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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

People with dogs should have a bit more consideration

59 replies

cuteboots · 03/05/2011 12:15

Ok heres the story sat in a pub beer garden yesterday with lots of little toddlers running around. Some of them had no shoes on! In walked this couple with a dog who proceeded to wee on the grass area where these children were walking to and from the play park! I have nothing against dogs but I wondered what other people thought of this?

OP posts:
Casey76 · 03/05/2011 12:41

Maybe the parents should have shown more consideration by putting shoes on their children....
Beer gardens are for everyones enjoyment and lets face it dogs and their owners are not allowed in the pub so it is obvious that they will be sat outside.
I think it is lovely that so many people take their dogs out with them instead of leaving them stuck indoors.

candleshoe · 03/05/2011 12:41

I think if we can train kids to wee/poo only in nappies/potties/loos then dog owners should train their dogs to do the same. My aunt's dog wees and poos on command in the corner of her garden and no where else without her say so (she is a dog trainer!)

I live next to 12,000 acres of Nat. Trust common land that we can't really use, because I have young children who don't yet look where they are going, and the whole common is plastered in dog turds! I love dogs but I hate their irresponsible owners!

I do think kids without shoes on is bloody silly in a pub garden though.

fit2drop · 03/05/2011 12:41

LWITW must have missed that one Grin

squeakytoy · 03/05/2011 12:44

Sod all to do with dog owners. A bit of pee wont do any harm, a shard of glass would.

Original poster
cuteboots · 03/05/2011 12:46

What the actual fuck- as mentioned I have nothing against dogs or the owners and I can only appologise if it came across like this I was just shocked by the lack of shoes on the kids feet and then the dog sort of esculated the situation. I agree that the parents should have had a lot more gumption!!

OP posts:
lesley33 · 03/05/2011 12:46

Candleshoe - How does your Aunt do this? This isn't a sarcastic comment, but a genuine enquiry. I have been able to teach my dog to only wee on grass, but I have never managed to teach him to only wee in a certain place and at my command.

confuseddotcodotuk · 03/05/2011 12:47

I'd say both the parents and dog owners were being irresponsible tbh (not that dog owners can do much about the dog pissing though!). I just left my waitressing job and spent the whole of the easter hols telling people to put shoes on their kids feet (or theirs!) because you can never catch everything broken.

I had one Mum tell me that there was broken glass in the area around the trees and that she'd sue me if I didn't do something about it Hmm Don't let your kids play without shoes on in a pub garden then and don't be rude when reporting something that we couldn't possibly know about?!

YABU.

lubberlich · 03/05/2011 12:47

Our dogs pee all over our lawn - the children run around on it all the time. So far none of their feet have fallen off.

CurrySpice · 03/05/2011 12:49

I'm going to be possibly CU here and say if I'm in a pub garden, I don't especially want dogs sniffing round me. They should be on a lead

And the kids should have shoes on obv

candleshoe · 03/05/2011 12:50

Lesley33

I'm afraid I don't know her training secrets except that she started training them to do the only weeing in one spot when her two dogs were tiny - sorry!

BitOfFun · 03/05/2011 12:53

My dog is cuter than most people's children, so they can bugger off with their dirty smelly-footed urchins.

squeakytoy · 03/05/2011 12:56

Can everyone here wee on command? I very much doubt it, so why should a dog be able to.

Yes, first thing in a morning, just like every other creature on waking up, the first thing to do is take a pee.

You can not, and should not train a dog to hold in its wee until YOU decide it should have one.

WhereTheWildThingsWere · 03/05/2011 12:57

Would be worried about glass, not pee.

We have a very small garden that is totally decked, dog pees on it, children are currently picnicing on it.

At Mils over easter we had three dogs peeing and pooing (we picked up the poo obv) all over the lawn and 5 children running around on it.

Would never cross my mind as odd.

gkys · 03/05/2011 12:58

IMO dogs and play areas don't mix, bad for everones bp. as for no shoes, Confused some people worry me. as for people spitting ugh,,,, it should be a public order offence with a fixed fine

emptyshell · 03/05/2011 12:58

You started a thread with a title bashing dog owners... not bashing the barefoot wonders. You started this to pick the mandatory dog fight so don't go playing the wounded victim now.

Dogs pee... funnily kids pee as well - I'd bet the grass on the beergarden has seen a few toddler (and grown men) tiddles in the past as well. Or are we in a world where we're expected to wipe the grass with Detol on the offchance someone wants to let their kid run around barefoot?

lesley33 · 03/05/2011 13:00

Okay - my dog was a rescue dog, so wasn't a puppy. As I said I have tried pulling him away when he is weeing on grass where I don't want him to - but it makes no difference. I end up pulling him along as he is weeing! He used to wee anywhere outdoors, so does now recognise that he needs to wee on grass, but I have been unable to teach him anything beyond this.

It is easier to teach puppies, but I have never come across a dog that only wees on command. It obviously can be done, but as it is not common I think if people allow dogs into a grassy area, they should accept that dogs will wee.

I don't have a problem if pubs ban dogs in gardens because of children playing, but if dogs are allowed, then parents need to take account of that.

Just to say as well that some dogs are much harder to train than others and this never seems to be recognised. My current dog is fairly intelligent - but the dog I used to have was really thick. It genuinely seemed to be very difficult for him to remember what he was allowed and not allowed to do. He spent a lot of time looking at me confused, when I asked him to do something.

He was so thick that when we put up a conservatory he continually banged his head against the glass many many times a day - and for weeks. In the end we had to keep him out of the conservatory. It took him about 18 months of doing the same walk every day before he sussed that it was at x point we always put him back on the lead. And it was only at this point that he started to be reluctant to come to us to put him back on the lead. He was actually a fairly obedient dog once he understood what you wanted him to do. He was an absolute nightmare to train!

gkys · 03/05/2011 13:07

Grin @ bitoffun

zukiecat · 03/05/2011 13:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

emptyshell · 03/05/2011 13:18

Aaah someone else who's had a dog that's intellectually challenged! Mine adopts the politicial approach to life - if in doubt look cute and offer to shake hands (works for most of them)... an adult rescue dog, if he's mid-flow you ain't gonna stop him - you can get him to unload as you leave the house, you can get him to unload again on the hydrangea in the front garden I'm trying to kill, you can get him to unload on his walkies - but if he wants to unload again later on and he's near grass (or lampposts) - he's gonna.

takethisonehereforastart · 03/05/2011 13:19

You can train a dog to go in a certain place in your garden or only on grass when in public etc, and you can teach it a command word that lets it know it's okay to go if it wants.

My uncle is blind and has a guide dog. It's vital that the dog knows where it can go to the toilet because obviously my uncle can't just go out and search the whole garden. He has helped to teach the dog since it was a puppy, well before it became his official guide dog. And part of that was to teach the dog to go in a certain place in the garden by taking it there on a lead at a time when it was reasonable to expect it would need to go (first thing in the morning/shortly after food or water) and saying a command word as the dog did what it had to do.

The dog then associates the area and the word with going to the toilet and eventually will try to go only in that particular place and without being led there. In public he regularly takes the dog to a patch of grass and says the command word and the dog goes if it wants to go.

The system isn't totally perfect. If the dog doesn't need to go at that moment then it won't go. And if you don't regularly take the dog to the right place and say the word, eventually it will just go wherever it is.

But even with that training, the dog still has to go in public. If the pub allows dogs in the beer garden then people have to expect that they might need to do their business while they are there.

Shoes are still by far the most sensible idea for the human visitors though.

takethisonehereforastart · 03/05/2011 13:21

I should have said, this training means that the owner absolutely must give their dog regular opportunities to go to the toilet throughout the day, otherwise it just won't work and it's cruel to the dog.

bemybebe · 03/05/2011 13:25

Guide dogs are trained to pee on the grass afaik. Going on the pavement is a big no-no. I train my dog to go only on grass...

Original poster
cuteboots · 03/05/2011 13:28

emptyshell- deffo not playing the wounded victim but thanks for that comment.

OP posts:
lesley33 · 03/05/2011 13:30

My dog is trained to go only on grass - which would include a pub garden.

Emptyshell - Yes my thick dog looked very very cute and had a very pretty face. Was also very easy going and placid. So although difficult to train, it was a lovely dog.

emptyshell · 03/05/2011 13:38

You started the thread with the inflamatory anti-dog owner title.... you're going to get lambasted for it cos we get got-at to fook... I walk the dog on the traffic side of the road so he can't be accused of piddling up lamposts, I pretty much frog march him past the play area before he gets a milisecond to THINK of lifting his doggy leg anywhere remotely near anywhere offensive, I've got the poo bag out as fast as he can start to circle - yet STILL we get endless shite thrown at us and it gets fucking annoying and wears you down.

I've been told I should only walk my (medium sized, incredibly well-behaved just thick) dog late at night, I've been screamed at and held to be personally responsible for every dog turd within a 50 mile radius (including ones that would have been a childbirth-esque achiemevement for my dog to have produced and looked suspiciously horsey to me) - and I'm fucking sick of being marginalized and criminalised because I dare to own a dog. IF the pub allowed dogs in the beer garden, I would have had mine in there, on an extendable lead or occupied with a kong - and if people had a problem with that - THEY would have been the problem, not me because, being frank - I'm done with bending over backwards to BE considerate and still getting aggro.

On the subject of thick dogs - we did have one when I was growing up who, after many months of trying - the vet himself concluded was just a sandwich short of a picnic... he ended up being passed to a security firm as looking big and hard (was as soft as clarts really) was about within his mental capacity.