Dog ate my picnic

Gosh I'm a lifelong dog owner (on number 4 now) and had no idea about grapes! Thankfully my dogs have never been particularly interested in fruit or veg.

I do hope the dog is fine OP but also hope you and DC are fine. I like to think I'm a responsible dog owner and would never have allowed this! My dogs have always had perfect recall and I've never allowed them to bother other people

I wouldn’t post a photo of the owner, I think it’s enough that you’ve posted the incident on SM. Posting her photo is abit “big brother” IMHO.

She’s been an idiot and is probably dealing with a puking dog as a consequence. I’m surprised that the dog ate grapes tbh, ours seems to instinctively know that they’re toxic.
We’ve had a milk chocolate stealing incident though! He was fine despite eating several chocolate coins intended for Christmas stockings. My understanding is that milk chocolate is far less toxic for dogs than dark chocolate.

No my friends Labrador died after eating a pile of grapes beside a field in France. They called after it but it didn’t stop. A lesson there.

Staggers me the amount of dog owners that will just have their dog off the lead, out of control, absolutely anywhere...the amount of things people leave lying around, deliberately or accidentally means I would never let my dogs run wild anywhere.

My DM is a prime example. I swear she thinks more of her dog than her own children but she hates putting it on a lead. I cringe when I hear some of things she tells me. And yes I do tell her she needs to be more careful as that dog she loves more than life itself, is going to wind up dead at this rate.

Besides the lack of consideration for others, it's just plain dangerous for the dogs. I have had to have a nasty conversation with a dog owner before about taking their dog to the vet after it ate a portion of cake made with artificial sweetener for a diabetic friend. The dog owner was very upset, having previously been blase apologetic. I hope the dog was ok, he was a lovely good-natured chancy oaf and huge, which would go in his favour.

Yeah op, total fuss over nothing. You should have stayed put as a random dog came up to you with no owner in sight at first . You've got no way of knowing if it's friendly or aggressive so you should have waited to see, and if it bit you or your child, then you run.

🙄 X 1000

Really bad. Am a dog owner. My dog could not be trusted so I would have her on a lead. She once ran off with a quiche and I immediately offered to go and buy another one. Now on a lead

This is pathetically judgemental.

Many dogs are perfectly happy and dandy doing their own thing until food is involved and then they can display food aggression and resource guarding.

The OP doesn't know this dog, or it's temperament, so she had a perfectly natural flight response to a potential threat to herself and her child.

Standing still like a tree doesn't always work, and dogs should be under control in public spaces.

The OP hasn't done anything wrong here.

Don't be so ridiculous. The dog was out of control in an area where it should have been on a lead. Completely the dog owners fault.

Haven’t RTFT, just the first page so apologies if repeating.
Maybe if you’d have sat and guarded your food instead running and hiding, the dog wouldn’t have eaten your picnic. Yes the owner might’ve supposed to have had the dog on a lead, I don’t know, but if you’re walking a dog off lead and say a sausage was in the path, the dog is going to eat it. If however someone is sat holding the sausage/eating a hot dog, it’s unlikely the dog would make any attempt to eat it.
Unless the dog was bearing its teeth and running at you in menacing way, I find it strange that you would get up and run and hide.
I’m not a dog owner by the way and am actually not very fond of them, so I’m not defending dog or owner.
Also you might want to be careful you’re not giving your DS an unhealthy phobia of dogs.

In my local park during this weather there have been loads of picnickers. The dogs who regularly walk there are having a great time running around to each blanket in their path obviously hoping to snaffle some snacks. They usually get waved away though.

What an atrocious dog owner. That kind of owner spoils everything for everyone. Poor you, poor DS and poor dog. She didn’t even give enough of a shit to ask what the dog ate. Grapes obviously bad, a small amount of milk chocolate probably won’t harm a big dog.

Think the heating is getting to some people.

That’s a god point about the breed differences. Pretty sure my lab could eat pretty much anything, but it’s the never quite knowing that is the hard and expensive part.

Yes absolutely. Bloody entitled 'modern' dog owners. Absolute bunch of dickheads that think everyone should welcome attention from their untrained, lockdown furbabies.

At least half of all dog owners are not bright and responsible enough to own a pot plant let alone a dog.

OP, please keep us updated on activity on the post!

My dog would eat someone's picnic given the chance...she would eat anything!

Hence I keep her on a lead so that I have her under control and she cant bother people or end up at risk.

Surely your friend needs to keep her dog on the lead so that she doesn’t get embarrassed by its bad behaviour and people’s picnics aren’t ruined?

My ex MIL used to give her chihuahua red wine out of it's own glass. She'd come home from work and pour herself one and get one for the dog too. So with the addition of grapes and their toxins, the dog also had alcohol, daily.

That tiny teacup chihuahua lived to 16 year old and never had any ailments.

Our old heinz 57 ate 2 grapes the kids had thrown to her from the tree house and was exploding from both ends within a few hours, and she was a good 30+kg dog, and fortunately just needed some fluids and medical observation.

It's crazy how they can be affected or not affected but even though there's no safe dose, a good vet would want to see them even if only one has been ingested so they can induce vomiting.

I'm not a vet, nowhere near, but I do know sharpeis are predisposed to kidney issues, so poor, undiagnosed or declining kidney function plus the risk of grapes isn't something the owner should take lightly.

This.

“He’s harmless!!!”

Oh yes that will help my dog-phobic child, thanks 🙄

Who is only dog-phobic because some insensitive relatives let their massive dogs leap at us when he was one and had never seen a dog.

Why are some dog owners so oblivious/blinkered?

That person would not be my friend. Surely they’d train the dog?

Wow 😆