Dog ate my picnic

The best thing to do in this situation is to shout “NO!” loudly and firmly at the dog. If you run away, a dog is more likely to chase you and you are also passing your fear of dogs on to your child.

As others have said, this is not likely to have a good outcome for the dog, it has eaten just about the worst things possible.

Are you the woman in the park?

Dogs shouldn't eat chocolate or grapes OP, but don't worry, unless it ate a lot of them it'll probably be fine - with bit of luck it might just puke all over its entitled owner's carpet! 😂 And anyway, it's the owners fault that the dog was able to eat your picnic. Also, it's an offence to not have your dog under control in public and she plainly didn't.

Seriously? Have you read what happened and that the OP and child were in the park when a dog ran from a path out of the park? Since when could people not have picnics? Typical dog owner. The OP is upset about the incident and you’re trying to make her feel worse, shame on you.

I can only assume this is a joke, or that you also have a badly trained dog that you expect others to accommodate. It wasn’t left lying around, and the stupid owner didn’t have her dog under control.

I’m trying to work out of this is sarcasm or someone who didn’t read the OP fully.

I’m not sure that is how it works from what I was told. Chocolate (theobromine) toxicity can be by weight consumed and size of dog from what I’ve read.

Oh I'd absolutely be this petty...

'As the owner didn't give me any contact info , I thought it best to put this on here in the hope that she can take the poor dog to the vet...'

I am not a dog fan at the best of times, but some of them do at least have decent owners.
This woman deserves it all.

Always one!!

Are you the owner of said dog?!

Dog will probably be dead by tomorrow ifnit ate chocolate and grapes!

And there may well be a post on FB about some inconsiderate picnicer killing her dog!

That’s really awful, especially as your son made such an effort with the picnic. I hope he’s not too disheartened and that you can try another one soon. Same happened to me but the dog just sniffed and licked everything on the blanket just as I’d laid it all out. Had to throw everything then wash the picnic blanket. The owner was very dismissive. Scariest one was our little football team were ready to kick off against another local team, dog comes bounding through, snarls and sends all the boys running over to us on the sidelines - then chews the match ball to bits! Only then did the owner appear. She was extremely rude and sweary. The children were only about 9.

I don’t know maybe because I’m a dog owner I’d have just told the dog to shove off. Was it aggressive? Picking up your kid and running onoff - nope I’d stand my ground. But then I’m not scared of dogs and unless it was growling and snarling I’d have bellowed at it. And have shouted at the owner too to keep their dog under control.

A whole punnet for a medium sized dog breed will definitely be fucking up it's kidneys in the very least even if it doesn't cause instant death.

This dog will be destroying some carpets tonight.

You should pay the vets bill if the poor dog is taken ill because you left dangerous food lying around. Really irresponsible of you OP

You have my sympathy OP. Love Dogs, but I have a mobility disability and avoid so many in the street in case they don’t behave it isn't the dog i don't trust, it’s the owner! HATE entitled dog owners!

Of course I’d do what I could and try to make restitution if the person would be ok giving me contact details and if either of us had a way to write them down. I’m just thinking that I wouldn’t have a way to do that and might be quite flustered figuring it out.

I do think the dog owner behaved appallingly, a sincere apology and an offer to cover the costs of the food is a minimum, however the logistics worked.

I'd post her picture, note the breed of the dog and just say you're really concerned as the dog chased you off your picnic and, after the owner caught up with it and walked off, you realised it's eaten a whole punnet of grapes and a lot of chocolate. Someone has told you both are poisonous to dogs, so you are trying to get a message to her so she can take it to the vet or at least monitor for side effects.

I’m so sorry this happened to you and your son. He did well preparing everything. Hopefully you will have another day soon where he can help prepare the food and you can both enjoy it together.

Some people are so selfish and don’t understand or care that their actions might have a bigger impact on some people than others.

I hope you can both do something nice this evening to lift your spirits.

Not all dogs are sensitive to grapes, but the trouble is you won’t know until it’s too late.

Very poor show of the owner regardless.

Yanbu OP, same thing happened to my (at the time) 5 year old dd who was tucking into a sandwich whilst on a walk down the canal...we were way off the towpath...dog owner didn't give a fuck and said it was entitled to be off the lead. The only thing I pray is that karma was kind as it was chocolate spread filling!

A lot of people bought dogs in lockdown and some of those people never really trained or socialised their dogs. We see stories like this a lot, don’t we? Dogs that are uncontrollable in parks near other dogs / people / food. I know her methods were not perfect but, some reruns of the Barbara Woodhouse show would be great!
I trained a very crazy Irish Setter using her methods. I still have a firm ‘no’ ready for when any dog goes for my picnic / a jump-up.

But you would still apologise and perhaps take their bank details - transfer when you got home. I think even apologising is much nicer than what this mum got. Especially as they were hiding behind the tree.

I wonder too if she simply didn’t have any money with her. If I’m out with my dog I have treat, poo bag and lead - I don’t have my purse or even my phone that I could transfer money or take her number to sort it out. As ashamed as I’d be if my dog behaved so badly, I wouldn’t have any means to reimburse her until I got home.