VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — Make sure your dogs are on a leash. That’s the message Virginia Beach Animal Control officers are trying to get across to pet owners.

In fact, they’ll be patrolling the city, especially in public parks, to make sure people obey the leash laws. It is the law to keep them on a leash in public, and it’s for everyone’s safety.

Jake is a 5-month-old full bred German shepherd who loves to play at the local dog park, and loves his owner Rachael Baker even more.

“He never leaves my side, it’s never been an issue for me,” Baker said.

So Baker doesn’t always keep him on a leash in public.

“I will take him off the leash occasionally and I wouldn’t take him off the leash if I didn’t know that he wouldn’t stay right by my side, cause he always does. I trust him to do that,” she explained.

That is until today, when 10 On Your Side told her about the standing law in Virginia Beach.

“Now that I know it’s a rule I probably won’t,” she said.

Meghan Conti with the Virginia Beach Animal Control says dogs need to be on a leash at all times unless inside a city designated dog park.

“It can cause a problem not just with the dog on leash or the person, but it can also cause a problem for your own dog, so we’re trying to encourage people, it is a city law, it’s a class 4 misdemeanor, so up to a $250 fine. So we’re trying to encourage people to keep their dogs on a leash in the parks on any city property or walking through the neighborhood,” Conti said.

“When I pulled up here to the dog park there was an animal control lady sitting in her car just kind of watching and looking around,” Baker said.

Conti said it is for safety reasons. “It can decrease dog fights, it can decrease people getting injured … if you’re going to the dog park it’s not pull up in the parking lot, open the door and let the dog run out, it is leash your dog until he gets into the dog park, then you remove the leash to allow the dog to run in the dog park,” Conti explained.

“People get distracted very easily, dogs get distracted very easily, and that causes citizens to not realize that their dog is defecating and they don’t clean it up. It causes dogs to run up to strangers and they may be yelling at their dog to come back but that doesn’t happen quick enough.”