[Discussion] I got called a "Karen" at the dog park today.Dog Talks

\Please not I am not using breeds as an indicator that the breed is a problem but as a way to easily keep the dogs straight in the story*

The dog park in my town is not stellar so I drive 25 minutes up the highway to the another area dog park. It is an amazing park. The owners are largely responsible, there are always dogs there, and it is huge with lots of fun features for the dogs.

Today while I was there a super adorable samoyed arrived. I looked around for the owner so I could tell them their cloud of a pup was adorable could couldn't find them and didn't think much of it. Being an obsessor of adorable dogs (especially fluffy white ones as that is what I have) I wanted my dog to be friends with him so I told my dog to approach him! Think of the adorable photos! Wellllllll turns out the samoyed was reactive so we flipped around and I told my dog to leave him.

I started walking laps around the park and noticed that the samoyed kept getting in fights with some dogs and humping others, so much so that a lot of dogs were starting to get angry and reactive to the humping.

A few fights started and the other owners were pulling their dogs away from the aggressor (the samoyed).

Hoping in the responsibility of the average dog owner I decided to ignore it and hope the samoyed owner would step in. I knew I could keep my own dog from going near the reactive samoyed.

I then came across a woman with a Great Pyrenees and we stopped to talk from a distance to each other because it is pretty rare to have two big white dogs at this dog park! The samoyed ran up and we were laughing at the adorable nature of the three clouds playing. I tried to not worry too much about the samoyed because initially it seemed like he was doing ok and I thought I might have misjudged him.

Unfortunately the GP was only 8 months old and therefore not yet neutered. As such the samoyed got really focusing on the GP. He would not leave him alone and started humping and attacking him. It was getting bad for this dog and the owner was worried how it might affect his socialization and concerned he might not be able to restrain himself and hurt the smaller dog. She could not get away from him, no matter where they went. I offered to help he track down the samoyed's owner in the hopes that we could ask them to just keep an eye out to help separate if things continued or (admittedly preferably) leave.

Turns out it was an 11-12 year old kid who was playing on his phone on the other side of the park.

After determining the dog was his I explained why we sought him out. He started getting really flustered and upset and said "Well he is not exactly trained so I don't know what you want me to do."

Ah shit.

Ha, so I started trying to console him and tried to explain that I was not getting mad at him but trying to help him protect his dog. He got really upset and said it's a dog park so his dog is allowed to act that way. Ugh. So once again, I tried to help him understand it was a safety issue for his dog and others. He said he would keep a better eye out.

Then it happened three more times and he did not step in.

I went up to the dog to check the tags so I could call his parents. Admittedly pretty karen-y BUT I love how safe that dog park is, that is why I drive to that one rather than the one 3 minutes from my house! (My dog has been attacked at my local park twice). The tag only said:

CITY NAME

Phone Number

ID Number

So I thought maybe they just use a service and are private! No stress. I took a picture so I could have all the info when I called.

Weeeelllllll Turns out it was the number for animal services and they would not give me the direct contact info and asked what it was about.

So turns out I was reporting the dog to the police, ha, sorry kid!

Within 5 minutes the kid had the dog on leash and was walking around the park.

He came up to me and the following conversation followed:

Kid: Was it you that called animal services?!

Me: It definitely was. I am sorry that I had to do it but your dog got in three more fights after we talked and you did not intervene or take your dog away. I wanted to just call your parents and talk to them to explain what was happening but apparently that is not the number on the tag.

Kid: You know this is a dog park, right?! Dogs can be dogs.

Me: I am sorry and I hope it doesn't cause you too much stress but it is important that the dog park stays safe for everyone who wants to enjoy it.

Kid: *flips me off* Thanks, Karen!

As he walked away I wish I had been clever enough to say "oh my goodness, how did you know my name?!" And rocked his world but I am not. Really I just should have walked away. But apparently I am also a child because I said "Oo, nice burn!" as he walked away. Ugh. I should be more mature than that.

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I am confident that I did the right thing but that doesn't change the fact that I now feel like I might throw up. I hate that I probably ruined that kid's day. Life is hard enough anyway right now. But a seriously hurt dog would have ruined a lot more than just one day for the kid.

TL;DR: Called animal services on a dog starting fights at the park with no responsible party in sight, responsible party is pissed off that I turned their dog in. Please validate me by telling me I did the wrong thing because I feel so bad for hurting a little kids fragile lil emotions. Or tell me I should feel bad. Basically, reddit, please tell me how to feel, hA!

Submitted October 15, 2020 at 10:21PM by hugabugyourug https://ift.tt/3lQMVaK