash while other dogs ran free and I was a wreck from trying to protect him from loose dogs all around Wallingford, but especially in the playfield.
Because the playfield was so difficult, I tried to take my dog daily to the Green Lake off leash area. But that is over run by commercial dog walkers who come with numerous dogs and don't pay attention to any of them. In fact,some of the people who let their dogs off leash at the Wallingford playfield told me that the Green Lake dog park was impossible to use because of this situation. Like them, I also found that at the Green Lake dog park, dogs would bother my dog and no one was anywhere around to deal with the situation. Typically the commercial dog walker was sitting on a bench,talking on a cell phone and drinking a latte, paying no attention whatever to the numerous dogs in their care.
Finally, after many struggles to find a way to keep my dog in the city, I gave up and found a farm situation for him. I am still grieving, because I loved him a lot. I miss him terribly. I feel that dog owners who refuse to obey the leash law and dog walkers who violate the dog park rules (which do require that you supervise your dogs, ALL your dogs) deprived me of my dog. I think this is a situation born of thoughtlessness and selfishness. It's no way to live in an urban community.
