To think if you go to the dog beach you should expect dogs

[Blackdogagain]

I took my pooch to the beach for the first time today. The beach is huge and split in half, one half is for dogs, and there were many of them. Most dogs were off the lead and playing freely.

A few families were also on the dog beach, but were without a dog. However, a few families were obviously irate with the dogs running and swimming everywhere.

Is it me, but if you sit on the dog half of the beach, you can't get huffy over dogs running around.

One father and daughter were on inflatables in the sea and 3 dogs were running into the sea next to them and the girl was obviously worried and scared of them. The owners called their dogs back and walked up the beach a bit, which was good of them.

Surely though, if you don't want dogs around, bloody well go to the dog free half of the beach!

bloody dogs are treated like kids these days.

I have to say i get really annoyed that such a big proportion of beaches are dog beaches. I hate dogs on beaches grrrrrr. but I suppose yanbu

How is walking a dog on the beach treating them like kids? If the dogs had a bucket and spade and an ice cream cone you might have a point. Dog need walked and beaches are nice places for dog owners to walk.

OP is dog bit of the beach clearly marked? Perhaps the families were not aware they were in the dog bit.

YANBU , provided dogs are behaving themselves. Not jumping up and crapping everywhere.

I agree with the OP, if you don't want to be sharing with dogs, use the dog-free bit of the beach.

My DD was terrified of dogs so we only ever went to the beach when it was Off Season for dogs.

I wouldn't go on a Dog Beach anyway On or Off Season.

We did slip up once , taking the DC in May , it was practically empty, there was a walker with a dog. While my DD cowered, my DS ( in a lovely mood) said "Excuse me, my sister is scared of dogs, could you keep him on the other side of the barrier"
(I was very proud of him - ) the walker kept doggie away.

I live on the coast and some of the beach here is dog free and on parts of it dogs can go on. I have a dog but it would not occur to me that dogs have priority or equality on the beach that dogs can go on. We don't view it as a 'dog beach' just a beach where dogs are allowed.

Very few beaches are dog beaches

So surprised at how anti-dog Britain is becoming

All because of a very few idiot owners and a lot of overreaction to perfectly normal walking about

The beach is about 3 miles wide, so there was 1.5 miles for people who don't like dogs. Also, there are quite a lot of other beaches around, non of which are allowed dogs.

The dogs were running freely, so yes, some of them ran up to people and other dogs on the beach. If you have a dog you expect and allow for that interaction.

If you really don't like dogs, why on earth would you sit on a dog beach?

Is it officially a dog-designated beach? It's not one of those situations where a bunch of dog owners just decided they were going to take over like my local park?

YANBU, but this thread will now descend into 300 posts of people:

a) interpreting dogs playing on a beach as feral vicious animals mauling people and shitting in their faces.

b) complaining that dogs are allowed anywhere, ever, and why can't we just eliminate them from the face of the earth because I personally can't tolerate the sight of them

and c) completely irrelevant tales of how I was walking down the street on my lunch break this one time, minding my own business inbetween working hard and paying my taxes and some fucking dog appeared out of nowhere and mugged me for my lunch and spat on my granny

...Or similar.

Presumably dog beach just means dogs are allowed, not only dog owners on this part. However, if families know that then they can't complain about dogs being there. It's like walking onto a nudist beach and asking them to put clothes on.

As with anywhere else, it depends how crowded it is, how many dogs there are, whether they are under control or not.

Perhaps if most of the people are holidaymakers they aren't aware which are dog beaches and which are non-dog beaches, as a non dog owner it wouldn't really occur to me to check in advance. And having arrived and set up on the beach they might not feel inclined to move on. However provided the dogs aren't jumping on them, running over their stuff, shitting on their sandcastles etc they shouldn't complain.

Yanbu.

There's hardly any dog beaches so plenty of others to choose from.

Near me, there's a massive wetlands type place. One lake is allowed dogs off lead on the path, the other 10 lakes are dogs on lead.

At the off lead lake people give you dirty looks sometimes for having your dog off the lead!

YANBU

Dog owners can't win, can we? Even if you keep the dogs to a dog friendly beach you're given filthy looks as if you shouldn't be there. I could understand if the dogs were out of control as even dog owners would be peed of with that but if some one's dog is swimming in the sea then why don't those people go to the part of the beach where dogs aren't permitted?

Is it posted somewhere that this is the official dog beach? So it would be clear to wandering holiday makers? I just haven't run into that before.

There are HUGE signs saying dog beach, not just dogs allowed. I will out myself a bit and say where it is - Camber Sands.

Oh right. Then yeah, they were being a bit silly.

Well, I'm not keen on dogs, but that seems a very reasonable and sensible response to me. The dogs and owners get to relax, and the rest of us can choose whether to be there or not.
Can't see the problem, we dog-dislikers should read the signs too.

YABU to call it a 'dog beach'

It is a beach where dogs are permitted.

It's not a 'dog beach' any more than beaches are 'child beaches' .

Just because my children are permitted to be somewhere doesn't mean that I believe its OK to let them run around getting in other people's way, making a nuisance of themselves and generally spoiling things.

So YANBU to take your dog to a beach where it is allowed. You would be unreasonable not to keep some measure of control over it. I wouldn't let my toddler DS run up to people and splash them while they were swimming. The same should apply to dog owners.

But you can't control your dog much if it's running away from you, people are generally a bit more relaxed about their dogs when they are permitted off lead. Not so much in the park where everywhere is ok for dogs but where there's another option to avoid dogs why should dog owners have to move? If people who don't like dogs are stupid enough to swim/sunbathe at a dog beach then it's their own fault if they get splashed

But dogs running and swimming everywhere is what a dog beach is for. What are the owners meant to do, create lap lanes?

OP YANBU. Dog beaches are not a good place to spread out a towel and read. Yes, the dogs might well run over your towel, b/c they have already learned that the dog beach is their space for playing, so that's what they do there.

And there are many more non-dog beaches. A person who arrives at a beach, sits down, realizes it is a dog beach, and then thinks "hmph these dogs should calm down" rather than "ah, I should move to another beach" is being a bit ridiculous.

Dog owners can never fucking win can they :(