Pee'ing in Public and Loose Dogs

So last night I was giving a lesson at a local park- this particular dog is a Pitbull x who has some dog issues but is a really great dog. we meet at a big park in the city that surrounds a lake- it is a great place for this type of dog to put her newly learned obedience to test. There are loads of people, dogs, bikes etc for her to look at and then choose to act appropriately or not....

Last night we met a little later and it was darkish and cold. While I was waiting for my student I saw TWO off leash dogs...I knew this did not bode well for our walk. My student comes just as the second off leash dog goes by. We get her dog out of the car and warm up with some obedience- and then we see a little dog running as fast as his little legs would carry him- right towards us. Yikes! The owner is walking casually about 20 feet behind him. I step towards the dog to grab the dragging leash and the woman rushes up and says something about him being friendly- I tell her that this dog is not- and she takes her dogs leash from my hand walks a few feet away and drops it again- the dog trots on ahead.

And then coming right behind is a baseball team from the neighboring ball diamond- out for a warm up run or something. We start walking and then one of them veers off the path and takes a piss- IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PARK! Who does that?????!!! As he ran to catch up to his team mates he looked around to see if anyone had saw. Of course I am sure the whole freakin' park saw him. Geesh.

We move to a big open area and put the dog on a long line- to practice recalls and such. We are almost finished up when we spot not one, but two off leash dogs- the owner walking behind them, leash in hand....we move farther from the path and hope they are either well behaved or don't notice us. Well they didn't notice us- thankfully!

Back at the car we put reactive dog away, and she brings out her other dog to take for a walk- we turn around and see the same man with the two off leash labs heading in our direction. So of course they head on over to check us out. One dog heads back to his owner when he rounds a corner but the other goes into stalk mode- hackles up, intense staring...the works. Great. So does the guy come back and get his dog. No. For five minutes we waited and the dog stood and stared. I finally took a step towards the dog and it spooked and ran around the corner. My god why are people so dumb.


People really annoy me and I find myself have less and less patience for stupidity.