# Training interference RANT & advice needed



## GatorDog (Aug 17, 2011)

Living in a pretty highly populated city means that tracking areas are hard to come by. My club has gotten lucky enough that the park director of the town of Guilderland in Albany county has given us permission to use the soccer fields at the 3 local Guilderland parks. We are allowed to use them for tracking as long as no children are there to play soccer...Fair enough.

Last Saturday we head out to one of the 3 fields that we haven't used yet. I arrive with another club member and we lay our tracks. Upon returning to our cars, a man parks his Lexus and opens his door while his off leash Vizsla comes flying out of his car towards us. The dog is friendly enough, but the man proceeds to let the dog run through the parking lot and towards the soccer field where our tracks are laid. I politely explain to the man that we are tracking and ask if he could use the soccer field across the lot, where we aren't tracking. He agrees and moves on. A few of his 'friends' show up with their dogs and we come to find out that they use this area as a 'dog park' every morning between 7 and 9a.m. Fortunately there is enough room for us to all do our own things, and the 'dog park' people use the opposite field, far enough away that they won't interfere with our tracking.

Fast forward to this weekend, and the same people are there again. It was obvious that the owners are ticked because we asked them to keep their dogs off the tracks. So now there are off leash dogs running all through the parking lot and fields, jumping on our cars, getting all of our dog riled up. They ignore our requests to leash them and allow them to eat all the food from the tracks, pee and poop all over them, and not pick up after their dogs.

Vizsla man then came over and confronted me about the situation. I agreed with him that he has just as much of a right to be there as I do, but there are still laws and our dogs are always leashed, and we always clean up after them. When I told him about the leash law in New York State, he continued to tell me that it doesn't apply to him because he lives in Guilderland and he 'paid' for this park with his tax dollars (because I'm not a tax payer, right?) I pointed to the sign less than 10 ft from us that clearly stated that the dogs must be leashed at all times and all dog waste must be removed, and he storms off screaming. One of his 'friends' drive by while the Vizsla was still running in circles around our cars and told us to shut our f'ing dogs up..Then he circled the parking lot for twenty minutes after. It was an ugly situation overall and made me super uncomfortable. I debated calling the police, but I wasn't sure if I was just over-reacting. 

I did contact animal control and they will be coming to tracking with me on Saturday. I'm not crazy right? There's still a leash law in this state. The dogs are tearing up and defecating on the children's soccer fields, and this guy sees nothing wrong with that. Never mind the fact that Guilderland built a dog park right down the street for people like this. I'm trying to avoid having one of our club dogs get into a fight when an off leash dog confronts them in the parking lot. I also don't want to have to worry about possibly running these dogs over in the parking lot every weekend that we go tracking...

What would you have done in my situation?


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## bocron (Mar 15, 2009)

I'd have contacted AC and possibly the park director that gave you permission to use the field. I wouldn't want the park guy thinking it was us that was abusing the privilege of using the field.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

I would be furious. 

The dogs jumping on my cars would have really done it. At that point, I would have been taking down license plate numbers to turn over to my car insurance so they owners could pay for a new paint job to fix all the scratches.

I would have your club director speak to the part director regarding off leash dogs on the fields.


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## Shade (Feb 20, 2012)

bocron said:


> I'd have contacted AC and possibly the park director that gave you permission to use the field. I wouldn't want the park guy thinking it was us that was abusing the privilege of using the field.


For sure, that's ridiculous!


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## GatorDog (Aug 17, 2011)

Jax08 said:


> I would be furious.
> 
> The dogs jumping on my cars would have really done it. At that point, I would have been taking down license plate numbers to turn over to my car insurance so they owners could pay for a new paint job to fix all the scratches.
> 
> I would have your club director speak to the part director regarding off leash dogs on the fields.


I did get his license plate number. His dog literally tried to jump into the back hatch area of my SUV. I leave it open with Aiden in the crate when it's hot. Aiden never usually tries to bust out, but I'm sure he could if he wanted to. It's a wire crate and that dog was trying to jump in next to him..

And normally I don't care about off leash dogs in an empty open field, but there was crap EVERYWHERE in these fields. I don't know what they do before soccer games but they must spend hours having to clean up. I also don't want the club to be blamed for the crap everywhere, because we ALWAYS clean up after our dogs.


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## GsdLoverr729 (Jun 20, 2010)

I agree with all the other posts. I would contact AC, the park director, insurance company, and I would also report everything that happened to the local police. It's not likely, but in the possible case of vandalism, encounters getting physical, etc. I'm quite cautious as you can tell


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## Lauri & The Gang (Jun 28, 2001)

I would chat up the local police and have an unmarked squad car there next Saturday as well. Tell them they could make some serious money writing tickets for off leash, dog waste not picked up, dogs at large, etc.


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## GsdLoverr729 (Jun 20, 2010)

Lauri & The Gang said:


> I would chat up the local police and have an unmarked squad car there next Saturday as well. Tell them they could make some serious money writing tickets for off leash, dog waste not picked up, dogs at large, etc.


 :thumbup: ^ Totally need a like button!!!


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## Freestep (May 1, 2011)

I'm glad the ACO is going out there with you next time! Hopefully the "regular" crew will be out there in full force, running off leash, pooping everywhere, jumping on people's cars and picking fights with other dogs. I want all of 'em busted!

If the ACO can come in plain clothes so the crew isn't tipped off, and you can take pictures or video of the whole thing, so much the better. Now, I'm not a litigious person generally, but if these people are blatantly flouting leash laws and acting threatening toward you, that's bordering on criminal activity, and it's certainly within the realm of a civil suit should you wish to pursue it.


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## GatorDog (Aug 17, 2011)

Freestep said:


> I'm glad the ACO is going out there with you next time! Hopefully the "regular" crew will be out there in full force, running off leash, pooping everywhere, jumping on people's cars and picking fights with other dogs. I want all of 'em busted!
> 
> If the ACO can come in plain clothes so the crew isn't tipped off, and you can take pictures or video of the whole thing, so much the better. Now, I'm not a litigious person generally, but if these people are blatantly flouting leash laws and acting threatening toward you, that's bordering on criminal activity, and it's certainly within the realm of a civil suit should you wish to pursue it.


Exactly how I feel. I'm wasn't trying to look for trouble, and normally don't care about off leash dogs, so long as the owners have them in control and are courteous to others, but the pooping in the field and jumping on the cars pushed me over the edge.

Thanks for all the support guys.


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## Smithie86 (Jan 9, 2001)

I agree with all. Contact the park director and AC. 


These are nervy bullies that will back down when their threats are called out.


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## abakerrr (Aug 8, 2008)

I've had bad luck with tracking the past few weeks too. Have had people walk across them, pick up the articles and toss them aside, June bugs swarm me as I laid another, and even had a skunk hot on my tail eating up my bait as I laid the last one (never thought I could run so fast). Even got yelled at by a parks manager for "planting" seeds on city property  Its been quite the saga this summer, to say the least.

If you felt threatened by this person and anticipate running into them regularly, having an ACO come by next sat to set the ground rules probably isn't a bad idea. When things are set up to be black and white and structure is in place, there's no confusion or room to bicker over who pays taxes and who was there first. Have the ACO set it up so they're on one side of the park and your on the other. If AC wants to make an issue of their animals being off leash, that's their own prerogative and a totally different issue that shouldn't involve you once you give them that information. Good luck on getting it resolved!


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