Dog ate my picnic

Some owners are complete batshit cheeky fuckers.

Why did you run? Aren’t those dogs small-ish? Did he look dangerous?
I suppose he could have attacked you behind the tree if he was. Sorry this happened to you and your little boy.

A big Labrador once ran over to where I was sitting down on the grass in a park with friends and their 2 yr old twins. It grabbed my cheese roll and scoffed it before it's owner could get it back under control. I was a bit more annoyed the dog was running about freely when young kids were playing than losing my roll. Later that evening the owner showed up in our garden and gave me a bottle of wine to make amends, which was unexpected but a nice gesture.

There's something wrong with that poster, they've posted nasty comments several times.

I'm a dog lover but people have to understand that not everyone is and a Shar pei is a big dog that were bred to protect livestock from predators. They are big strong dogs so it's reasonable for someone to pick their child up and not think about their picnic. I'd share your photos on the local Facebook page and hopefully she'll realise she was out of order to have her dog off the lead when she clearly hasn't trained it properly.

Please don’t allow your child to become fearful of dogs. Dogs are great pets and your son may enjoy having one as a pet someday.

@Jayne35 The problem is that even well-trained dogs can occasionally behave out of character.

Years ago, we encountered a dog on a footpath whom the owners said was v. friendly and enjoyed being stroked. So my DD stroked her and got bitten. The owners apologized and said that she didn’t normally do this. My small dog was once attacked by a German Shepherd- again, it was atypical behavior for her, but perhaps she didn’t like the look of him!

We dog owners can’t predict our pets’ every reaction so personally, I prefer to keep mine on his leash in areas where other people are walking/playing/picnicking, etc. Better safe than sorry.

It's daft sods like this who give responsible dog owners a bad name 😡

We definitely need that laugh emoji back! This really cannot be serious.

We had a similar experience when taking our grandchildren to the park for a picnic. The GC are nervous of dogs especially big bouncy ones. So dog and lady owner walked passed, the dog bounced up, we shooed it away owner walked on did nothing. We got picnic out, dog appeared back we shooed to no effect DH called out to owner to keep dog away. She said why should she as we shouldn't have food and her dog had as many rights as our GC.!

Sounds like you e been snapped doing something nooorty

You did nothing wrong. You are perfectly entitled to have a picnic without a random dog eating it.
ALL of the blame lies with the dog owner who should have had her dog on a lead if she hadn't trained it to come to her when called. She was also extremely negligent to not ask you what your picnic consisted of, out of concern for her dogs health. She should also of course have replaced the food in your picnic or paid for it.
Any argument to the contrary is nonsense 😆

I agree with most of this except the lead on in public part. Responsible dog owners will have gone through training with their dogs, and have excellent recall, our dog would not have got as far as eating someone’s picnic, as would have been recalled and put back on her lead.

The feckless owner is the one who allowed their out of control dog to steal food. And if you could be bothered to read the OP's updates, she used social media to get a message passed on to the aforementioned feckless owner to tell them to get medical help.

only with vindictive sad people i believe,

What if the police turn round and say the Op acted unreasonable in allowing the Dog to consume toxic food and not making an effort to contact the owner. Maybe they caused needless suffering to an animal

Oh and I absolutely would put a post on social media saying the “unfortunately an off lead dog ate some of your food today. You were away from the food so can’t be sure exactly what was eaten but some of the food that appeared to be eaten included grapes and chocolate. You just want to make sure the dog is ok and would hate to think of anything bad happening” as surely you would hate to see an animal suffer.

I'm soŕry OP it ruined your DC and your weekend and the cost associated with it, you done nothing wrong in reacting as you did. The dog owner should have had her dog on a lead and is totally bu, hope the dog is ok but she only got herself to blame for that situation.

@givingitupok

You were completely blameless in this and the Dog owner was at fault, and should not have had their dog off lead without better recall.

Two of my dogs are always on a lead unless in a privately booked secure field. The Doberman will chase deer if he gets the chance and is massively friendly and will run up to people for a cuddle, which I appreciate most people would not like!

The Setter is deaf, so recall harder! She is also friendly and very soft (as well as old and slow), but even so is not small and would possibly scare people.

The sprocker has good recall and is not that fussed about people. However I would still have him on a lead in a busy park!

The only thing the dog owner could have done is to apologise profusely and ask if there was anything they could do to help tidy up the mess/put it right.

I'm so sorry for what happened to you, and please don't think all dog owners are the same!

(We frequently have off lead dogs coming running up to ours - luckily we have not had a problem, and I stand in the way, but I do worry about an off leash entire male running up to the Dobie)

She probably is. They tend to think the whole world revolves around them and their dogs.

Is that to OP? Shame when you’re trying to “get a life” doing nice things like having a picnic, and then some dog and its owner come along and ruin it.

Are you one of those dog owners by any chance?

We have lives that we are quite happy with, thank you. We don't want our lives spoiling by your dogs ruining our picnics. Get a lead. Don't be a cheapskate, they cost around £25, £40 maximum.

I would argue that a picnic in the park with your child on a sunny day is indeed an excellent part of having a life. Letting your off lead (in an on lead area) out of control dog scare the picnickers and destroy their picnic is not, however, having a life, it is thoughtless and selfish.

Also, these breeds (all mastiff types) are quite different in temperament- they were bred for different things/ different reactions

Cane Corso
Neapolitan Mastiff
Bullmastiff
Dogue de Bordeaux
Great Dane
Boerboel
English Mastiff
Tibetan Mastiff
Mastin Español

Get a life