Dear fuckwit with mobile phone and the rat/dog? on the extendable string....

[DooinMeCleanin]

I have not seen you in our park before, hopefully you have not been brought out by the sun, but simply walking at a different time to usual or have just acquired your rat/dog, in which case you can be forgiven for not knowing doggy walking etiquette. Let me help you out a little.

When someone is training their dog(s) to ignore other dogs it is helpful if you put your fucking phone away and at least attempt to control your rat/dog, rather than just grinning at it's incessant barking while you carry on chatting away.

You can spot someone who is training or attempting to train their dogs by many ways, they will probably have a clicker/and or treats. They will be looking at their dogs and interacting with them. They will probably be giving commands or throwing toys/balls for their dogs to retrieve.

It is also advisable that you do not let your rat/dog run to the end of it's extendable string and dive all over in-training dogs and their walker. I may have been training my dogs because they are dog-aggressive, for all you knew. Luckily for you this is not the case. I am training them to ignore other dogs because it is the polite and correct way to look after your dog. My own pup only barked because, fortunately she is not used to meeting dogs/rats owned by fuckwits and didn't quite know what to make of it. You might have noticed that she did stop barking once given the command to do so. You might want to consider teaching your dog/rat to do this. It is quite simple, a local trainer will be able to advise you on this. There are many classes at our local outdoors center. The next one starts in August.

Also while I may own dogs myself and I may have already been covered in mud, this does not mean that I don't mind other people's rats/dogs trying to climb up my trouser leg. I actually do not like this at all. Not because I am a 'miserable bitch' as you so eloquently put it, I simply find it rude and annoying.

It might help if you ditch the extendable string and invest in a dog lead, so you can properly control your dog without having to arse about with buttons. If you need a longer lead to practise recall, you can buy training leads at the local pet shop. Those extendable strings are quite dangerous and really have no place in dog training or walking.

I hope this helps you and your rat/dog.

Dear people with the pack of GSDs, your dogs are beautiful. I admire how well you have trained them all. Please take my dogs and train them for me

[mistlethrush]

Dear woman with the cocker spaniel. Yes, your dog is lovely, and friendly. No, I don't appreciate being tripped up by the extendable string which you have failed to control spectacularly, then be given a rope burn by it when I remonstrate because you let your dog run across the front of me. Again.

No, my dog is not on a lead because she is properly trained, but, in the event of using a flexi when dogs have to be on leads, yes, I always have my dog close if there are any other people around - otherwise, surprise, surprise, the lead is a hazard.

[sympathiese on the rat/dog experience Dooin! Dh usually calls them a 'rat on a string']

[AllTheYoungDoods]

Dear terrier owner,
If someone is training their dog on-lead to ignore other dogs, allowing your off-lead mutt to bumble up to them does not help. Mine will simply get over-excited and undo all my good work. Yours, however apparently goes for the friggin jugular with no warning. He is dog-aggressive, put him on lead. Cuddling him and saying 'Aww, he's a rescue' does not fly. I don't care if you pulled him from a burning building with your own bare hands. Well done, have a gold star, now put him on a lead or work on your recall.

[chickchickchicken]

dear lab owner, i love dogs but i do not want your dog running up to me and almost knocking me over. you may see me without my walking sticks sometimes, this does not mean that my arthritis has magically disappeared but that i am having a good day and enjoying a walk. i do not want to be knocked off my feet by your dog. you may find it funny, i fecking dont. yes, your dog looks lovely and obviously enjoys his walks. keep him under control and it would be lovely to say hello. i havent seen you on the field before so maybe he is a new dog and you are still learning. tip - other dog walkers are walking on the opposite field of the field to you because your dog is too boisterous. if i can ever safely get close to you it would be nice to say hello

[hatwoman]

extendable leads are the devil's work. for people who can't/won't train their dogs, so they need a piece of string to control them. except they don't - they might stop them running into the road but that's about it. and that doesn't constitute control.

[DooinMeCleanin]

Hatwoman they don't always stop them running onto the roads. Sometimes they jam or break leaving Feckwits standing helpless while their dog runs into oncoming traffic. This is why I think they are dangerous.

It seems every park has a fuckwit or two then?

I hope he is not out again tomorrow. Our park is normally lovely. There is one woman with a very out of control Lurcher pup, but I don't mind her so much because she at least tries to control her dog and she has a normal lead and halti harness. On the rare occassions her dog is calm enough for her to approach to other owners she always asks for training tips, bless her.

[hatwoman]

fair enough. so they serve no decent purpose at all then? I tried one once (it was my Dad's) I HATED it. horrible things

[mistlethrush]

hatwoman - we find ours really useful in those historic parks (or other locations) where they say 'Dogs on Leads only'. It means our well-behaved (will walk to heel off the lead unless there's a cat running away) dog gets more freedom to sniff what she wants than if she's on a short lead - but we do, invariably, have her close and the lead at 'normal' lead length if there's anyone else near to avoid any issue. It does take practise hauling in a pulling dog, but its quite achievable if you know what you're doing and have a little bit of foresight (eg - oh, there's someone coming in the opposite direction - I'll get my dog close BEFORE they arrive at the same point in the path as me). To be fair, my 6yo can manage (OK with a helpful dog, but, still, how hard can it be?)

[DooinMeCleanin]

is it fuckwit day today? Have I missed a memo or something? It happened again. With a JRT on an extendable string. Dd1 was walking the whippy one, but luckily I had my 'fuckwit radar' on after this morning and noticed him allowing his straining at the bit JRT to approach our whippy so I took the lead off dd1. "Oh, she just wants to say hello" the man pleaded, so I slowly allowed Whippy to meet the JRT who immediately tried to rip a chunk out of her. I pulled whippy back in time and scowled at the fuckwit who sadly proclaimed "But she is only little and she didn't mean it"

It looked like she meant it from where I was standing. And she is not only little, she is a fucking Jack Russel and more than capable of tearing my Whippet's throat out in a second if she so chose to. They are not fucking lap dogs, they strong hunters and very efficent at killing prey and smaller animals. They need to be trained just as much as a large breed dog does, otherwise they are just as dangerous.

If your dog is dog aggressive do not allow it to approach other dogs, it's not rocket science. It is common sense.

It's the sun bringing them all out of hiding isn't it?

[mistlethrush]

I like the way you can spot the 'real' dog owners in the park - when there's a gale blowing so you can't keep the umbrella up, they're still there, plodding round in oilskins - only cars in the car park

[misdee]

dear puppy owner. i am very sorry that ralph forgot himself this morning and tried to play with your fluff-baLL OF A DOG. HE has improved a lot over the last few weeks, and had been sitting well for 10mins waiting for the children, before the need to paw your pooch got the better of him. he didnt want to hurt him, he wanted to play. i understand that your fluff ball is a lot smaller than ralph, but maybe one day they can play together.

[DooinMeCleanin]

I don't mind bumbling, playfull young labs when mine are off leash to socialise.

[misdee]

they were both on leads. ralph has seen this pup every day at the school and is desperate to play. somedays he just gives a small 'woof' a wag or the tail and a sniff. but today he did his cat impression and did a leaping pawing at the poor ball of fluff.

[MotherJack]

I LOVE my extendable lead... but it was a very expensive one, has never jammed and I check it every week for faults. I bought it for OldBoy who didn't like every dog he met so he was kept on lead unless I could see for a long way in front and he was a bumbler who liked to sniff a lot.

It did not mean he could prance about on the end of it like a landed fish and bother other people/dogs/run into the road though. It meant he could bumble and sniff and be under full control. Ban LSL!! (Lead specific legislation )

[DooinMeCleanin]

MotherJack is yours one with an actual lead all rolled up inside? They don't look so bad, these fuckwits had the stringy versions that look like they could snap at any moment. They would definitely not be enough to stop Devil Dog if he spotted a squirrel, although the last time he spotted a squirrel he was more interested in sniffing out the squirrel trail he had found and completely ignored the real life squirrel

[Riveninside]

Extendable leads. The devils work on cycle paths. Argh

[MotherJack]

Dooin - no, it is a stringy looking one - but it holds up to 50kg of dog. Given OldBoy was half this weight and didn't pull I never had a problem. I don't think they are suited to dogs that pull, at all by they way, unless they are the "lead on a roll" type for the bigger breeds.

I think they have a bad rep because of the cheap ones, and the numpties that let their dogs dance around on the end of it.

I do agree, they must be cycle path hell, Riveninside if the owner is not aware/general numpty!!

[alice15]

The only good reason for an extendable lead, IMO, is for that difficult convalescent stage after lameness or surgery, where the dog needs to do a bit more than walk nicely by the owner on a short lead, but you don't yet want it disappearing over the horizon at full pelt and rupturing itself. I do recommend them for this (limited) situation, if the owner already has them.
I have several rat/dogs. It's not their fault if they are on extendable leads (not that mine ever are - on lead or off, mine are), nor yet if they have high pitched barks. They didn't choose to be rat sized or to have stupid owners ; )

[DooinMeCleanin]

I don't blame the rat dogs. I am sure in the right hands they are lovely little dogs, unfortunately I have yet to meet a nice, well trained rat dog aka a Yorkshire Terrier, I am sure they exist somewhere in the world. Just not here

[PersonalClown]

Another with 2(!) on extendable leads. (staffy and Doodle!) Much easier to handle than short leads and wanting to pull my arms out of my sockets as they sniff everything and bugger am I hauling two long training leads.

Bloody godsend when wandering around a nature reserve with woofers that love every animal and person.
But I keep my horrors halti-d and under control.

[Empusa]

Dear Weimaraner owner,

In case you hadn't noticed, your dog is giant. Absolutely huge. And, due to the laws of physics, when your large dog collides (at speed) with say, a person or another dog, the end result is not going to be great. As your dog likes colliding with people and other dogs you might want to consider this ingenius invention called a lead. Or you could, I dont know, try training your dog!

Also, if your dog has just crashed into another dog who is then going crazy, while the owners are yelling at you that their on lead dog is a rescue and not used to other dogs, this is usually seen as a hint that you might want to call your dog back.

Oh and do try not to glare at the owners of the other dog that your dog has just crashed into. Especially when it is the third time your dog has done this.



Dear owner of those two collies,

When your dogs are circling two dog walkers who are desperately trying to calm down their dog, and one of your collies is repeatedly trying to bite the female dog walkers bag, the correct response isn't to stay where you are (over the other side of the field) and feebly wave some treats around in the vague hope one of your dogs glances over.

[MotherJack]

So do you also think all owners of dogs who may be aggressive to a dog who suddenly pops out of the bushes in front of you should only walk their dogs where there are no other dogs, ever, Alice?

[alice15]

Sorry, MotherJack, had to re-read the whole thread to see what you were asking.
Before I had my rat/dogs (which are not Yorkies!) I had a large, dog-aggressive dog, so I entirely know where you are coming from. I used to have to go off the path and wind the lead around a tree so that I could hold him when other people let their dogs come up to him and bounce around him, and in the end I did indeed give up walking him where there were any other dogs, ever, because it just wasn't safe given other people's lack of control of their dogs. For me, then, an extendable lead was no help because he was so strong that he broke the spring a couple of times, usually just when I most needed it. Having reread the thread, I see that you have an extendable lead you like, which is great, but was not something I found when I had that dog. I wasn't thinking about your situation when I wrote my previous post, though, I was thinking about how very often the clients I see with extendable leads have them instead of training a recall etc, and the moveable tripwire effect can be a real nuisance unless the owner is good at using the lead, which many of them aren't (I am thinking of one spectacular session in the waiting room where a large puppy and an extending lead managed to pull over 3 chairs at the same time...)
Do you find you can wind your dog back in effectively if he's at full extension when the other dog pops into view? That was something I didn't master, either.

[MotherJack]

Thank you Alice

I do know where the dislike of the leads comes from, and I suppose it is why am a bit obsessional about using them in what I view to be the correct manner. Oldboy never really used the full extent of the lead, but (and I know this is a bit sad....) but I always used to employ what drivers (should) know as Stopping Sight Distance, so if we were going around a corner, he would be only as far in front of me as I could effectively pull back in if dogs appeared, as I would gently reign the lead back before getting to the corner/whatever blocked the view. If I whistled on seeing a dog in advance and he was in front or behind he would come to me anyway.... but if suddenly confronted from out of the bushes the chances are he might react so it was always kept to a distance where I could get him back, even if he didn't want to come back IYSWIM as the lead was good enough quality to haul him in if needed.... And thus, for the last 6 years of his lovely life he was able to bumble about and do his stuff, sniffing and snorting wherever we went and I could still remain in full control.

The only "problem" I have ever had with the lead is after determining the dogs got on, when the other owner also had their dog on an extendable/long lead was the resultant owner-aerobics ensuring the two dogs didn't knit a Dr Who Scarf between them.

I walk OldLady on Oldboy's extendable lead now as I am so used to it and it's like an extension of me in a way. She is far more chilled and generally loves other dogs who bound up to her out of nowhere or stays at my side if not... although there is another difference - whilst he could be trusted to be totally disinterested by squirrels/cats/rabbits (he'd give them a passing lick given a chance) she is an absolute sod and the lead is locked by roadsides, even though she walks very nicely at side. She wouldn't think twice about picking up her skirts and belting after a critter, the little monkey. But I know this so there is no problem.

It is, by all accounts, always people who spoil a good thing and always bad owners who think that the lead is all the control they need, even though it is 6 metres long.

So.... Dear Fuckwits. Stop being Fuckwits. I think this is all that needs to be said on the subject (whether they use extendable leads or not )

[chickchickchicken]

"So.... Dear Fuckwits. Stop being Fuckwits. I think this is all that needs to be said on the subject (whether they use extendable leads or not )"

[Tchootnika]

Yep, the sunshine brings em out like a nasty rash.
(sunshine + bank holiday = worst of all)

Time to campaign for entire overhaul of Dangerous Dogs Act?

• i.e. have it redrafted to curb excesses of feckless feckwits and their ratdogs/stretchy leads/pathetic excuses ("A mastiff once gave him a hard stare so now he suffers PTSD/thinks he's protecting me...")
  

And on it goes...

fell much better for that. Thanks.