Dogs are everywhere?!

[LadyMonicaBaddingham]

I took DS to a university open day today. Two separate families had brought their dog with them! Is this someone I've missed?! Why is this necessary?!

Long term dog owner here. A dog is fine at home for 4 hours or so, maybe 6 at a maximum. I'd make sure my dog had enough exercise and leave it at home. Why do you take your dog everywhere?

Maybe I've missed it, but where does OP say the dogs were inside the university? She just said they were at the open day. At least at my uni open day, we walked around the whole campus. I'd say about half of the time at the campus we were outside, the rest of the day we were walking around the city. I don't remember being confined to a single room at all.

The genuinely nicest people I know don’t like dogs. They’re still kind to them and would never hurt one, but they don’t like them.

I really don't think it's that bad here, Reading these threads would have you thinking you're literally tripping over dogs everywhere. In Spain recently there were dogs in all the shops, pharmacies, high end clothing stores etc.

To be honest I find the vast majority of dogs behave much better in shops, restaurants and cafes than most of the entitled brats that pass for children these days.

I thought this was supposed to be a country of dog lovers, obviously not☹️

I have a dog. Always had dogs growing up. But I don't want them in every shop or cafe or pub etc. I'm also sure the dog would rather have some shut eye etc.
I also don't understand how all summer facebook is full of people complaining about dogs being walked in the sun/on hot pavements etc and yet go to any seaside town near us and the place is full of dogs beijg walked.. are pavements less hot in seaside towns than others?! Of course not but people just take the dog as they are out for a day and don't want to leave it home/more convenient than sorting a dog walker to nip in etc.

I love dogs and grew up with them but back in the 70's / 80's we would never have taken our dogs in cafes / shops. Apart from service dogs it was unheard of.

Then what are you doing on Mumsnet?
Next you'll be claiming that your au pair has to clean her own alloy wheels...

I had/have dogs and never take them out to shops, cafes etc. I was with a friend at a well known retail park recently- why are people walking around with dogs? I found the retail park boring never mind the poor animals. It seems to be the ‘newer owners’ and since the lockdown times.

I don't think it ever really has been, most people tolerate them.

If I ran a cafe I would ban all dogs from coming in. No animals would be allowed, only humans.

So you are a dog then, you have a dogs head and bark- ok.

Family - it’s a dog. You want to eat near my pet tarantula that is my ‘family’?

I am going to write to Keir Starmer to ask him to crack down on dogs. I think it will be a popular policy.

Sure no problem.

I tolerate some dogs, for friends sake, but can’t really stand them. Only thing friends know is they cannot come in to my house, and when they drone about them, I listen blankly- so they probably have an inkling, but doubt they know what I really think of them.

Snowflakey owners have snowflakey dogs.

You do not get to dictate to other people who or what they refer to as their family.
My dog is my family (it is just the two of us), and that has absolutely nothing to do with you whatsoever.
For some people, their dog is the only family they have.
There is no need to be so spiteful about such people. no need at all.

There has been an explosion in the number of dogs, so many more of them are badly bred, and even more again are owned by people who are rubbish owners who have no idea how to look after or train a dog properly. So a pretty large proportion of todays very significant dog population are neurotic, unhappy, often dangerous bags of nerves.

Dogs are now a Thing, to the extent that instead of being a real lifestyle choice, the general idea is that why wouldn’t you have the accessory everyone has - there is a ridiculous public focus - look how many of mumsnets ‘promoted’ posts are about bloody dogs for example! It all contributes to the wrong people getting dogs for the wrong reasons.

And I’d agree that the people I know who are the best carers for their dogs DON’T treat them as ‘members of the family’ to the extent that they drag them shopping with them. Too often the ‘my fur baby is a member of the faaaamily’ actually translates as ‘I have no idea how to properly train a dog so I’m just going to treat it like a baby’

It is a MN thing.
Any dog thread is like a dog whistle to anyone who hates them. They insist their kids are bowled over by dogs daily, the pavements are swimming with piss and shit, loads of dogs are in every cafe and are barking and eating food off of tables. And then there are the posters that are obsessed with dog's bumholes, their "lipstick" (which only 50% of dogs have), and this weird insistence that someone who takes their dog into a dog friendly place is in the wrong.
They also make assumptions about dog owners (such as they have dogs because they can' afford kids), or that people have dogs because they want a non-verbal slave to control, or that they are so shit with human interactions that a dog is the only thing that will put up with them. That is makes no sense to me because a lot of people have kids and dogs.

I agree the dog didn't need to be at the open day unless it's going to be at the uni with its owner.
Parents have no place being there either. If a student does not have the wherewithal to get to an open day, ask questions and understand the process they probably don't have the maturity for university.

Me too.

they’re everywhere, I like dogs but they put me off when I see them in John Lewis, cafes etc. I see America can have them in the passenger plane areas (well on films), is this true?

i agree with not leaving dogs alone for hours and adjusting where to go socially ie maybe more park and walks. Poor neighbours who are left to put up with their constant howling and barking h
for hours on end (yes we nicely let them know and no there’s no change in over 10 years), when they’re trying to relax or entertain guests is well thought. So if that’s the trade off then I guess it’s worth it.

just for dog owners to consider not everyone likes dogs or wants them jumping up at them.

My dog is my family. How does that affect you, and why is it such a problem?
I do not treat her like a baby, because I have no clue about babies or what that would even look like.
I don't take her to shops, but I do take her to cafes where she is very welcomed. She snoozes under my table and does not bother anyone. The cafe is often part of our walk, or I am meeting a friend who would also like to see her too.

Do you know it really isn’t ‘an MN thing’ though.

I agree with you that a lot of people are really militant about dogs and I do see that on here.

But far more common is that dogs are so much more numerous now that people are just sick of them, as it stands to reason that they just run into far more badly behaved ones. I like dogs, but I don’t like them as much as I used to, and I’ve heard the same from most of my friends.