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!

Or run over your child's sandcastle or pinch something from your picnic - because that's just dogs being dogs, eh?

YANBU.

I often wonder this

On all our big beaches dogs are banned from all but a tiny portion from May to Sept. The dog bit is usually right up one end so you really have to go out of your way to get to it. Still people moan merry hell about dogs on the beach.

Some woman ordered me off the dog beach a couple of years ago because her daughter was scared of my (on lead) dog and she wanted to play in a particular rock pool. Er....no.

We tend to stick to the little out of the way beaches with no dog restrictions that the tourists haven't found yet

Only an idiot would put themselves on a dog beach when you couldn't tolerate such doggy behaviour.

For the UMPEENTH time there is no such thing as a 'Dog Beach' at Camber Sands, it is not a fenced off dog play area, but a shared area of the beach which dogs are allowed onto.

If you say so Everlong, absolutely. We're all awkward, stubborn, dog hating, uptight, rigid people with absolutely no sense of humour. Your line of argument is quite something. Here's a biscuit - catch!

So, you're just goading?

(that was to SirC)

Think whatever you like candy

It was a hob nob - glad you liked it! It was a toss up between a Bonio and a hob nob, but thought that the Bonio wouldn't fit with my lack of humour, so you got a sensible, plain, oat biscuit instead

Hak it's in New Zealand. Lots of happy dog owning people here. The council have 3 designations for areas - dog exercise off leash, dogs permitted on leash only, dogs banned.

So people who want to avoid free range dogs avoid the off leash exercise areas and people who have dogs have some choice of where to go still.

Staywithme that was her first outing after all jabs. She's huge now! But still v cuddly and with an amazingly beautiful elegant face :)

SirC I was asking if you were goading 'cause you kind of implied you were.

I never imply - I come right out and say it. Interpret as you wish though.

I have looked at the Camber sands website, it is an area of the beach, not an area specifically designated for dogs. No such beach exists in the UK.

This isn't mere semantics, it matters because the expectation is that dogs will have to share the space with others and behave appropriately and not distress and harass other beach users. For example HGVs are banned from some roads and allowed on others. The roads they are allowed to travel on aren't 'HGV roads' which give them priority over cars and bikes, let alone crash willy nilly into cars or allow them to ignore traffic signals, it merely means they can be in that shared space.

The angriest I ever saw anyone get over a Dog behaving badly was my own Mother. And it was our Dog. It had the audacity to run over to her, shake itself after coming out of the sea then sneezed violently all over her.

Oh how I laughed

She didn't

"You couldn't expect the children not to run and scream and flick sand. That's what children do."

I would certainly expect them not to flick sand so close to me it went in my eyes. Or to run over my rug and picnic. Wouldn't you? Or would you say "piss off, this is a child beach" if your child did it to someone else and they complained.

Without wanting to sound as if I don't have a sense of humour the beach isn't a dog beach according to the Camber Sands website and leaflet - it's an area of the beach where dogs are allowed. On that basis I really wonder if it said 'dog beach' (why do I always think dogging beach when I read that?!) or if it said 'dogs allowed' (or welcome, or dog friendly, something like that?)

YANBU. I hate that Dogs are constantly being demonised. It's the owners that are the problems, not the dogs. I walk my dog every day on the beach off lead but I have invested a great deal of time, money and energy training her. I have 2 kids under 2 and they gain so much from growing up with and learning to care for her. Dogs and their owners have as much right to be there as anyone else.

I also blame parents whose kids are scared of dogs. Introductions to calm, well trained dogs will make them realise there is nothing to fear. I don't allow kids near my dog unless I know them for her protection and I don't let me kids touch other dogs without the owner's permission. I hate people who shield their kids every time they see a dog......what message do that send? The dangerous dogs are those that are badly bred and locked up in tiny back yards not walked. Dogs that are properly exercised are not frustrated and aggressive

everlong people don't want other peoples' awful children kicking sand in their face anymore than other peoples' dogs. I'd be picking a spot as far away from other children as possible, rather than worrying about dogs!

if you were a childless couple would you seek out a holiday with kids clubs and evening entertainment designed for children and then complain about the number of children running around there?

If you were particularly conservative would you sit on a nudist beach and complain about the nudity?

If you were an atheist would you go to a church gathering and complain that they were talking about/praying to God?

No? then surely it stands to reason that if you don't like dogs and you have a choice between a section of the beach where dogs are allowed and a section of the beach where they are not, then you choose the section of the beach where they are not allowed. That's just common sense, surely? To deliberately go to the section where dogs are allowed and to then complain that there are dogs is just being deliberately difficult, or thick, or both.

It doesn't have to be a dog beach, it is a beach where dogs are allowed. There are plenty of other beaches or even parts of that same beach where you can go if you don't want to be among dogs. How difficult is that to understand?

But I suspect some people are being deliberately goady about this tbh.

So, everlong. You are playing on the beach with your child. Another child comes up, and starts digging, throwing spadefuls of sand over their shoulder into your child's face. You say to the parent please could you stop him doing that. Parent says "piss off, this is a child beach"

Are you happy with that?