To wish this country was more dog friendly?

[lesley33]

I know some dogs are badly behaved, but surely not all dogs should be tarred with the same brush? My dog is a very well behaved labrador. On the continent dogs are allowed into lots of pubs and cafes and in places like Paris dogs are regularly walked along City streets. But in the UK, lots of people do not seem happy to let dogs share their space anywhere, which I think is vvu.

My dog doesn't want a child in its face at anytime - and doesn't want a child wandering up to it and teasing it with stick as some do.

So I think owners of children need to teach children how to behave around dogs.

Are we on page 15 yet ?

toboldygo, gorgeous.
deja - I shared ages ago but noone looked (or my dogs are fugly and noone wanted to offend me) on profile.
And to answer a question I dont know a single dog walker who wouldnt recall a dog from approaching any child, I most certainly do.

Does it vary according to where you live?

On the whole, where I am in Lancs:
a) we aren't wading in dogshit. Most people pick up from pavements/parks; countryside if it isn't then its usually off the edge of the path. There was a bit of a problem outside the school; they put up polite notice and the problem went away.
b)people tend to keep dogs reasonably well controlled. Really good on cycle paths.
c) lots of kids want to stroke my dog and nearly all of them ask nicely

d) the dog free beaches are dog free (except the time I found someones mobile in the dunes on the doggy half and had to race like a loon with sausage on a lead to catch them)

(and if you check MmeLindors thread, we have some good dog friendly pubs too )

It must do Grimma, there's no problem with dogshit etc in Lincs either.

Me too, am in rural Herts and no problem with dogshit.

Berkshire all clear too.

Hmm, in East London and I'm afraid we do have a dog poo problem, both on pavements and in parks. To be fair most owners do pick up, it's just the few who don't ever bother that cause the problem.

I think it must vary. We live in a not very nice town. Voted in the top ten places to live. Even here the vast majority of dogs are well controlled. There are no rivers of shit. Most people follow the rules. The beach is totally dog free during the summer time. God forbid you wander down after sunset with your dog, you'll be photographed by a lurking reporter and will be on the front page of the local paper with a headline urging your nearest and dearest to name and shame you pubically in return for a small reward

Most children approach dogs nicely but we do have our fair share of nut case parents who drag their away from the terrible jellyfish hounds while the child sadly watches the did disappear into the horizon without so much as a pat on the nose. It also greatly amuses me when parents automatically steer their child to my fluffiest, smallest dog (who happens to be the least child friendly) and away from my largest scariest looking dog (who happens to be the most child friendly dog I have ever had the pleasure of knowing).

Jellyfish hounds? What was my phone thinking?

Now that would be scary... I've had more problems on beaches from jellyfish than hounds!

I don't know, Dooin - but put us out of our misery - what the hell did you mean?

Of course humans dont shit do they? Oh wait they do, and then they dump it in the oceans.

And do you hear fish ranting about it and wanting humans kept on leads?

I am sure I typed hell hounds. What have jellyfish got in common with hell?

I now know I did type hell as it tried to change it in this post too

Well I must have very bad luck on Wimbledon Common then Dogsbestfriend -
I have had two instances there - while eating a picnic ( away from the main paths but clearly visible ) a dog ran over ( while owners chasing behind screaming at it to stop ) and took food from us.

In the second incident another dog actually took the sandwich from my three year old daughters hand and while he may not have meant to certainly she felt he bit her at the same time.

She is now petrified of dogs. We cant eat a picnic on the only green common land around us because people cant control their dogs.

I never said a puppy is allowed to hurt a child. Children, when they don't always act appropriately but are excused as they are small and just learning. Told me the mother of this kid who was kicking my 4-month old puppy.

But dogs, including small puppies should be under firm control, never bark, never jump. Bad, stupid dogs if they do. If my puppy had growled at that child then I'm sure she would be on MN complaining about horrible dogs and how they all should be PTS.

Thank you Dooin - I can do something more useful with such remnants of brain as I still have now.

I think ' headline urging your nearest and dearest to name and shame you pubically in return for a small reward' is just brilliant

Haka How would you ever enforce it? There are a lot of untaxed cars on the road and they have number plates.

In an ideal world yes, dogs would be registered, licenced, insured and neutered if in the hands of anyone except breeders who would themselves be regulated. I imagine even my sparring partner DBF would agree with that!

But it's not an ideal world.

No problem with hefty licence fees etc for dog owners - as long as it is enforced which of course it can't - dog fouling laws are not enforced and as someone has already said look at all the cars on the road that are untaxed and uninsured.

She would Andrew! :)

In, as you say, an ideal world. Meanwhile, back in the real one...

Hazle, if I'd have caught a child kicking a puppy the child would have damn learned never to do it again!

The problem is, in order to train a dog to be under control you have to take it out in public when it isn't. Puppies have to be socialised, and at some point let off lead to exercise. And they might decide to completely ignore a command to 'leave' or 'heel' that they have previously been reliably responding to. Because they are young and impulsive. They will make mistakes, and learn from them. As will the owner. I have a puppy, and keep him on a short leash when we walk past people in the street etc. I don't wait outside the school with him, but stand a little further away on a patch of grass so no child has to slither past him if they're scared. I make him sit. When I have let him off lead, I've kept him close with treats and only let him off when there has been no one else around. But at any moment, someone else could walk on to the park. And until they do, I won't know whether he'll go bounding up to them, or will be recalled easily as he is without a distraction.

Chickens, you can take a puppy to training lessons, or you can find a friend who has a well trained dog, and go to their garden. It is better, and safer, than having an untrained puppy who will run up to anyone and has no recall.