Control your fucking dogs

[ThunderSkies]

I’m so angry. Yet again someone can’t control their dog and my dc is even more afraid due to some massive dog leaping up at their face and mouthing at them (very young, but big dog).

If they have no recall and keep jumping up at people (and are at the mouthing people stage still) don’t fucking let them be able to get out of control.

Dog ran away from owners, out of the garden and my child ran towards the road. I’m so 😡. Why did I come away feeling like my son was to blame for running and shouting (yes it excites the dog, no I can’t stop him doing it when he’s scared and the dog is chasing him). Yes the dog was playing. No, it makes no difference to my child when the dog can jump higher than he is tall.

Well I can see a clear divide of dog lovers and haters on this post. Not all dog owners are bad

The thread isnt about ' all dog owners' though is it? It's about useless ones.

Have you missed all the many posts by dog owners who are sick of irresponsible owners giving them a bad name and citing thier experiences of badly behaved dogs?
I have had dogs in the past yet I still criticise bad dog owners its lazy and ignorant to get a dog when you put no effort into training them nor keeping them safe.

People do not have to like dogs especially badly behaved ones it's not a difficult concept.

Have you missed all the many posts by dog owners who are sick of irresponsible owners giving them a bad name and citing thier experiences of badly behaved dogs?

Have you missed the posts where all dog owners are tarred by the same brush? It is tedious.

But most dog owners also wouldn't have an off lead dog if it was vicious

When a strange dog is bounding up to you and jumping up.at you I don't care if its vicious or not I don't want it full stop.
I don't want my kids knocked over i don't want mud and slobber all over me or them.
If a "friendly" dog bounced up on my elderly relative it would knock her flying and put her in hospital due to her health issues. Nobody should be put in that position by irresponsible dog owners.
Dogs do not come first when out and about in public areas no matter what thier besotted or idiotic owners think.

If anyone is ruining outdoor spaces at the minute, it's humans. All the idiots flocking to the countryside when they would normally be on their wild Ibiza holidays. Leaving rubbish, including glass bottles, abandoning lit barbeques, discarding tents, shitting wherever they like (most owners do clear up after their dogs) taking down farmers fence posts and using them for camp fires, leaving gates open and letting livestock escape, wild camping where it isn't allowed, throwing wild parties on rural campsites and keeping everyone awake until 4am etc I could go on.

These two groups are not mutually exclusive. Not all dog owners are naice middle class people with golden retrievers. Although they can be just as bad.

Def not all dog owners. Just those who let dogs interfere with picnics or jump up at small children.

If recall is so bad they should be on a lead in picnic/areas kids play.

Also - shitting wherever they like (most owners do clear up after their dogs)

Most owners do clear up after their dogs (debatable) and most people without dogs don’t shit in the park.

If anyone is ruining outdoor spaces at the minute, it's humans. All the idiots flocking to the countryside when they would normally be on their wild Ibiza holidays. Leaving rubbish, including glass bottles, abandoning lit barbeques, discarding tents, shitting wherever they like

Dear god, yes! I've had to wrestle so much discarded food off my (on lead) dog in the local park it's ridiculous. The amount of rubbish is disgraceful (and far, far exceeds any abandoned dog poo which is actually very rarely left)

Most owners do clear up after their dogs (debatable)

No, it's not debatable at all. Most owners do.

@BikeTyson

Maybe people don't shit near where you live. Lucky you. In the Lake District, they are shitting all over the place. One of the country's best beauty spots. Now covered in human crap. I have nightmares about what I might step in or what the dog might roll in now.

This is about as nasty a thread as I have ever seen on mn - and I've been here for years.

On both sides.

Maybe people don't shit near where you live.

Most people don’t shit in the woods. They just don’t. The few that do are fucking appalling, I’m sorry this is happening where you live. There is always shit on the pavement of my street and it’s not human. It’s also disgusting.

People not dogs are the problem. But the problem for me this summer has been people with dogs. Judging from this thread, it’s not just me. If people can’t train and care for their dogs properly, then more areas will have to become dog-free and that will have to be enforced.

No one would dream of saying “I was once knocked over by a kid with blonde hair so I’m now terrified of blonde people but that’s fine because I was knocked over”. It’s all about mindset, not all people are the same, not all dogs are the same. OP your son needs to learn this...do you have any friends with dog. Failing that, go to the park, find a friendly dog and ask if he can stroke it, etc.

I do wonder if he’s also picking up on your own insecurities - be really honest with yourself here.

OP you need to teach your son to diffuse the situation and to calmly turn away from the dog, not run...the dog will think that’s a great game. I know what you mean about the dog needing to be under control but your son is 11, he’s not a baby anymore, he needs to learn how to deal with this if it happens again. There must be videos on you tube etc.

If he is nervous around dogs, your DS will attract more of this kind of thing. Dogs get scared too and someone who is scared of dogs is a much greater risk to Ruffles because that person is more likely to attack him so it puts him on the defensive. Dogs don’t like it when you’re scared of them, it makes them feel scared too.

On the flip side. My dog was once attacked by a lady with an umbrella, she startled the lady when she ran out of the bushes and across her path so the silly woman shrieked and began pounding her with the umbrella. For a while, my dog was scared of people with umbrellas but I had to desensitise her and encourage her to trust people with umbrellas again. Regardless of what happened, it is not ok for my did to attack people with umbrellas!

@BikeTyson

It hasn't just been a few people around here. Believe me. I normally don't mind holiday makers but this year it hasn't been the normal type of tourist. Unfortunatelt, people crapping outdoors is just the tip of the iceberg of how the local outdoor areas have been mistreated.

Although I agree, some dog owners are a nightmare. Maybe not dog free areas but more areas where dogs have to be kept on leads, just to give people somewhere else to go if they don't want dogs running up to them.

Oh and as a dog owner (and parent so have kids with me when walking the dog), I hate it when dog poo is left too. Where I live, most people do pick up but there’s always one ruining it for the others. Bizarrely I think this is more of a prob in the countryside as there are fewer bins and some owners think it’s ok just to leave it 🤷🏻‍♀️
My child has fallen over and ended up with it on their face before, it is not a joke! - thank goodness it missed her eye!

I mean, it was a puppy in a garden which escaped - they're not going to have it on a lead in the garden and as it's young its likely still training. Chill and maybe work on your child's fear.

This is absolutely NOT about all dog owners but about those who are utterly blind to assume if they love their dog everyone else must too. It’s also the complete ignorance to others fears, allergies or plain choice that they don’t want someone’s dog in their face. The number of dogs is increasing - no doubt. There were never this volume even a decade ago in the areas I visit.

I’ve seen some things this past 2 weeks which are astonishing. And it may be the minority but it spoils it for the majority. I am lucky that I am from a rural place by the sea. The beaches and number of dogs I see now is massively increased. On one beach we commented how we seemed to be the only people without a dog.

Sunday I was parked in the car about to get out when a man pulled next to us... got a ramp out and got 3 massive dogs out, and let them run all round the car and car park. One dog had a shit at the back of the car where the sand dunes start. He made no attempt to clear it up.

Down on the beach a woman with 2 collies was throwing stones for the dogs to chase. She would pick up a stone and the dogs would bark and bark till she threw it. Over an hour. If my child had brought a drum down and smacked it incessantly at the same volume of the dog barking it would have driven her mad. But she just doesn’t see it. I don’t want to sit on the beach and hear her dog bark. I don’t want to step in shit.

We stopped at a small local museum to get a birthday card from their shop - as I get out of my car I can see the car next to me has its back doors open and a cage affair built into the back - no sign of the owner who is presumably in the museum - two very big dogs who go absolutely mental as I walk past growling and barking - I don’t want that!! Why bring your dogs to a bloody museum?!

These are three incidents in one 3 hour trip out in one day - it’s constant.

People repeatedly saying the child should toughen up....

As I said way upthread here my own DS has a chronic allergy. He has been hospitalised more than once. A jumping licking dog would cause him big issues. This isn’t about kids toughening up at whatever age for everyone - dogs just need to be under control because you don’t know what the implications could be.

YANBU but I think you should've socialised you're child to not be afraid of dogs while they were young. You can't avoid dogs in the UK!

Your child **
For that grammar error IABVU

@Austereorange
YABU
People are allowed to take their dogs to the beach and maybe like you,the dogs at the museum, their owner had popped in for something, the dogs were secured their crates, it’s you that’s the issue moaning about all of it.
In normal times I barely see a soul walking my dogs but come lockdown everyone is out and about due to be off work, the ppl at the beach probably use it more than you.

As the owner of a dog that is

1. Only just exiting the people mouthing stage
2. Is still liable to lep round like Tigger
3. Is of a breed peole make assumptions about
4. Has little impulse control when over excited
5. Is just a bundle of "What the fuck now?"

I couldn't agree with you more. I love him, choose to live with him but nobody else shold have to deal woith him ever!

Except those ultra infuriating people who just wander over and start rough housing him. Them he can eat!

I mean, it was a puppy in a garden which escaped - they're not going to have it on a lead in the garden and as it's young its likely still training. Chill and maybe work on your child's fear. How much more could you get wrong?

• Puppies should never be in a space they can escape from
• Your garden MUST be dog proof BEFORE you get the dog
• A houselead is often essential for puppy training
• And a fear of dogs can be as simple as a fight/flight response, not something easily controlled. And never likely to be if dog owners can't control their dogs!

@CorianderLord

I mean, it was a puppy in a garden which escaped - they're not going to have it on a lead in the garden and as it's young its likely still training. Chill and maybe work on your child's fear.

It's up to the owners to puppy proof thier garden not for the general public to "chill" about someone elses unruly dog. It's a puppy now but as a large breed its going to get a whole lot bigger and could do someone danage jumping up on them. Dogs have claws which hurt and who wants someone else's dog landing on them?

If you actually rtft op has worked on her sons phobia for a long time and he is coping better but incidents like this can set him back into fight or flight mode. It's not something easy to control at that point in time if you understood basic biology.

OP people think their dogs are equal to children. I've grown up with dogs and they're not our children.
They are also dangerous animals and should be respected and trained as such.
There's a lot of people with badly trained dogs, they make it worse by not having them on leads. I've seen lovely dogs turn, there's even a known condition more prominent in darker coloured dogs where they are a delight but become vicious for no reason.
At the end of the day there's a reason why it's illegal to behave a dog out of control and not a child.

I work hard to control my dog, who is always on a lead in public. I always pick up poo and also litter/other people’s dog poo as well at the same time. My nervous dog is often also made to suffer by thoughtless dog owners lacking control.

I wish however that many parents would at least try to control their kids’ or treat them to not act like little turds (obvious exceptions for SEN kids, I say that as an adhd person myself). I see many dog owners and parents just mildly observing both/glued to phones or in conversation/ either leaving them to be totally uncontrolled or intervening very passively (“oh, look how naughty little Alfie is”) and some not intervening at all with bad behaviour. Dogs have the mental age of approx a 3 year old human, impulse control needs to be taught and maintained in both. Of course no-one (dog owner or parent) can do this all the time, we slip up etc, mistakes can happen but a lot of people don’t try or even care about their impact on others. I think this is actually part of a wider issue about people being in their own world and a less considerate attitude to others in public and the selfish “me, me, me” (and my kids/dogs as an extension of me) mentality. Don’t get me started on littering either.

But the dog haters need to accept there will be dogs around in public and learn to live side by side, which is reasonable to expect as part of society if they are behaving normally, playing, barking and under control, they need to deal with that, as I have to accept ‘other people’s kids’ being everywhere too.