Parking when there are dogs around

You are ranting about 'entitlement' but think you should decide where another driver parks because you want to allow your elderly dog to wander freely around the car park.

YABU
I am a dog person but I don’t have one at the moment, I go to a lot of places to walk and I find it really annoying if people are chatting in the car park whilst there dogs are wondering around off lead. If you want to chat put the dogs in the car first or at least put them in the lead. Most parks have a rule that all dongs need to be on leads? It’s a car park, not a place for dogs to sniff around whist you chat to a mate. The driver had a right to park wherever he wants.

It's sad you dog is getting older, but you still need to be in control of him, and banging on a car rood because 'you' dont approve of the space he parked in, is unreasonable behaviour. 96% of posters also say that you are unreasonable.

Oh yes, I agree with you. I didn't mean he should've apologised. I meant that in my case, the woman I told off (who was driving dangerously and made me fearful) accepted it, said sorry, and there was no swearing or anger.

Perfectly reasonable.

Unreasonable to stand chatting with dogs off leads in a car park.

Unbelievable! This has to be an early contender for 'Most Obvious YABU Of 2026'. This sort of mentalness gives reasonable dog owners a bad name.

It's also not necessarily about fitness. Some DC are fit as fiddles but still have additional needs which make safety in car parks more difficult, that's just fact. These people are not always identifiable from looking at them for a minute.

So many guesses from OP on why he might pick a parking space.

Easy op keep your dogs on leads under control in a car park. Its not as hard as you think.

No....nothing to do with being fit. Why should young children have to walk 50 meters through a car park just to accommodate your selfish need to have space around your dog which was not safely on a lead. That parent is entitled to and right to park close to the entrance to keep their children sate by avoiding a journey through a car park. FFS you sound madder with each comment you add!

Don't block parking spaces with yourself, children or dogs, or stand or walk behind a car that is reversing.

And reversing into a space in a busy car park is much safer, as you can then drive out and see better. As long as there aren't dopey people standing about with little dogs off a lead. I'd never do that with my dog and if I wanted a chat with people I'd go and stand away from where people are parking.

Why shouldn’t he park there
i definitely would then could leave kids to it and keep an eye on them whilst sitting in the car

theres an entire park OP could stand talking to her friend and let her dog wonder
but instead OP stood in the carpark

First post nails it.

@TheQuirkyMaker YABVVU

As I have written already in a few replies before this. He could have parked anywhere. He had the choice of an entire car park by the sounds of it. But no, he chose to park his big car as close to the skatepark as he could get, where pedestrians were congregated with dogs. And he reversed into the space.

Do you really think that's reasonable? I call that bloody lazy and entitled.

Maybe the OP was inconsiderate to bash on his roof but he was inconsiderate first and the whole encounter wouldn't have some about had he chosen to park away from where people were standing.

I think your comprehension skills are seriously lacking.

The OP thought they were in danger due to the driving of the SUV (we've access to the same information). Read the original post again and pretend your not a company driver. Pretend you're a pedestrian in a carpark with a large vehicle driving, quickly, towards you, especially when the rest of the carpark is full.

You were in a car park….where cars park….and a car did just that.
If you are worried about your dog getting run over, don’t have it off a lead where cars are?
It’s irrelevant how many empty spaces there were.
Part of you must see you’re the problem here.
This cannot be real.

He didn't need to park there but you equally didn't need to be standing chatting in a car park and you didn't need to have your dog standing in a car park potentially in harms way.

Really disgraceful to swear at someone in front of their young children, even if they did something wrong. But they genuinely didn't do anything wrong. They just made a choice that you disagreed with.

Having an elderly dog is no excuse. It happens to most of our dogs, if we're lucky enough to have them that long.

Not only were you unreasonable your behaviour was shocking.

Please walk me through how the SUV driver "started off aggressive"? He was in his car, reversing into a space.

Incidentally if you genuinely think you're about to get hit by a car you run, you don't hang around so you can bang on the roof. The OP absolutely did not act to minimise the likelihood of harm; she acted to show her displeasure.

You were out of line, OP. The minute you saw the car coming towards you, you should have put your dog on a lead.

That said, people who park right next to others when the rest of the car part is empty are fucking weird.

If OP had slapped my car in that manner, she would have got a slap back.

Please explain exactly how you think he was not regarding others safety and what he should have done instead? I am a company car driver and regularly reminded that parking next to other cars reduces the risk of accident, injury and theft. So parking near other cars isn’t the correct answer.

He had no reason to apologise to OP. He did nothing wrong.

OP on the other hand was standing around in a car park with her uncontrolled dogs running around while she abused a legitimate car park user in front of his children.

Despite only knowing OP's side of the story (almost) everyone on here knows who should have apologised and it wasn't the man.

I'm a huge lover of dogs (well, my own dogs and other well-behaved or well-controlled dogs, that is). I also dislike people parking next to me when there are plenty of other places to park. But YABU. You can't go slapping the top of someone's car and not expect anger or fear which shows itself as anger. You are responsible for your dog's safety. Take control of that by using a lead in car parks instead of hoping the rest of the world behaves as you think they should.

OP not being unreasonable at all! The driver of the SUV was clearly not regarding others' safety. Dogs/pedestrians/children, it doesn't matter. The OP felt as though they or theirs were in danger and reacted in such a way to try to minimise the likelihood of harm befalling them. There was no malice in the action of hitting the car. There was no possibility of damage to the car. The SUV driver sounds like they started off aggressive and escalated for absolutely no reason. I'm not surprised the OP reciprocated in a verbal fashion.

Oh dear, this is a rage baity post for a Monday morning!
Of course you are unreasonable.
You can’t dictate where someone parks in a public car park and your dog should rightly be on a lead in a public space. As for slapping someone’s vehicle and swearing at them (in front of kids no doubt) well that is just undignified, antisocial, bad behaviour.