Hello Tweets,

I agree that birders should be polite to dog owners in the off-leash area,
however, I would take the report of the SODA person who claims that birders
are rude and nasty to dog owners in the off-leash area with a grain, no,
make it a ton, of salt. I must admit that I have once seen a birder be very
rude to a person who was walking their dog "off-leash" in the "on-leash"
part of the park. I was there when it happened and I was embarrased by it.
However, that was only once and I go to that park as a birder once a week
and with my dog about five times a week. The usual scenario is to that a
birder very politely asks a dog owner to leash their dog in the "on-leash"
area and the dog owner tells them to, well, you know. I have seen this time
and time again.

I could imagine a birder saying something rude if the dog jumped on them and
my experience has been that many dog owners become unbelievably defensive
when their dog's behavior is bad. I once had to ask an owner at Marymorr
Park to call her dog when the dog was jumping all over me because it smelled
food in my pocket and the owner snapped at me, "don't come to a dog park if
you don't like dogs." Didn't bother to apologize for the fact that I now
had muddy pawprints all over me. My experience is that there are some owners
who have not bothered to train their dogs basic obedience, don't believe
that "must be under voice command" applies to them, and if you don't like
it, well, you can just go to hell. I can't help but wonder if this is the
kind of person Rachel might have encountered.

By the way, Marymoor Park is in Redmond (not Renton)

Megan Lyden
Bellevue, Washington