I thought National Trust were child and dog friendly places?

[copernicium]

Visited a NT property and feel quite put off visiting again...

"Move those children away, they are wild animals you know" (even though adults were standing much closer) ... I did give the man the benefit of the doubt on safety grounds even though I didn't see an issue.

But then we tried to enter the area allocated for picnics at 11:54 - to be told we couldn't enter before noon with a dog.

Ok fair enough, so we snuck up a corner to let DC eat a sandwich sitting in the pram - to be told no picnics allowed.

So then we go and hover near to the picnic area, to be told to move the dog away from the entrance until noon. It must have been 11:59 by now.

Finally, time to enter the "picnic area" - to be looked up and down, this time at the dog and the lady said quite abruptly "is that what you call a short lead?" It's a 90cm lead, and nowhere in the admission details is this mentioned. She was trying to turn us away from the area because of the length of the dogs lead. Finally won that argument and allowed to pass.

By this point DC are very hangry so we pass through to the picnic area as quickly as possible, for a lady to stop us and say DC must move to the centre of the path in case they fall on the flowers and ruin them. They were walking quietly and sensibly, holding our hands, with no hint that they might suddenly run or fall on the flowers.

I know it was only a few comments, but it just felt like I couldn't do anything right all day, and that DC and dog were both very unwelcome. Arm I going to regret having membership?

I’ve come across some pretty awful volunteers at NT properties. I think the power goes to their heads -perhaps they are retired headteachers?!

@copernicium

Visited a NT property and feel quite put off visiting again...

"Move those children away, they are wild animals you know" (even though adults were standing much closer) ... I did give the man the benefit of the doubt on safety grounds even though I didn't see an issue.

But then we tried to enter the area allocated for picnics at 11:54 - to be told we couldn't enter before noon with a dog.

Ok fair enough, so we snuck up a corner to let DC eat a sandwich sitting in the pram - to be told no picnics allowed.

So then we go and hover near to the picnic area, to be told to move the dog away from the entrance until noon. It must have been 11:59 by now.

Finally, time to enter the "picnic area" - to be looked up and down, this time at the dog and the lady said quite abruptly "is that what you call a short lead?" It's a 90cm lead, and nowhere in the admission details is this mentioned. She was trying to turn us away from the area because of the length of the dogs lead. Finally won that argument and allowed to pass.

By this point DC are very hangry so we pass through to the picnic area as quickly as possible, for a lady to stop us and say DC must move to the centre of the path in case they fall on the flowers and ruin them. They were walking quietly and sensibly, holding our hands, with no hint that they might suddenly run or fall on the flowers.

I know it was only a few comments, but it just felt like I couldn't do anything right all day, and that DC and dog were both very unwelcome. Arm I going to regret having membership?

Was this staff / volunteers or other visitors?

@Ritasueandbobtoo9

I am not really happy about this move to encourage dogs. I’m allergic to dogs and want a dog free zone. I want to look at buildings and flowers not be accosted by some fuckwits dog. Dogs have no place in cafes or buildings or shopping areas. They are animals.

How do you cope with guide dogs? My SIL is blind. Her dog goes everywhere including cafés and shops.

Used to go to NT properties all the time when kids were little. In my experience there are a few “rouge” volunteers, that for whatever reason overstep their remit to impose rules on children (and I guess dogs). We had everything from walking to near the edges of borders, stopping us from letting Dc to carefully smell roses, picking up sticks ( I have 2 DS and small boys will always pick up sticks), to toddlers picking up gravel form path and letting it drop again in same place (gravity experiments with tiny hands🙄). Even when they were in early teens we had someone at the house lecture them on not touching anything- in front of queue waiting to get in- he was telling them off quite angrily for something they hadn’t even had chance to do yet 🤦‍♀️. It always struck me that these volunteers seemed overly anxious, or lacking perception of what kids are likely to do ( e.g. picking up sticks? They must be about to poke someone with it), catastrophising. Some of them though were just a bit power crazy. And I think it only took one of them on duty for others to follow this behaviour.
We had regular places we visited, never any issues then suddenly a single bad experience.
Don’t let it put you off visiting the same place again. Maybe drop a letter to the property explaining what happened and asking for clarification (e.g. if the rules were right then why not on website), they’ll need to investigate so gives dates and times so they know who was on duty. Chances are different volunteers will be on next time you go .
There’s nowt so queer as folk- and NT volunteering does seem to attract some queer ones

I can’t stand the number of dogs in some places. Loads of them badly behaved too. And I’m a dog owner who likes dogs!

I do think you’re being a little bit precious about some of it, but understand it’s probably more the cumulative affect of being spoken to across the day.

Some of them are more officious than others. We pulled up to some castle once and started getting coats out of the boot and the attendant bustled over “you can’t bring them in here!” he said, pointing at scooters that were in the boot, which we had no intention of bringing in.
There were more tedious things that day that I can’t remember. Something annoying about the cafe and something else BUT what I do remember is that someone gave me two free tickets as one of my children was saying excitedly “I can’t wait to see the moat and the maze and did you know so and so lived here” (we’re from Australia so this was a novelty for them) and they said “I’ve got two free tickets that I wanted to give to someone and your boy is so excited!
Totally made up for officious car park bloke.

@Twentypast
How do you cope with guide dogs? My SIL is blind. Her dog goes everywhere including cafés and shops.

🙄 What a goady post. We can all assume guide dogs are accepted by almost everyone in society and that @Ritasueandbobtoo9 was talking about the other 95% of dogs which are not guide dogs. Stop looking for a fight where there isn’t one.

[quote JingsMahBucket]@Twentypast
How do you cope with guide dogs? My SIL is blind. Her dog goes everywhere including cafés and shops.

🙄 What a goady post. We can all assume guide dogs are accepted by almost everyone in society and that @Ritasueandbobtoo9 was talking about the other 95% of dogs which are not guide dogs. Stop looking for a fight where there isn’t one.[/quote]
Not goady at all.

She said she was allergic. So that must be a problem with guide dogs? Genuine question. How on earth did you get goady from that. If anything it's the opposite. I'm asking how someone with allergies would cope when the allergen can't be avoided.

What a weird post.

Yes it was staff/volunteers making the comments - not sure how to tell them apart without scrutinising their badge and most weren't that close.
I've emailed them this morning with the comments.

My local one won't let dogs into the formal gardens but will happily sell tickets to people with dogs without telling them. I met a very irate couple who were about to go for a refund.

I generally find the volunteers great and really passionate and knowledgeable. A couple of people I worked with volunteered when they retired and I could imagine them being awful though!

I've ever had this experience at a NT place. They've always been really welcoming. Your experience sounds awful so I'd email them to share your experience

@swingsandroundaboutss Clive!!!

Guide dogs are very well trained, do not run up and rub their heads or bodies against you or try to jump up. Strangers should not pat guide dogs and of course people with visually impairment have the right to be accompanied by their “eyes”.

If NT are generally not dog friendly, I’ll make much more use of my membership (both dog allergic and phobic).

WRT guide dogs - they’re few and far between, guaranteed to be well behaved and not unpredictable, always on a harness so I’m not scared of them and if it came to a clash of allergies vs the needs of a visually impaired person then of course their need would take precedence and I would leave the cafe/shop/whatever.

I would love to read this story from the perspective of each one of those volunteers you describe.
I imagine it would read very differently.

It was 6 minutes. 6 minutes. Not half an hour. Surely your DC could cope for 6 minutes to wait to eat something.
And yes, you should be wary of the deer. A spooked adult deer could potentially hurt a child, less so an adult.

I know I’m going against the grain here but I think you are being a bit precious.

My closest NT are dog friendly but don't allow dogs in the buildings or in formal gardens. It makes sense and the staff are helpful.

I understand why some volunteers might get jumpy about lead lengths though. In a picnic area I've had dogs approach mine (who were lying next to leg of our picnic bench) and I don't like it. There's no excuse for being rude, but maybe that was their concern.

A deer park in the Midlands?

I think some are better with dogs than others. They’re not welcomed into formal gardens or the eating areas at our local ones, and at this time of year, into the wider park as the deer have babies.

I don’t think op is being precious, she admits that some of the comments might have been fair enough but a constant barrage like that suggests that there’s a wider issue with staff/volunteer training on the way they communicate with visitors rather than it being her.

I volunteer for a different heritage organization and we want visitors to have a nice day! If they are feeling constantly got at I would want management to know so they can look at solutions- which may be to do with training volunteers on how to talk to people or might be to do with signage so the visitors are aware of what is expected (eg distance from the deer, type of dog lead) in the first place.

You should definitely send some feedback to the NT about this. I suspect it is a case, as others have said, of volunteer-jobsworth-clipboard syndrome - the power just gets to some of them

‘volunteer-jobsworth-clipboard syndrome’?

Couldn’t it just as easily be a case of very over sensitive visitor syndrome?

I hate encountering dogs when I’m out and about. Their owners seem to think they are great and we should all be as interested as they are. I would rather they weren’t allowed where I am eating.

The rest sounds over the top and I’ve not encountered anything like that. (NT member for 20 years).

Same with everything, there are good dog owners and bad ones. I never let my dog anywhere near anyone who doesn't ask for it and wouldn't even consider letting her off lead somewhere like this. I wouldn't take her in a coffee shop etc.

@parrotonmyshoulder like others have said, perhaps each conversation taken in its own merits could consider me as "precious". But the cumulative effect of every staff member I came into contact with on my first visit there, made me feel rather unwanted.