To dare to think that the Cult of Dog has gone too far?

BTW it’s just as nutty over here now. I have 2 dogs not allowed on furniture. I have friends who bring dogs on a visit and they get upset if I won’t let their dog lie on the sofa/ window seat/ bed. I spent weeks last year trying to get rid of hair from my house and car from one particular friends dog it nearly ended a 20 year friendship. I don’t let my kids destroy the house why do people think their pets have free rein.

Yes. If your kid are begging for an ice cream, dont buy them a dog one. But a human eating it will come to no harm.

I am not sure what point you are trying to make here if I am honest.
Dog ice cream is not causing famine in other countries, and UK dog owners treating their dogs to it are not causing UK kids to go without breakfast.

If you have any sort of luxury, or eat anything beyond gruel, then your point means nothing.

Something weird has happened to me in the last couple of weeks. I went to visit a friend and her dog went mad for me . I was licked and she kept coming over for a smooth. She's a gorgeous dog and the same combination of breeds that my gran's dog was. Since then dogs keep coming over to me for a smooth or a belly rub.

After spending the day with my friend and her dog we've decided that we'll get a dog when we move into our new house and it's since we made that decision that this canine weirdness has happened.

Yes I absolutely love my dogs more than my family, the dogs are pure and uncomplicated, my family are a pain in the ass!

I have two well behaved greyhounds, though, who are always on lead when out and about, and I wouldn't take them inside a cafe as their noses are at table height and if they lie down they'd take up half the floor space.

It's not the dogs, it's the owners.

My daughter works in a garden centre cafe, and they used to allow dogs, but there were too many incidents of dogs weeing on expensive garden furniture, and once a display of jellycats, so they’ve banned them. The staff are very happy, but the customers are FURIOUS. My daughter is getting abuse every single day, one man even pulled back his arm as if to punch her. As though the young girl making the coffee is responsible for the big garden centre decisions

I’ve been in a couple of homeware shops recently with people with dogs - dogs rubbing up against the soft furnishings on sale . Owner completely oblivious. Really put me off buying anything on the high street - at least I know my direct online order hasn’t been covered in dog hair / dog sweat / mud/ pee or poo ( hopefully) Same in shops selling sweets or food on low shelves - no chance I’m going to buy

Then write to your local council. Ask them to designate dogs-allowed and dogs-not-allowed sections on the beach, or example.

As a dog owner, I am perfectly accepting of the fact that not everyone likes dogs and dogs are not welcome at certain venues. Fair enough, I simply spend my money in places that do.

I think life is better with dogs. 😃

I agree people should avoid places that don’t meet their requirements, that’s what most of us do, rather than whinge. Better still, set up your own cafes etc that don’t allow dogs and stop thinking you can tell cafe and shop owners that do allow them that they’re wrong.

Marshfield Farm Ice Cream's Scoops for dogs ice cream ingredients. I'll just leave this here.

I own 2 dogs and even I agree with you.

what really pisses me off is the entitlement of many (not all, I’m not) dog owners.

quite a few rock up to our local park run, the dogs do nothing but bark constantly, can’t hear the person talking at the beginning, the dogs fight and pull trying to get at each other whilst the owners tinkle nervously at each other. I start at the back as I’m a Park Walker mainly and the dogs get in peoples way and I tripped over one last week.

i wouldn’t dream of taking mine, she’s a pain and gets way too excited.

Always had dogs, love dogs, don’t ever see myself without dogs. But the recent uptake of premium-price crossbreeds combined with a frequent lack of training and hugely inflated sense of owner (dog-mama) entitlement pisses me right off. YANBU about the cult of dog.

Agree.

I have two dogs, they’re great, but they’re my dogs. They’re not babies, children, whatever…they’re dogs. They do doggy things in doggy places and are trained appropriately. And I love doing doggy things with them.

However, I also love doing human things with my husband, family, friends in human places and I don’t want my dogs there, or anybody else’s for that matter.

So, as a dog owner, I totally agree with you.
However, I think it’s fundamentally an owner issue, rather than a dog issue. Dogs have no say in what they do, their owners do.

It’s been going on a long time.im Irish. I love animals and we always had well loved and cared for dogs. When we were little and went to England on holidays we used to think dog owners were completely nuts. A lot on them seemed fonder and more considerate of their dog than their actual family.

Dogs have different breeds so different DNA. Which has been compounded by centuries or decades of breeding.

Certain dog breeds were bred to be companion/lap dogs.

Some were bred to hunt.

Some were bred to fight.

Your idea that a dog who wants to be with their owner all the time being a result of 'babying' ignores the DNA and breeding

It's the same as the XL bully owners who say it's all about bad owners and nothing to do with the breed.

And i think of several in the news who discovered that was in fact, not the case after their dog attacked other dogs, people or indeed the owner.

Think we should start a separate thread for us wild eyed harridans - there's a few
of us. I think it's pain which makes my eyes look wild 🤪

The dogs are a misdirect though.

If these people had kids, monkeys, pet aliens, big loud cars, any other potentially irritating thing they'd still be inconsiderate entitled twatbags.

The problem is people seem to have lost any consideration for others, think they're entitled to do as they please and fuck the rest of us... and some of those people have dogs and make their cunty fucker behaviour obvious that way.

Take the dogs away though.. and they'd still be arseholes.

You’ve just said it all. Dogs are property. Children are people.

@tsmainsqueeze apologies didnt mean to quote you!

Often the flavours are not something humans would choose but that dogs like, sometimes they don’t use dairy or sugar and most humans want dairy ice cream and wouldn’t like ice cream without sugar, so not harmful to humans but not palatable to most.

No one is suggesting dogs are human, but my right to go for a nice walk and not have my “property” (I.e. dog) interfered with is no less important that those of someone to have their screaming toddler run around. Some people don’t like dogs, fine, some people don’t like screaming kids, rowdy drunks or strong perfume in enclosed spaces, if everyone is broadly considerate then there shouldn’t be too much of an issue but that doesn’t mean the people who dislike dogs get to win and exclude them form common spaces.

Your dog does these things because you feed it.

Your dog cannot come on MN and complain about its parents, or about you. That’s its attraction for you.

Dogs are never more important than children. The whole idea of that comparison is bonkers.

I find it's mostly men who do the "don't worry, he's friendly" thing anyway. Women are normally suitably apologetic if their dogs or kids inconvenience other people, but men as a gender have a much higher tolerance for intruding themselves (or allowing their dogs or kids to intrude) on other people.

I think I need to move to this utopia because in all of the towns and cities I’m nearest to, dogs are definitely not allowed in all cafes and restaurants. Dogs have always been allowed in all outdoor public spaces though so no change there.

I have owned a dog in the past so obviously don't mind dogs. But I do have an issue with owners who don't look after, train, pick up after their dog. I also don't believe that dogs should be allowed in cafes or public buildings unless they are a service dog.
It's pretty horrendous that some 13+ million dogs can make public areas practically no go areas just because of their owners due to behavioural issues or simply just cleaning up after their pet.
Bring back dog licencing and add in a code of conduct which can be enshrined in law to make owners responsible for all aspects of dog ownership.