After reading Gloria Robbins’ Nov. 10 letter regarding dogs on the beach (“Unruly dogs menace children on our beaches”), I was prompted to write.

I like dogs. I don’t have an objection to a dog off a leash in general, but when groups of dogs get together, they run rampant.

I am a frequent visitor of Willard Beach with my preschool daughter. I can’t tell you how many times she’s been jumped on and knocked into by unruly dogs.

The final straw was when two dogs urinated on my daughter’s sandcastle at Willard Beach one summer evening, one right after the other. Where were their owners? Did they even notice?

I saw no one trying to prevent it from happening, no one calling the dogs away, no one apologizing. The dogs ran off with no owners in sight.

My observation is that many dog owners believe their dogs are well-trained, well-behaved and voice-controlled. I have seen very little evidence that this is true. I think a lot of dog owners are kidding themselves.

When your dog sees another dog, a squirrel, a stick being thrown, a ball or whatever, that dog is off. That dog is not listening to you at all.

Do dogs have a “right” to run around peeing on everything? Killing endangered birds?

Do people have a right to walk the beach unaccosted and without worrying about stepping in urine-soaked sand (assuming the solid waste has been picked up, which it isn’t always)?

I am not painting all dog owners with the same brush. But there are quite a few who should be a little more courteous to the rest of us.

Rebecca Milliken

South Portland