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FOXBORO - A few dog owners flunked obedience school Saturday.

In defiance of a court order posted along with a large sign at the gate to the Foxboro Dog Park, some people continued to let their pets run free in the park, according to police and town officials, who confronted scofflaws at the site both in the morning and the afternoon.

The town at about 3 p.m. slapped a lock on the entire Cocasset River Park, until further notice, in the hope of heading off more serious confrontations between angry abutters and park users.

"We've been called in and out of here all day with complaints from abutters," said Selectman Mark Sullivan, the board's liaison to the dog park.

On the advice of a lawyer representing the town in a case set for trial this Friday, town officials on Saturday afternoon padlocked Cocasset River Park, located off Mill Street, as well as the fenced dog park within. Sullivan said the park was being locked "to avoid any altercations between the neighbors" opposed to the park and those who still refuse to leash their pets.

Sgt. Allan Haskell said the Foxboro police received about six calls Saturday about dog owners ignoring the posted sign and court order requiring the pets to be leashed on the park grounds.

Office Ray Smith said he was called to the park twice that day.

"When I came this time, there were four unleashed dogs," Smith said at about 2:30 p.m. "I advised them to put their dogs on a leash." They did so, he said.

Sullivan had less luck earlier in the day.

On one of his visits to the park, he found two men and two women with four dogs roving the beach area of the old town swimming pool at Cocasset River Park.

Identifying himself as a town selectman, he said, he asked the visitors to leash their dogs.

"They said they don't care," Sullivan said.

He said he told them they were acting in contempt of a court order.

"Are you threatening us?" one of them responded, according to Sullivan. "I said the police are on the way. You can talk to them," he said.

During the day, some of the 17 plaintiffs who brought a case to Land Court seeking to permanently close the dog park came by and observed, as did their attorney, Edward Valanzola of Mansfield, Sullivan said.

Robert Boette, acting chairman of the conservation commission, said the lawyer representing the town in the case, Sam Perkins, advised him to put the park under lock and key. He put a lock on the fence that surrounds the dog park, and Foxboro Recreation Director Debbie Giardino locked the outer gate to Cocasset River Park, with Haskell and Smith looking on.

A trial on a suit bought by residents objecting to the canine playland that abuts a neighborhood is scheduled to be heard Friday in Land Court in Boston.

In a preliminary action last Thursday morning, Land Court judge Keith Long issued an order temporarily ending the operation of the privately run dog park.

That order required the unlocking of the dog park, so that the area could be used by others for passive recreation.