Entitled behaviour of some dog owners

[Jsonwbia]

I am on holiday in the UK. I accept that the area I am in is popular with dog owners and I accept the presence of dogs, but the sheer number of them in some spaces and the thoughtless behaviour of some dog owners is really starting to grate.
I'm in a cafe - restaurant place for lunch. Most other people in here have their dogs with them...fine. But some people have brought in clearly reactive dogs which are intermittently barking loudly at each other, whining, flying into a rage when other dogs go past their tables and growling. It makes me jump out of my skin when they loudly go off and set a baby off crying in shock. There is outside seating available and it's quite a nice day so why they can't sit outside I don't know.
Add to that, dogs sitting on the seats, being allowed to reach too far on their leads making them a trip hazard, and sniffing around my legs as they go past on leads with owners making no attempt to remedy any of this.
The staff are young and very polite and seem a bit ill equipped to deal with any of this.
I'm not out to spoil anyone's day so am keeping quiet but it is not relaxing. I feel like I'm in a minority these days though with not finding this enjoyable.

Oh I have. Barking. Strangely especially at National Trust cafes.

This is not a responsible owner. Mine being a herding breed are very interested in livestock of which I'm surrounded by. I'm ultra careful all the time.
I think many people don't seem to have the faintest idea how to train their dog use hideous terms like "furbabies". I frequently read on here in the doghouse section comments like; the dog is part of your family dont re-home it if it shows aggression to your child/grand mother etc because you wouldnt rehome your children if they were aggressive. So I do think the line between dog and child/human has become increasingly blurred. In my extensive experience if you treat dogs like dogs (or horse cows sheep etc for that matter) have realistic expectations of them they behave like dogs, if you treat them like humans in furry suits they become confused and then behave badly.
Im not sure why we've had this shift in mindset. I'm old and grumpy now but when I was a child people owned dogs but they were expected to fit in with peoples lives and do as they were told, people left their dogs to go shopping work cinema out for dinner etc, you never heard the words "seperation anxiety", aggressive dogs that bit people were PTS no excuses, dogs might have gone into pubs especially in rural areas but not restaurants cafes shops etc, elderly women who over indulged their dogs and treated them like substitute children were often ridiculed.

Thank you for doing what you do.

Excellent points, @Corgiowner 👌

..

I love well behaved, trained and properly socialised dogs.

Sadly we are still living through the legacy of all the idiot first time dog owners who acquired themselves vastly overpriced cavacockadoopugs during covid. These dogs (in general) were never socialised properly at the critical ages, suffer from separation problems so cannot be left, react to everything and have inexperienced owners who do not know how to resolve the issues. Until this cohort is gone and people either do not replace them, or at least are not first time owners, we are stuck with it. Hopefully only another 5 or so years until most of the poorly managed bunch are gone. Although a lot have already been dumped into rescue, which further compounds the problem.

And before anyone comes at me, sure not all dogs or owners, but here is a publication on the increase in frequency and severity of dog attacks post covid. Many, many news articles support this being true.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38865840/

I once had a woman fill a dog bowl, not wash her hands and try to serve me with food. I said no thankyou. She said I was fussy. I agreed with her.

The problem is not all dogs behave like yours

How odd. I have had dogs for years and currently have 4. I have been to so many dog friendly cafes and restaurants and yet funnily enough I have never experienced anything like this! What are the chances hey!

I live fairly near Richmond Park. There are signs everywhere, at every entrance and around every car park saying that dogs must be on the lead from May to the end of July for the deer birthing season.

Every time I visit at least half the dogs are off lead and running about. They don't seem to have very impressive recall, either.

But I suppose some people believe they have special reasons why the signs don't apply to them and their dog and noticing this makes me a 'dog hater'.

Here's Maggie, best dog ever!

No you are absolutely right. It's the same with all people I guess too!

So beautiful 😍

@westendgirl we have a similar thing at the beach. There are large notices saying that dogs must be on lead on the promenade and not be on the beach at all, between May and the end of September. Every time, there are dogs running off lead on the beach and the prom. There are areas further away from the main beach where dogs can go, but their owners choose to ignore that and take their dogs where it very clearly is not permitted. I don’t like dodging extendable leads and dogs running around my legs when I’m out for a walk.

I don't think dogs should be allowed in food establishments either, especially really small ones. And if they are, I agree with the 3 bark rule mentioned by a pp.

I have a dog that I sometimes do take into dog friendly cafes. I agree it’s annoying when the other dogs are reactive and bark at him when we come in. Funnily enough, my dog barks at other dogs too but he seems to have had it drilled into him at a previous home that he must behave perfectly when indoors (he’s a rescue). He’s never barked when inside, and if he did I wouldn’t take him into cafes at all because nobody wants to hear that while they’re trying to eat and relax.

I absolutely agree with you OP. I’m a dog lover but that doesn’t mean (support dogs excepted) that I feel they should be allowed everywhere. It’s partly the sheer number to be honest. Unfortunately shops and other hospitality venues cannot afford to exclude them because they will lose business which means that they’re bloody everywhere!

They might want to consider the money they aren’t making. Because people stay away. Because of the dogs.

I feel so sorry for the dogs. Sure alot of dogs are very sociable and well behaved and enjoy being out and about but some just dont enjoy it and it sucks that their owners are dragging them around, causing them stress and making them miserable for the sake of a day out.

I had 4 dogs at one point and only one of them was super confident and social enough to enjoy coming to all types of events and outings (he was that rare chihuahua who was amazingly self assured and super friendly!!LOL).
Im now down to 1 dog and he is reactive and scared of just about everything. I wouldnt dream of taking him somewhere busy as I know he would be miserable and probably make everyone else miserable! He's much happier with his quiet little routine, away from stressful situations.

I don't think many people stay away from the dog friendly places. In my local town the dog friendly places are nearly always busy but the others are often very quiet. One place that didn't allow dogs was never busy then they started to allow dogs and is now busy!

Yes in the past people left their dogs to go to work but that does not mean it was a good thing to do.

Thankfully we have learned that dogs like companionship and leaving them for hours on end is cruel.

We treat our dog like a dog but that doesn't mean we leave him at home every time we go out. If we go shopping he is left but if we go out for coffee or to eat he almost always comes with us. He is a rescue and is much much happier with us than being home alone.

I agree with this. Surely dogs don't enjoy being taken round John Lewis or shoe shopping in Clarks?

The problem is not the dogs, although my personal belief is that they do not belong in eating establishments. The problem is wanker owners who haven’t trained their dogs and yet still feel entitled to inflict their bad behaviour on the rest of us. I don’t care how many threads we’ve already had on this topic, it’s a problem that is just getting worse. Take your dog for a nice long walk and then leave it at home. They don’t want to be in pubs or cafes or busy towns or in John Lewis, because they are dogs not people. You are the ones that want them there. The world has gone mad. And yes I have a dog and have had happy well adjusted well trained dogs my whole life.

I have a caravan in a seaside town. I never take them to pubs/cafes because despite both of them receiving the same training and socialisation, one is an absolute menace and wants to kill everything in sight, and the other would just wee everywhere. So, whilst im most certainly am a dog lover, I don’t agree they should be taken everywhere.

It’s the holiday season here now and some of our pubs are tiny. Minimum seats, yet some owners actually fetch blankets for their children dogs and let them sit on the seats. I’ve seen dogs eating crisps and pork scratching at pub tables. There’s the yappers who bark so loudly you can’t hear your own conversation. Then there’s those like mine, who piss up every chair leg. Honestly, it’s grim.

Yes that's true for people on holiday, you do need to take your dog around with you, I understand that. I don't understand however why the owners of the unhappy dogs today couldn't have sat with them outside the cafe where there was more space and less chance they would annoy others though.