to assume dog walkers will give way to me and my pram when passing on a narrow pavement

[thebirthlyhallows]

I try to get out with DD for a walk everyday. I'm amazed at how often dog walkers will not give way to me and my pram and let me walk on the safe side of the pavement away from the road when passing.

Aibu to expect this?

Did I mention "surely" enough in my last paragraph?

YABU. They probably stick to the inside of the pavement as the likelihood of the dog wishing to sniff or pee up any available wall or fencepost is pretty high. I'm sure you'd be none too pleased if the dog lurched across your path to do this wouldn't you?

Meh. I'm always amazed at the people who see me coming with a double buggy and think I can somehow bend space in order to make it narrower so they don't have to break their conversation and stop walking side by side for a millisecond.

People walk around in their own little daze most of the time as far as I can tell.

On days when I have the dog as well as the double buggy, I tuck him in to heel, the opposite side of whoever's coming - sometimes that's the inside of the pavement, sometimes that's the outside. I don't veer across the pavement and swop hands

Do you mean you have to go in to the road? If you just mean what side of the pavement.. it really doesn't matter for a half a second although I would always walk (even before I had children) on the unsafe side if someone had a pram or kids with them.

When I used to use a double buggy I would have to do get in the road because of space if someone obviously wasn't going to More infuriating is cyclist who shouldn't be on the fucking pavement in the first place

My dog always walks as far from the road as possible so he can look for cats on driveways and I always put myself between the dog and the pram.

In answer to your question, I think YABU to expect dog walkers to give way to you like this because it isn't a common convention, just something you appear to have secretly decided is the right way to do it. I believe many other dog walkers, like myself, are not telepathic.

No Science I get them to sit on the grass and if I lived in a city I would walk them when I would expect most other people to be at home, either early morning or late night. Unless I had a route where moving them off the path and away from the road was possible.

As I said, most people I've encountered seem not to like being close to German shepherds, despite mine being calm and well behaved.

And yes, I do believe that a person has more right to the pavement than my dogs.

YABU.

I to have trained my dog to be on the inside, away from the road.

So for me to walk on the outside, the dog would have to be between us (and your pram/baby).

Knowing how many people dislike dogs and how hysterical some people can be about large dogs, mine is a GS, I wouldn't attempt this.

My dog would think that we that I was switching sides to cross.

I have her trained to walk along side my Mums wheelchair and my Nephews pram, so it would be easier safer for me to keep her on the inside and walk between you and her.

I'm not sure dog owners will necessarily see a quite sturdy pram as less vulnerable than a dog which is ultimately stupid and sometimes wayward.

Of course, a lot of people wandering the streets now probably do not even know of the unspoken hierarchy of vulnerability that many a traditionally-minded Brit observes automatically in such a situation, the whole place is full of millions and millions of fucknuts who are probably in a hurry to eat crack with a spoon while they watch Jeremy Kyle, so I wouldn't expect it tbh.

Adora - but the OP isn't complaining that the dog wasn't moved away from her, she's complaining that it was moved to the inside of the pavement.

YABU. As it happens, I usually 'give way' to a pram as our pavements are only about a pram's width anyway - there is no 'safe side'. But as a general rule, a pram is far less likely to suddenly want to investigate a nice piece of well-matured roadkill than a dog is, so safer to keep dogs as far from the road as possible.

'do you expect 'gentlemen' to walk on the unsafe side if they are with a 'lady' ?'

My DH insists on doing this, annoys the heck out of me! Unless it's raining in which case he's welcome to be a splash-guard.

I have heard everything now.

God dogs and toddlers are fr more likely to be in danger of pulling out onto the road than your buggy.

Seriously if you can't control your buggy and its gonna veer into road GET ONE YOU CAN HANDLE.

Yab completely unreasonable! How presumptuous. Why should anyone move for you? When people move for me it's usually because we've caught eyes and I've understood they're letting me go or vice-versa. I always say thank you and even speed up if they're stood waiting for me.

The world does not revolve around any one person. Please consider others too, surely that's what makes the world go around?!

Also car drivers panic when they see figs close to the road and sometimes beep.

Adora-walking a dog in a heavy populated (and rough) area only late at night and early morning, trying to find a time when there are no people about, is unrealistic.

It isn't that my dog has more of a right, it's that there isn't a danger just because a Mum is pushing a pram on the road side of a pavement, so there is no reason for a dog owner to switch sides for this not to happen.

The dog is far more likely to be the loose cannon in this scenario. Besides, mine always wants to be on the inside where the good sniffs are: rootling under hedges, weeing on fence posts etc.

What a very interesting first post OP...............

Then maybe that stretch of pavement isn't wide enough for a pram and a person with a dog to pass.

I would still find a way to let people pass without my dogs causing them to move, even if it meant not walking the dogs during the day. I've had enough encounters with dogs either just being friendly or curious to know that most owners, including me, couldn't garauntee that their dog won't want to have a sniff at someone passing.

I would always put a child on the inside of the pavement and so I would expect other parents to as well.

Er, it's a pavement. Not an Indiana Jones-style assault course which will periodically tip up and hurl you into a snake-infested pit.

As long as you're on the pavement, it doesn't matter what side you're on.

Sorry I have to laugh at the idea of never walking your dog on a pavement at such a time when you might have to pass another person Lots of 4am walks then?

Yes yabu op. I always drag my dog and walking children to the safe side. As its safer. You have a baby in a pram, so very unlikely to jump out of the pram towards the road. And I'm assuming you can steer straight. So I wouldn't be moving over for you.

Personally I get sick of pram/buggy drivers pushing in and running over my feet. And don't say some of you don't do this on purpose because I have friends who have admitted doing it.
My dog is my priority, but I would do the safest thing that I could in these circumstances. I certainly wouldn't think that someone with a pram automatically had priority.

Why should they?

Same as other posters, I expected the OP to say they'd been forced into the road or onto a muddy verge or something. I didn't realise there was a "safe side" of the pavement.