We took the dogs to the dog beach yesterday. It was a beautiful day for it, and the beach was, as is typical on nice days, crowded. The dogs had a great time.
This beach is designated as a dog beach. While human swimming is technically not forbidden, why would anyone want to? At any rate, in the water was a kid, about 10 years old maybe. His mom was sitting on the sand watching him occasionally.
All the dogs on the beach were running around and being crazy. It’s what they do. They want to play with everyone and anyone. Anytime a dog came near this kid in the water, however, he’d tense up and put his hands out, practically screaming in terror. Which, as anyone who has dogs will tell you, is not the way to get the dogs to leave you alone.
It turns out that this kid was both allergic to dogs and scared to death of them. Which begs the question:
WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU SWIMMING AT A DOG BEACH?
And, for his mother:
WHY DID YOU BRING YOUR DOG-ALLERGIC KID TO A DOG BEACH TO SWIM, YOU STUPID SOW?
This kid had no business being there, and you know that if a dog did something to him that got him hurt, like chase him further into the water, or bite him, or, hell, just shed on him and sent him into allergic shock or something, that the dog would be the one blamed and probably put down, whereas the stupid cow and her stupid brat would be the “victims.” I get pissed off at dog owners who do things that reflect badly on all of us, but geez, we should be able to take our dogs to a beach that is specifically earmarked for their off-leash use without worrying about crap like this.
The hundreds of dogs running around off-leash should have been a pretty big clue. The kid was certainly old enough to know better, and the mom was definitely old enough to know better.
BTW, for you non-Chicagoans who don’t know the beach in question, there are other beaches specifically for humans within a few minutes’ walk. Both mom and kid are officially boneheads.
The one *jeevmon is talking about is postage-stamp sized, and every available grain of sand is covered with frolicking dogs on any half-decent weekend day.
We used to take Marge to dog beach until our vet said definitely not to since it was just a warm water breeding ground for every dog sickness on the planet.
So keeping that in mind…why in the name of holy fuck would you let your kid in that water…and here’s a tip…the reason it’s warm enough to swim there?
We haven’t been told anything like that by our vet. Our dogs are immunized up the yin-yang because they play in a dog park and stay at boarding facilities/ daycare with other dogs regularly. I wonder what the relative infection risk is from a body of water the size of Lake Michigan. The water was not that warm this time, though. The dogs didn’t seem to mind.
I could start a whole 'nother thread about how they only have one garbage canister on this beach for poop bags, or how getting to this beach involves negotiating concrete formations of non-trivial height, which is actually more of an issue for the humans than the dogs. But that’s a whole 'nother thread.
Warm is definitely a relative term. I sure wouldn’t swim in the lake until at least mid-June; I’d probably end up with hypothermia. But when I was ten, I would have swum this time of year (and frequently did).
They aren’t posting lake temps here yet, but it’s still been going down to the 40s at night until the past couple of days, so I’d be very surprised if the lake were much warmer than 50-some degrees during the day. You pretty much need the constitution of a woolly mammoth to be in the lake for more than a few seconds.
Well, I mean, I’m not lying. My vet did tell me that. He said to remember that there’s no regulations. Someone may let their worm infested dog swim there all day, or a dog with open wounds or a sickness, then your dog drinks the water and bam. I mean, he said it’s a long shot that you’d get something, but I’m such a paranoid about Marge that I said she couldn’t go anymore.
The water was definitely not warm enough for human swimming (which also raises a point about the mom in question) but the dogs don’t care.
I should also point out that a lot of the sand is covered with dog waste (due to that one garbage can) and seriously, what is wrong with you that you’d let your kid swim there, whether he likes dogs or not? Unless the kid has been vaccinated against kennel cough and on heartworm medication, he’s bound to catch something. I wouldn’t swim in it, personally, and definitely wouldn’t let my kid do more than dip his feet in.
I think the woman was well within her rights. I mean it didn’t say no kids or anything did it? Anyway, I run my dog off-leash and don’t even bother with dog parks and stuff, those dog statutes and leash laws aren’t that important anyway,
I mean, they are just misdemeanors, pay the fine and be done with it.
Well, if you wanna be technical, there’s no law against being an idiot. There isn’t even a Chicago ordinance against being an idiot. But then the OP never said there was.
Yes, this woman was apparently exercising her right to be an idiot, especially when there are perfectly safe, free beaches a few dozen yards away from the one in question. So what’s your point? I will leave it to others to comment on your own behavior; someone should be along shortly.
county, when they presented you with the social contract, did you bother to read any of it before you signed? Parking in fire lanes, baseball bats for people who cross picket lines, ignoring basic pet-owners’ etiquette…do any of your neighbors actually speak to you anymore, or have they just decided you’re the bad neighbor from hell?
county has a history of being an idiot. I can’t tell if he’s a troll or if he’s actually believes and does the things he says. He does seem to thrive on everyone jumping on him for being an ass, so I’m leaning towards troll.
You’ll think differently the first time someone’s unleased Doberman bites your nuts off. Which may have some benefits, as far as society at large is concerned, but that’s another matter.