My Dogs Are Too Darned Popular

This is not a post about how Bunny now has more friends than I do on Facebook, although that has recently happened.  Today's post is about our visit to the dog park on Saturday night.  It was a problem that I haven't encountered before, and I'm still scratching my head over it a bit.

Saturday turned out to be a pretty toasty day, so we waited until after dinner to take the girls to the dog park to burn off some steam.  As we walked into the gate leading into the second gate, we saw that there was a young German Shepherd puppy and a Pit Bull puppy playing with some people inside the dog park.  Morgan was in heaven, barking and wagging her plume of a tail in anticipation of a rousing game of chase me and bitey face. 

However, as we were about to enter the park, two teenaged girls approached and grabbed the Pit Bull puppy.  That's not terribly unusual, a lot of people will pull back their dogs so others can enter.  The Shepherd's owner called her back, too.  As we walked in, though, the girls began gushing over Bunny and Blueberry.  We've gotten used to people fussing over them, too, and that's okay.  I know that people have questions about them and a certain fascination.  I let the girls both go and the two teens were both very insistent on petting them.  Usually the girls will just walk off, though, and ignore people when they've had enough of their attentions like the true little princesses they are.

The usual small talk ensued as the girls began to make their way around the park.  The teenagers were accompanied by their parents and the Shepherd had an older couple there with her.  We were asked their names and I told them.  No sooner had the girls learned their names then they began really pursuing all three of our dogs.  Calling their names and running around the park after them.

Certainly, they weren't hurting the dogs.  Their mother joked "I'm not sure if the girls are wearing the dogs out or the dogs are wearing the girls out."  I just thought, "We came here so the dogs could play with other dogs, not be pestered by annoying children."  Despite the fact that I thought that, I did not say that.  I wanted to, but I didn't.  I just felt like, the girls seemed like they were old enough that they ought to have known better and if they didn't, perhaps the parents should have put leashes on them. 

I'm still at a loss as to how to respond to the situation.  If someone had an aggressive dog that had bothered mine, I wouldn't have hesistated to tell them to call their dog off, and most likely would would have left.  It wasn't a situation where the dogs were in danger, it was just interfering with their and our enjoyment of the dog park experience.  I've met other kids there who were very pleasant and fun to be around, but these two were not. 

On a positive note, after they left I saw our best Bunny and Morgan moment to date.  Bunny walked through the trees and laid down under a tree like a crouching lion.  She stared at Morgan and Morgan stood staring back at her.  After a few minutes of stare down, Bunny leaped up in the air, ran straight at Morgan and then veered off, leading Morgan into a nice game of chase, and Morgan managed to play this round without putting any parts of Bunny in her mouth.  The game and the evening ended on a high note, with three tails wagging.  My only regret is that it was too dark to get a picture of the event!