To tell Dog owners control you fecking dogs!

[Wishfulmakeupping]

I'll get flamed I don't care. I'm fed up of people letting their dogs run wild just had another dog clamour all over me when I'm walking down the street with a 'sorry' from the owner again this happens to often. Last week a dog off its lead stuck its head near my child pram.
Its simple if you can't control your dog off its lead then keep it on its lead until you get to the park.
I think I'm going to go nuclear next time :(

The line

oh he's friendly shows an arrogance and lack of understanding,

Much better to simply apologise profusly.

I would put up with it from a toddler, and probably laugh. They can't help being curious.
Yes I would expect the parent to look after the child, and a dog owner to look after the dog.
The sort of person we are talking about wouldn't be good to confront in either situation though, so I'd let it go.

Hi Alpaca! It's a great way to make a living except for picking up the poos

Omirion - totally fine to have dog off lead if it's well trained. The reason I don't let mine off the lead is that they are not to be trusted to run off and not come back. Sheesh - I can control other people's dogs but mine are naughty!

As far as my dog walking job is concerned, I keep the pooches on leads because there are too many of them to let run free. Plus, unfortunately, there are no enclosed, safe spaces for them to run. It's a pity, really. My dream is to by a safe, enclosed field for them to run about to their heart's content :)

The 'oh he's friendly' line is probably meant to stop you being scared.
My dog wouldn't go up to a kid - she's not really interested, still people overreact even when she's miles away.
If she is miles away and the person is overreacting, I wouldn't put her on the lead and might say something similar.

Another thing - it's a great shame when irresponsible owners give sensible owners (and their dogs) a bad name.

I got attacked some years back by two out of control dogs who went for me and my own dogs. It is a miracle that there was no serious injury. Their owner gave me a mouthful of abuse when I complained and asked him to keep his animals under control. Oddly enough, I saw him last week - he watched, as his dogs shat on the grass in the park, and didn't bother to clear up after them. I really wanted to bag it up and push it through his letterbox...

'Oh he's friendly' is better than' OMG!!!! Ruuunnnn!'

As it happens I never say 'Oh he's friendly' purely because of MN. I get visions of scary mummies lining up to beat me to death

I don't mind dogs off the lead if (a) they are in a place where this is clearly allowed (so, not on the pavement or in a place where dogs are explicitly banned); (b) they don't run up to people and especially don't jump at them (the slight or clumsy (I am both - a 5'1" dyspraxic who actually has problems enough staying on my feet when running without being jumped up at! ) probably WILL go over like a skittle); (c) they come to heel immediately when called.

I DO mind when an owner says 'oh he's very friendly'. I am not friendly, I do not wish to have a dog for a friend, and my wishes trump his in this matter.

Yanbu
My dog is young and excitable so she is kept on a lead or long line in busy places atm
I pick up poo
Walk her a long walk every day
Train her
Feed her
Seek veterinary advice
Love her

Didn't have her so she could cause herself a nuisance to other people and other people's children

Hth

orm its the laughing and the not doing anything about it that accompanies the 'oh he's friendly' that gets me, it would be reassuring if it still wasnt hurling himself at my children!

I'm also from a city, so think the pp who said this happens more in citys with smaller/limited green spaces is right, when we've lived out in the country its been less of a problem and most dogs and owners we've come accross are responsible. So I would also agree that its a problem of the 'fashion dog' society

MrsDeVere My husband has an irrational fear of beetroot and strawberries. He has never been attacked by either and neither is he allergic to them. Some people ar just afraid of things and nutty or not it's the kind thing to do, the polite thing to do, to be sensitive to that. Some dogs are afraid of things (e.g. cars backfiring, for example. Or bigger dogs). I would expect the dog owners of the scared dogs to be concerned for their pets in such circumstances, not to tell them to man (dog?) up. And not to wonder what the world is coming to, either.

I hate where I live as it seems to be full of rude/lazy dog owners. An example of this was when me and DD were out today and a staff pup came running up to her and was licking her face. It was rank. I had to pull the puppy away from her. It had to lead on and the owner didn't even say sorry but decided to have a go because I had a hold of his dogs collar.

*NO lead on

but you can control fear especially as an adult you(the general you) dont have to snatch children away from dogs I see it all the time when all the dog is doing is walking past on a lead with its owner,

Dog owners or not, it seems we all agree.
Dogs are great so long as they are kept away from those who don't appreciate their advances and are owned by sensible, responsible owners who clean up after them.
My pup is well trained and absolutely not permitted to interact with any person/dog without my express permission. If I think any circumstance will tempt her to ignore my rules, she is put on lead. I don't want her practising inappropriate behaviour.
Equally, I could do without numpties barging up to her and stroking her without my permission or the classic idiot owners of 'friendly' dogs letting them bounce up to us. I avoid busier places like the park where possible tbh for this reason.

mrsdevere no, it didn't! :) But I think wondering why people have irrational fears is a bit pointless since the whole thing about irrational fears is that they are irrational.

You know, mrsjay?
I've seen a similar reaction from some parents to my DS, who presents as a scary male stranger. He is tall, wears a lot of black, has an inexpressive face when he's thinking or concentrating and stares if something interesting catches his eye.
So people than snatch up their children when a dog looks at them are probably similar to those that glare suspiciously at DS when he pulls out a camera to photograph an interesting thing.
Despite other humans being of no interest to him if he doesn't know them well.

Totally agree re picking up poo Pawprint - still it's the only really nasty bit of the job.

I've seriously considered renting a paddock for secure off-lead exercise. Luckily I have access to about 6,000 acres of open woodland, and if you drive an extra five minutes in, you are extremely unlikely to see another person in an hour's dogwalking, even on a lovely afternoon like today.

It seems to me that most of the problems that are being discussed on this thread are to do with over-crowding of dogs in urban areas, and poor management of the open space that is available.

Councils need to enforce the by-laws they have. Owners need to think about whether it's realistic to have a big, active breed dog when there's little or no space to exercise it. Park authorities need to consider the needs of both dog owners and people who can't or don't want to come into close contact with dogs. Sadly, there are so many ignorant and entitled dog owners out there that enforcing regulations is going to need serious money spent on it. Many of these ignorant owners will have acquired their dogs from a mate who's 'bitch had a bit of an accident' or off websites like Gumtree.

I'm now so exasperated with the puppy farmers and their ilk that I'd like to see a compulsory dog licence for all dogs, £100 for neutered dogs over the age of 12 months, £200 for un-neutered dogs over 12 months, and £500 for un-neutered bitches over 12 months.

The Kennel Club have been trumpeting about something called an Assured Breeder Scheme. But I've heard from reliable sources that the scheme is so underfunded and poorly administered that obvious puppy farmers are able to register as Assured Breeders without fear of being caught.

Two weeks ago, heavily pregnant suffering from bad SPD so with a crutch, I was out walking with 2 year old DS on public (owned by a local nature trust) fields. Everyone is welcome there, dog owner or walker.

A golden retriever, head to toe in mud, headed towards us at top speed and only swerved at the last minute. Naturally I adopted a defensive stance and said "shoo" because, hey, I didn't want to fall over nor did I want my poor toddler flattened. I was not showing signs of fear, I was just bracing myself.

Apparently the dog was "friendly" and I was "over-reacting". I said I couldn't be too careful, as I'd seen one loose dog kill another on a lead in a park before (true - it was horrific) which is my stock response to the "friendly" excuse these days. The dog continued to circle and wouldn't return to the owner despite him calling, albeit extremely pathetically.. we couldn't get past. I told the man to keep better control of his dog.

His response? To tell me that I shouldn't be out and about if I couldn't control my legs(!) and I was irresponsible to have DS with me

There were a lot of things I wanted to say but given I had DS with me I had to settle for "You're not a very nice person at all, are you?" as he finally disappeared into the distance, yelling things I couldn't make out, and still not having his dog under control.

Totally ruined what was supposed to be a final mummy and DS special time together before the baby arrived 36 hours later. I don't "do" confrontations very well at the best of times, let alone at that time.

I used to be a dog owner too, so I'm not entirely unsympathetic. However people with badly trained dogs and with an arrogant attitude ruin it for all the ones who do things properly.

A few years ago my DS was minding his own business playing on his scooter, a big dog ran over and attacked him, it bit his face and shook him. He had stitches and still has a scar. We later found out that it was a Doberman/Rottie cross, he was put to sleep. This is why I think dogs should be kept on leads unless in designated dog areas.

Sadly, there are so many ignorant and entitled dog owners out there that enforcing regulations is going to need serious money spent on it

I agree AlpacaLypse. The number of dog owners who think the "No Dogs" signs in the parks don't apply to them is astonishing

I would say that in my area of London the dog poo issue is getting as bad as it was in the 1970s (and yes I'm old enough to remember that.)

There was a time when it became quite rare to spot dog poo but now I would say I pass at least 10 piles of it on my daily (10 min) walk to train station.