to ask if dogs should be on a lead or not in public places?

[GospelTruth]

Following on from a recent thread about dogs snatching food & biting very young children in public places, should it be mandatory for all dogs to be on leads in public places, it's a yes from me. Who could argue otherwise?

Obviously dogs should not be allowed to run at people and owners should exercise control. But no, dogs are not universally less important. People have a responsibility to the domestic animals they keep (gardens don't cut it) and the chance that they might meet a highly allergic person or scare someone should not keep a well-behaved dog permanently on the lead.

'I think the high risk dogs are those that are purposely bred for their aggression and that we know have a high risk of attacking people' - that would be no breed then.

No breed is purposly bred to be aggressive towards children. Not even American Pit Bulls.

poor labrador

zukie sorry, but that is really extreme. Most people don't treat their dogs that way, of course. The point is that the fact that humans have more rights doesn't mean dogs have no rights. Animals do have a right to proper exercise. You cannot designate all outdoor spaces except for isolated woods as human-only.

Feeling have you ever heard of Deed Not Breed?

Besides, the APBT is covered by laws in the UK which makes your argument pointless.

Do you have any other dogs you'd like to add to that list?

My children are allowed friends around - one of dd1's friends virtually lives with us most weekends. She is away this weekend. The house is eerily quiet.

The Devil Dog, who is often indifferent to strange children, even went to her for a cuddle last weekend, he has become so accustomed to her presence.

However, to be allowed in they must be respectful to my dogs, afterall it is their home.

I think there should be sections of public parks that are sectioned off for dogs like Rhadegunde said. And they shouldn't be allowed in any other bit to poo, play or run around.

Our local parks are just dog exercise areas. They are no-go areas for kids. It would be nice to take a picnic there in summer but you can't because there are about 20 fucking dogs running everywhere pooing, pissing and making nuisances of themselves.

Also there are some nice rural walks around us - again, totally spoilt by dogs everywhere - and on these paths, people don't even pretend to bother cleaning up the shit.

Do you lot realise that foreigners laugh at English people due to everyone having a dog, walking it everywhere.

In my experience, foreigners (in continental Europe, at least) allow more privileges to their dogs than we do. They are able to take them into shops and cafes.

'foreigners'
such as?

Go to Holland and find them in shopping centres.

There is something that really riles me about child owners actually. I walk my dogs at the beach quite often. I see the same dog owners day in day out, month after month. All lovely, tolerant, friendly people.

For three months every year, the beach is taken over by inconsiderate, littering, noisy child owners. Us regular, year round beach user are banned from certain areas of the beach , we stick to these rules for the sake of keeping the peace, afterall, like I said we are friendly, tolerant people.

But then some of these child owners decide they want some peace away from all the other noisy child owners and venture onto our part of the beach. They then dare to tell us to leash our dogs before they sniff litte johnny's hand and emotionally scar him for life. I mean how dare they tell us what to do on our beach??? Jesus, you would think they have some god given right to use the beach just because they own a child

I hear the same thing happens in many parks accross the country. Us lovely dog owners happily share the parks with each other come rain, hail or shine, but the second the sun peeks out, the child owners seem to think they have a right to come and take over.

Many of them cannot even control their child. They chase our dogs and steal their balls. The child owners then shout abuse at us.

It's really not on. Children should only be allowed to run loose in designated child areas. Have you seen how much damage those sticky fingers can do to a well groomed dog's coat?

"Go to Holland and find them in shopping centres."

What? Who? Foreigners, Narky? :o

I was on the dog's side until some twat used the term 'child owners '
idiot

You had your debate on the other thread Gospel and your argument was exposed as fatuous. Why revisit it - are you bored?

I have zero tolerence towards ill trained children who interupt my walks and pester my dogs during training, yes.

As I imagine you would have zero tolerence to my dogs if I let them slobber on your child. Keep your children away from me, I will keep my dogs away from you. No leashes required on either part.

By foreigners I suppose i mean non-Europeans. DH is Gambian - he laughs when he sees dogs in coats for example. And there's one woman round our way that puts her dog in little boots which always sets him off.

Seriously. I have heard loads of nonEnglish go on about it and saying that they can;t understand the national fixation with owning a dog.

There was an excellent sketch about it on Goodness Gracious Me once.

you are a very ignorant individual dooinmecleanin

It always amuses me that it's okay to be intolerant of dogs, even imaginary ones, so much as just approaching people, but as soon as someone says that they prefer their dogs to other people's children folk become very sensitive.

Personally I prefer dogs (mine or anyone else's) to other people's children any day. If that makes me nasty and intolerant, so be it.

I am a dog owner, a parent and a lover of animals and nature. I'm not suggesting that dogs should be hidden away or not aloud to have exercise or run off the lead. If you read my messages on this thread you'll find that my message is one of dog owners being responsible for their dogs that's all. I live in an area where many dog owners just allow their dog to 'foul' the public footpath and leave it there. It is a fact that dog dirt can be harmful to humans. Surely it is not unreasonable to expect dog owners to not let their dogs foul a football pitch, playing field, public footpath or area of the beach which is designated for humans not dogs? There are or at least there should be areas for dogs to exercise BUT not irresponsibly. That's our responsibility to control our dogs because we do, whether you like it or not, live in a society of human beings and it is human beings that have been given a brain, consciousness to gain control over our pets.

So you would be happy for folk to speak of pets in such negative terms or is that just reserved or children?

hmc, I am free to start any debate I like. The difference between children roaming free and dogs roaming free is that children do not naturally bite in public nor do they shit anywhere they like in public, nor do they attack people eating their lunch on a bench who are minding their own business in public, if they did then of course I would advocate putting all young children on leads. There is no argument imo, dogs must be on leads in public places you cannot predict a dogs behaviour.

that was to valhalla BTW