Sigh.
I wouldn't leave my dogs in a place where they could.....
Be stolen.
Get out and run away.
Damage themselves.
Choke on something.
If that makes me a neurotic, "helicopter" dog owner, then so be it. I'd rather be that, than spend the rest of my life being tortured by thoughts of where my dogs might be, and what might be being done to them.
I'm afraid I'm also of the old school where the children come first but other people have other views which are to be respected. I have recalled my own experience of losing a son for about twenty minutes even after practicing what I considered to be good parenting skills.
Things happen, taking ones eye off the ball for seconds can result in a tragedy. How many young children from Portugal to Madeira to Kos to Australia were there happily playing outside one minute but gone, disappeared into thin air the next? I know from my own experience on a beach at Palma, Majorca, that these things happen. The best we can hope for is to mitigate the risk by just trying to be good parents.
50 metres might be too far but then it might not be. The McCanns admit that they were lulled into a false sense of security by the tranquility at the resort, an ideal hunting ground for any predator.