Dogs on beaches. Why?

[Chickensarmpit]

Today i took my 3 young kids to the beach for a rare day out.
It was ruined by dogs!
They shit all over the place, one pissed up my icebox and one bloody stole my sons ball.
We moved twice and eventually gave up and went home

Why do people insist on taking dogs with them? Grrr annoyed!

"Dogs, cats, in fact any sort of animal has just as much right to use space on this planet as we humans do....."

Err- no they don't!

And it's not up to me to teach my child how to behave around dogs (although I, in fact, do). It's up to dog owners to make sure their dogs don't harass people who don't want them around them.

Mrs who are the maj on beaches.They let them off leads and run yards ahead.

"Dogs, cats, in fact any sort of animal has just as much right to use space on this planet as we humans do....."

Err- no they don't!.......opps sorry, I must have forgotten that humans were the first living species on this planet and its all the rest that have invaded the space we have, caused pollution etc etc

Well if he freezes on an empty Devon beach I'm stunned a dog goes anywhere near him. My autistic son used to freeze near dogs, still does quite a lot & they never bothered him, only the 8 year old who used to flap and run.

Given how rural Devon is I think it's a bit bonkers to complain about dogs in the area tbh. I see dogs everywhere - and that was why ds2's dog phobia was such a major problem. All his friends had dogs - he really couldn't go & play at a dog free house - there weren't any. Short of moving from Devon (never!) we had to deal with it. He didn't have to love dogs (he does at it happens now) but he did have to learn to be around them if he was to continue going to friend's houses. He was terrified, it wasn't easy but such a joy to see him now.

Curlew, where did you get that idea from? What gives us more rights?

I let my dog off on the beach. He has a great run, has only eyes for his ball & the sea. If horses come on the beach he goes in the lead, as he does if it's very busy.

I think she misread my post kitten. Where I said my dog couldn't help trampling a sandcastle, in response to my buttercat saying it was okay for my severely autistic don to do it. Completely missing my point that I don't allow either of them to do that now I'm wise to it - and if it happens it's my fault.

No one had to teach their child to behave around dogs but you can't really then complain if your child gives 'play' signals to a dog & the dog then plays. Exactly what happened to ds2.

Likewise you don't have to teach your child to behave around horses. I did, but ds 3 didn't listen to me & ended up kicked in the head. He was very lucky not to be seriously injured - partly because he was wearing a hat. However, it was not the horse owners fault or the horse's fault. It was ds3's for not listening & mine for assuming he would .

I can't really understand why you wouldn't teach your child how to behave around animals really.

Sorry - I'm not prepared to discuss the issue of whether humans have more "rights" than animals. To me, it's just a given. Obvious. Common sense. Any child has more rights than any dog. And anyone who thinks differently has skewed values

"I can't really understand why you wouldn't teach your child how to behave around animals really."

Neither do I. But it's up to animal owners to assume that people don't, and not blame the victim if something happens.

Dogs on beaches enhance the whole beach experience for us..my DD.loves watching them

On the dog free beach yesterday, which is adjacent to a dog beach, were two families with big dogs off the lead. I should have told them to fuck off 20 yards to the dog beach but I didn't. They were obviously very entitled. Tossers..

Curlew; no one has said that a dog has more rights than a child, I and Kittensoft have just questioned the point that was made that humans have more rights in public spaces

It's amazing how stupid some of the dog haters manage to make themselves sound on every single dog thread and yet others are able to be reasonable about it without reverting to "all dogs/owners" or "only humans have the right to be on the planet" style statements.

Humans do have more rights than dogs in public spaces.

That isn't what you said.

"It's amazing how stupid some of the dog haters manage to make themselves sound on every single dog thread and yet others are able to be reasonable about it without reverting to "all dogs/owners" or "only humans have the right to be on the planet" style statements."

Nobody has said either of those things. Or anything like them. And I haven't seen any dog haters either. But you just make up whatever you like.

I am not wealthy, far from it, but if I had to pay £1000 for a dog, I would find a way, because I need a dog in my life.

The same as we find a way for afford holidays, I'd find a way to fund my need for a dog.

I agree with Beer, that something needs to be done to stop impulse buying and a license fee would be a sensible way to that. Perhaps a cheaper one but a wait of say 60 days after applying before you can buy a dog and a reduced fee for people who want to rescue.

Our beach has dog free area. I have never seen a dog on the dog free area. I have never seen dog shit in the dog area. We always go to the dog area, occasionally my children and dogs get joined by dogs we know from walking there year round, because they're making lots of noise and have balls etc that they are throwing into the sea for the dogs.

I took them to dog-free beach once. They built a sandcastle and then got bored and asked where all the dogs where because they wanted to find an owner who'd let them take their dog into the sea to play fetch with a dog stick they'd found. Why should dog haters children trump my child's right to fun? For my children fun on a beach equates to playing in the sea with either their own dog or one they have managed to borrow from a friendly owner.

I'm happy to have parts of the beach we cannot go on with dogs. It means that the reckless eejits who put BBQs on the sand and then take them away leaving so sign that the sand is still boiling hot and leave their drink cans and litter, stay at their end of the beach and I can enjoy my end of the beach in relative peace.

You still get the odd one or two fair weather dog walkers, or people who drove from out of town who don't abide by the local "unspoken rules" of the dog beach, and there is more litter than normal, but generally the dog part of the beach is much cleaner and much friendlier and we have loads more space too.

What I want to know is why anyone who thinks dogs should all be as well controlled as all mumsnetters dogs obviously are is a dog hater.....

Probably because you are blaming the dog rather than the Owner and making out that the vast majority of dogs are allowed to shit everywhere and run riot.
Probably because you place the cause of bad beach experiences squarely at the feet of dogs when they cause only a tiny minority of problems.

D0oin - your children would be heartily welcome to borrow my dogs to play in the sea and they could run the paws/legs off each other so they would all sleep like logs that night!

They found a dog on the beach in Turkey last time they went. They'd been bored silly and miserable and kept asking to go back to the pool so they could use their floaties (we don't let them have floaties in the sea in case the float too far out, because one of us has to mind the stuff there is only ever one parent to supervise both of them in the sea)

They then spotted a little Turkish girl playing with her dog and stared longingly at her for 5 minutes until she beckoned them over to play, they didn't understand a word they were saying to each other, but they had great fun throwing balls into the sea for the dog. The dog stayed with children and left the tourists alone.

On a beach in Spain a few years ago, I saw a Spanish woman take a shit and then cover it in sand.