Bare minimum dog ownership

Yanbu. What you have said is just basic common sense, which some people lack.

There aren't though.

There are private hire secure fields, they're not accessible to everyone though.

Where there are dog parks, that are free to access, they are a big trigger for fights and often dominated by shitty owners with badly behaved dogs so no one else can use them (see: Large swathes of urban USA.)

It's also worth remembering that dog walkers are the people who are using our parks, beaches, woodland paths etc throughout the winter months - the good ones are the ones clearing up broken glass left by humans, mess left by humans, reporting the burnt out cars and finding the dead bodies... (it's allllllways a dog walker that finds the dead body!).

Sadly, as ever, the shitty irresponsible folks ruin it for the rest of us and that is true whether its dog owners, parents, whatever sphere of life you look at, that applies.

Yanbu Op. I get really irritated with a lot of dog walkers around here, mix of holidaymakers and locals.

We live in an area with lots of unfenced cliffs and the I can’t even count the number of times I’ve seen people walking dogs off lead on the cliff edges. Dogs go over them all the time and either die or have to get rescued by the coastguards. Or the dogs are just running off doing whatever, wherever they like, pooping unnoticed while the owners ignore them. Winds me right up!

But how can you always see other users? Does the dog go back on a lead every time you go around a bend on the path, or enter some woodland? This would be great if true but I’ve never seen it.

Of course @Luggagerackistopheavy those are the bare minimum requirements, but unfortunately, a lot of people just don’t follow them or care. My dogs do all of those things and I wouldn’t let them off lead if they didn’t. And yes, as it happens @Computersaysdontwantto i do have my own space to exercise them. But they love new walks and new places. And since they either 100% recall to me or I keep them on a lead, why shouldn’t I take them? They never approach a person or dog in public and I always clean up after them. I can’t see the problem with that.

I live on the top floor of a flat building - there are about 10 apartments on my floor. Around 3 of them have dogs. It is bonkers.

ETA: needless to say they don’t have a garden! There is a small shared garden downstairs but it’s mostly paved with plants.

The other day I saw a group of people in my town who looked like they were on alcohol/ drugs . They had two big dogs not particular scary looking, but big - and one of them dropped the lead as he was crossing the road.

It probably fell out his hands but he didn’t pick it back up. I saw what was going on and immediately crossed over to the side of the road where they had came from to put distance between us. The dog just plodded on ahead of them with the leash trailing.

It was all very strange. but yeah I do wish all dogs would be kept on leads. I avoid my local parks because I know many are not. I’ve had maybe 3 picnics in the park over the last few years. Two of them were interrupted by off leash dogs.

I’m afraid I would assume an off lead dog was ok with other dogs being around. Mine wouldn’t run up to a dog and bounce on them but they may approach and “greet” them. Could be lucky with where we walk.

YABU simply because most owners who say their dogs are friendly - or think their dogs are friendly - actually have no idea about doggy body language.

90% of the time, if someone yells at me their dogs friendly…it’s clearly not.

And no dog should be approaching another dog, on lead or not, without the owners checking it is okay. I’m sick of other dog owners letting their dogs approaching mine (always off lead) just because they’re off lead.

100%! If you want a dog get a garden big enough to exercise it off lead.

Wonder who has said you're unreasonable? Fluffys "mummy"?

All your points should be normal dog owner advice, owners where I live are pretty good, other than when they see my dog on a lead, a few are slow to put a lead on. We find when on holiday, most dogs we meet are off lead, even in fields with livestock.

I'd much prefer that all dogs were on leads at all times when I'm public to be honest. There are designated dog parks to take them off lead.