Accident waiting to happen ?

Or just my over active imagination ?

There’s a council run reserve not far from my home. It’s neglected. They put in some sculptures and a pond but it was soon trashed and filled with trollers and other sundries. It’s in a rough part of town.

There’s a disputed history about a massacre and for me, part of the attraction is that butterflies respond to nature left well alone.

On my way back from Lidl, I called in. They’ve put in a couple of new benches which haven’t yet even been graffitied. I said hi to a man walking his dog on a lead and headed off down the steps as in my blip.

Luckily, as I was near the top, I became aware of a commotion in the bottom field. 

A group of dogs of assorted varieties were rushing around having the time of their lives. They were with two girls, one of whom had a dog on a lead. The others (and I counted at least eight in the snap I took) were bounding around, rolling each other over etc. 
The girls were wanting to head off, up the steps to the right, and I decided to wait until they’d gone before I went on with my walk. The two girls called to the dogs but they just ignored them.

After a while, the girls gave up and just went along in the direction the dogs were rolling and bounding about.

I decided to head back to the car.

I wasn’t frightened. I’ve had dogs most of my life, and bred, showed and judged them.  But I am aware that sometimes groups of dogs can become overexcited and unpredictable. 

It was clear that the girls had no influence, let alone control, over the dogs. To get away and give up the idea of the walk seemed sensible.

Later I thought about the situation.  The two cars parked not in the car park but by the entrance were not official and marked doggy daycare vehicles, as we usually see round here. Perhaps the girls were earning a bit of cash exercising the dogs for their owners. Perhaps they hadn’t thought what might happen if natural pack behaviour developed if any of the dogs were spooked!  Insurance ? Potential problems ?

I’m glad I headed home but we’ve heard quite a bit on the news recently …..

I hope I was just being unnecessarily cautious.