Has useless parenting now spilled over into how people treat their dogs?

[Gumbo]

This morning I went for an early walk to the shop along a lovely path beside a river. The path is used by everyone (including cyclists) so it's normal to encounter a wide range of people on it - although because it was early hardly anyone was about.

I could see a woman with a dog (not on a lead) walking towards me. It was clear that the dog had been in the river, and since it had been raining it was also very muddy. As I got closer I heard the woman say to the dog, "gentle, 'Milo'", then as the dog started heading in my direction, she said it a couple more times. The dog completely ignored her and leapt onto me, cheerfully planting copious amounts of mud all over my clean top and trousers. I was telling the dog to get down, while also calling to the woman to get him off me as he was so muddy. She pointlessly stood there telling the sodding dog to be gentle...

I think I may have told the woman she was a fucking idiot.

I've seen this sort of ineffective parenting, where the kid continues to do what it wants knowing there will be no repercussions, so was wondering whether this is now the same lot of people who are also unable to control their dogs?

Once I was walking a friends dog- he is very well behaved and has excellent t recall . All he wants to do off leas is chase his ball. This puppy kept bothering him- running after his ball- he is an older dog that doesn’t like boisterous puppies . He tried to ignore it over and over - the owner did nothing. In the end my dog did one of those warning snaps- the puppy yelped and ran off. I checked it was ok- but was fuming
on another walk the same thing happened and the owner said her dog had to learn what happened if it bothers other dogs. May be she should teach it.🤷🏻‍♀️

@PeonyPatch I have an almost 3yr old reactive sausage. He doesn't come off the lead. Its taken some time but he does ignore other dogs now, unless they're off lead and in his face. He's not vicious but sounds like he would do damage. He's a bark and run away fast dog.
The amount of people that want to touch him though amazes me. Because he's cute. And their gobsmacked faces when he growls and barks because they're trying to touch him.

There are a lot of untrained dogs out there. Never blame the dog, blame the owner.

I really, really hate when people try to claim their dogs are equivalent to children.

I own a tiny fabric shop in a town with lots of middle class dog owners. I mostly say it’s fine to bring the dog in, as long as it’s not raining and they are house trained. But I’ve had a woman roll her eyes at me when it’s been raining and I’ve said “Actually would you mind not bringing your dog in today because I’ve just finished mopping up muddy paw prints off the floor for the third time today”. I’ve had a woman tramp in with her dog in muddy walking boots straight off the fields and not blink an eye at leaving mud everywhere. And the one that really took the biscuit was the woman who came in with her dog, let it wander around the shop whilst she paid for something, and after she’d left we found the dog had peed on a basket full of rolls of interfacing. Fortunately they were all wrapped in plastic, but that was about £2500 worth of stock nearly destroyed. Equally I’ve had a woman standing and watching her grandson take embroidery thread off the display, pull it apart and then drop it on the floor. She didn’t make a move at all to stop him. Have had children dig their hands into rolls of wadding and destroy several metres of it, parents aware but left without saying a thing. All found on CCTV later when we found the damage and couldn’t work out what had happened.
I’ve owned dogs in the past when I had enough space and a garden, and I’ve got children. But sometimes the way oblivious dog owners and ‘gentle parents’ behave makes me happy that all I can have in our current home is a very polite and well behaved cat.

The people commenting who seem to be proud of the fact that they would kick an animal need to have a word with themselves

Always had dogs, walked respectfully..they are of course family members. However, I dont want YOUR dog jumping on me, even touching me. If you can't control them keep them on a short lead. Like OP I won't want to feel dirty because of your dog touching me in any way.

To be fair I never directly said that a dog is the same as children.

However, I really do not think it’s okay to suggest kicking someone else’s dog is alright.

Nice to meet another daxie owner. Yes, I get the same with others wanting to stroke or pay attention to our dogs. I know most are just being friendly, and I’ll always supervise whilst this happens, I am still “socialising” our puppy, but I do tend to keep her on the lead more than the other one who most of the time is just in her own world and wants to trundle along on her own.

But that's the point of the thread..or it was...that useless parenting has spilled over to dogs..

How I laughed looking after my bil’s puppy, with the same name as my neighbour’s youngest child!

I was warned by a fellow dog walker yesterday that a new dog leaps up at people and at other dogs. My two would be horrified, they’re quite sensitive and absolute wusses. The other dog walker indicated my pale jeans and said they’d be wrecked. I’d be cross, it’s happened a few times, doesn’t matter what I’m wearing, I don’t want filthy paws on it.

You said that people shouldn't threaten to kick a dog because you'd never do that to a child... I also don't think anyone should ever kick a dog except in genuine self defence, but I think it's asinine to suggest that it would be remotely comparable to assaulting a child.

That’s not a direct comparison.
but you absolutely should not kick both.
I agree out of self defence would be acceptable as long as necessary and proportionate…

Been going on for a long time. See also overweight pets (pretty sure now people will say their pets make themselves overweight, have genetic problems, etc.).

You have a right not to be injured harassed or have you belonging damaged by a dog

If the dog owner will not take action to stop it happening then you are entitled to do so

Any objections to that

How would people here feel about designated dog parks? The only place your dog can be off lead (besides your own fenced in property)
I know that excludes reactive dogs. But most reactive dog owners i know would rather not have loose dogs approaching them as they walk their dogs on lead, because they are reactive!
I love dogs, hate crappy owners.

Also see different coloured leads stating that the dog your off lead dog is approaching is Nervous etc .
Dog owners should understand what each of these colours mean from a distance.

We have a dog park as a specific, designated area of our local park, and then dogs are supposed to be on leads everywhere else in it. In my experience basically all dog owners think this is a great idea in theory, but a sizeable proportion - perhaps a majority - think that it's fine for their specific dog to be off-lead in the park too, as they're so good/harmless/sweet.

Dog fields are an actual "thing". Weve also just had the dog equivalent of a soft play open recently, which cam be booked privately as well as sessions with other dogs.

Doggy soft play made me chuckle! I mean where does it end?

The problem with dog fields in my area is that a) very expensive at something like £10.- for 30 minutes at peak times... that's 3pm - 8pm plus weekends. Before that it's still around £7.- ...
b) they are very muddy in the winter
c) we rather go for an actual walk than hang around an enclosed field for any length of time. (Public footpaths are my go to - nobody about for miles and lovely scenery!)

However, I do tell my dogs that we're going to the playground when we go agility training....

if you just bend your knee forward as the dog jumps up, it will hit the knee not you. It will knock the air out if and usually they stop jumping up. You don’t need to deliberately ‘knee’ the dog. It does it all by itself. It’s a classic training move with a ‘jumper’.

Like overweight children. The owners (parents) buy the food and control how much is put in the bowl (on the plate).

Yep (although I can see that some pets may be more interested in overeating, unless they're hunting outside, the food is not there unless the owners are making it available).

Friends of mine were dog breeders. All above board and a proper breed not a 'trendy' breed.

Anyway, she told me that they wouldn't sell a puppy to a family without meeting the children first.

She told the parents it was so they could check the compatability of the puppy's temperament with the children. But it was really because they said you could tell a lot about whether someone would be a responsible dog owner by the way their children behaved and how the parents interacted with them.

Absolutely, just today I had an off lead Rottweiler bound towards me on my way home from work (so not in a park) and the other week we had booked a weekend away at a five star spa hotel (so a treat) and had to cut our breakfast short because a couple came in with two absolutely massive (think Great Dane sized) dogs that stank and proceeded to climb all over the seats beside us. It’s disgusting. We fed that back to the hotel and still have not received a response.