Earlier in the week I had an experience with my group that made me very uneasy. I was at the park with 4 small dogs when out of the blue a little boy yelled "Look! Dogs"! Suddenly we were surrounded by about 30 children all who were around 8 years old. The kids had name tags and looked to be part of some type of camp. I looked desperately for an adult but no one was close by. Fortunately all of my dogs were okay around children but I could tell they were a bit overwhelmed. Why not? We had 60 hands grabbing at us. Kids screaming and lots of excited chatter. There were a couple of boys trying to show off. They kept jumping and screeching towards the dogs. At first I remained calm and tried to get some order. "One at a time". "No jumping"." Don't touch". The dogs started getting nervous and they tried to hide behind me. They ended up wrapping their leashes in knots around my legs. I couldn't walk... Still no adults... The kids were still screeching... lunging... I couldn't move. I finally snapped and told the lunging octopus "BACK OFF"! My head spun "I SAID ONE AT A TIME" I spit out "DON'T TOUCH THEM". At last, the latte sipping teenage counselors appeared. Clueless. They stood and watched as I tried to get the leashes untangled. One young woman heard me snap at the octopus "STOP IT"! She finally got the hint and moved them along. Not to protect them from the stressed out barking dogs but from the weird lady that was screaming at the children. This video is a great depiction of what happens when kids just want to say "Hi".
