To despair at dog owners

[Justmydarlinpet]

Aaaaaaaaaaarg. Grrrrrr.

I was sitting with dh and dc in the park sharing a pizza between us which we had got from a nearby restaurant. Suddenly dh leaps up and grabs a dog that was about to jump on us whilst we were sat on the ground eating our food. He had to hold on to the dog until it's owner a stupid fuckwitt cunt woman came (about a minute later). The woman made no serious attempt to call her blood pet (massive in size, some sort of mutt). She just meekly called whispered "emmieeeeee, eeeeeeemmiee" but unsurprisingly stupid dog didn't listen to fuckwitt woman at all.

She then proceeded to tell us the classic line "he's harmless" to which I responded "well I still don't want him jumping on me, the dc or our food.

She had the bloody cheek to answer back "the park is for everyone and that we should get used to dogs". I said "sure, i'lm used to dogs but still don't want one humping me, the baby or slobbering my food".

She went on to say some more tosh and I warned her that I would call the police as it was clear that she couldn't control her bloody dog.

She went off in a huff but not without lecturing me that I should not be rude to her in front of the dc.

Seriously, how can some dog owners be sooooooo blooooody stupid? I don't get it. I love dogs, hope to have our own dog one day but I will make damn sure to train the dog and not allow it to bother other people.

I have just noticed the OP's username.

Better late than never!

I'm not saying you shouldn't treat animals with kindness and respect. But expecting families not to use the park (whose upkeep they pay for in taxes) in summer because they don't go there in winter, or expecting children to play in silence in case a dog gets upset is bonkers.

Dog owners pay tax too though don't they?

And nobody rational is saying that children shouldn't play in the park, or have fun. Just to be considerate and act sensibly around dogs for their own safety.

Which is exactly what you are (quite rightly) asking of dog owners.

Maybe nobody rational is saying that, but there have been remarks along the lines that non dog-owners shouldn't be in the park in summer because they don't go in there in winter, and that children shouldn't be making a noise in the park because it might upset dogs. It is those responses that I am commenting on. I agree with Alisvolatpropiis that children shouldn't provoke dogs - eg handle them or get in their faces. But to expect them to go to a park and not make a noise is ludicrous.

No dog owners have said don't use the park or kids should play in silence! Just stop treating dog owners as if we're all out to cause disruption and stop your kids from pestering dogs, then their parents complaining because the dog gets upset. I keep my dogs under control but my dogs are cute looking so I'm fed up having to protect my dogs from the over excited attention of children. By the way I pay taxes too, as do other dog owners so why can't we walk in peace?

Not entirely true whoknows. It has been said that if people don't want to be pestered by dogs then they shouldn't have picnics. On a nice day when people are having picnics then if the dog isn't trained enough not to bother those with food, they should be on a lead. No eating on the ground is a very far cry from teaching children not to run at or grab strange dogs, for example.

I'm not saying you shouldn't treat animals with kindness and respect. But expecting families not to use the park (whose upkeep they pay for in taxes) in summer because they don't go there in winter, or expecting children to play in silence in case a dog gets upset is bonkers.

None of which came across in your earlier posts.

I completely agree that families should be able to enjoy the park no matter how rarely they visit, and that children should not be expected to play silently or quietly, particularly in a park.

(Being single and lacking a correctly working reproductive system doesn't exempt you from taxes, and all that they pay for. Trust me, if there was a way to lower my tax bill, I'd have found it!)

All those quotes came from one poster. Not particularly representative of the thread in general.

But Greebo it only takes one poster to prove that ALL dog owners are irresponsible! Did you not know that?

she had the cheek to say that we should eat at a table if we didn't want dogs to jump on us and our food

I think she had a point.

Pizza? On the ground?

I despair of children's owners table manners.

Staywithme I'm trying my bloody hardest to learn, but keep tripping up over irrelevant shite like 'logic' and 'common sense' and 'natural avoidance to knee-jerk reactions'.

Incidentally I love you so much right now for shortening my name correctly to 'Greebo'. I usually get 'Green' or 'Greebooog'

If we're getting into the nitty-gritty of who said what to who, I think it's pretty obvious that I was responding to the posts I have just copied here now, especially given that copied the posts in question and then put my response. I didn't say that all dog-owners were irresponsible, and I didn't say that all dog owners think the same as falladda. And the reason that I have quoted those posts again is not to prove somehow that all dog-owners think those things, but in response to being challenged that nobody had said them. When someone had.

However, it's now turning into a circular argument.

I do still think though that we have an unhealthy regard for pets in this country - in most other places I have lived in, dogs and cats wouldn't be allowed in the house because they're animals. A lot of older folk, especially older country folk, in the UK also think along those lines. Dog ownership has risen dramatically in the past 20 years here and so also have the number of dog attacks, with the number of dog attacks requiring hospitalisation also rising. It's a problem, and some (NOT all) of the comments on this thread are symptomatic of the kind of mentality that has allowed this to happen.

I despair of children's owners table manners.

Lmao at children's owners! You'd better put a hard hat on as the flack will flying in your direction. Hahahaha

Incidentally I love you so much right now for shortening my name correctly to 'Greebo'. I usually get 'Green' or 'Greebooog'

Wow! I didn't think I'd be feeling any love on this thread. I'm positively glowing.

If we're getting into the nitty-gritty of who said what to who, I think it's pretty obvious that I was responding to the posts I have just copied

Evidently it wasn't obvious, or people would have picked up on it. Perhaps you could try padding out your rants on shitting beasts and fairer climes abroad with some context.

FWIW, I grew up rural, as have all my family in living memory. I guess that makes us 'country folk' working dogs are generally kept outside, yes, but even my great grandma wouldn't think it odd to have a dog inside the house, for a variety of reasons. Not that dogs being kept in the house/kenneled has anything to do with... well, anything.

Greebo that's nonsense - Cruikshank's post is right there to see and it quite plainly starts with the quote being responded to. It's about as evident as it could possibly be - look at it.

I did, it was questioning another posters view point. The post I and others responded to was the odd rant about attitudes abroad that came directly after.

YANBU we have had dogs sniffing round our picnic if we are on benches so the whole eating on the floor thing isn't necessarily relevant.

We walk through a park each week throughout the year rain or shine, but dd went through a stage of being frightened by dogs - one owner seeing dd's distress when their dog was weaving in and out by her feet when we were walking on a footpath turned around and said we shouldn't take our child to the park (complete with a children's playground) if she is afraid of dogs

We walked the MuttDog round a car boot sale yesterday. She is very well behaved, quiet and controlled. I lost count of the number of kids that approached her without asking. It doesn't matter as she is pretty bomb proof, but it does worry me that these same kids will approach an unfriendly dog with equal abandon.

Highlight of our day was the baby, maybe a year/18 months, that shoved an ice cream with marshmallows in the Mutts face. Mutt was very grateful, but her dad said "FFS I've only just bought that". I think he was angling for us to pay for another one, but mum just gave him a look (and DD said "It's ok, mutt and I share Ice-creams all the time")

Snort at taxes. What have taxes got to do with anything? What would you say if the local naturist group proclaimed they'd paid their taxes so were going to stroll baked through the park.

And yes the seagulls are buggers - have you seem them going for food? And if they have babies they're bloody dangerous - DH was dive bombed & pecked on the head walking into a building they'd nested next to.

I've lived abroad & found attitude to animals not that different really. I've worked on a darn abroad deep in rural farming country & yes the working dogs lived outside but the pet dogs lived inside & were pretty pampered.

Baked? I suppose they would be

Yanbu OP- the majority of dog owners and dogs are quite unobtrusive but I've had several incidents with twatty dog owners, including one where the dog ate our entire picnic before its owner sauntered along.
I also can't stand it when there are clear signs that dogs must be kept on the lead and yet they are bounding around all over the place- esp in the countryside.
And on the beach! Dogs on beaches where there are clear signs that they should not be.

To be honest, the kind of dog owner that is blasé about their dog eating somebody else's picnic is also blasé about their dog bothering other dogs and animals and is a nuisance to everyone.

Sometimes these things happen. However, generally when I eat a picnic, even on a beach full of dogs, they stay with their owners. On the very rare occasions that they do approach us I have never struggled to stop them from eating our food. However, I can understand that any dog is stressful for people who don't like dogs and it is ultimately the dog owner's responsibility to keep their dog away from other dogs/people/small children with balls/horses/sheep etc. etc.

Smirking at the thought of naturists walking around the park baked

Tbh dog signs aren't always clear I'm always telling other people where dogs are allowed on ours (& people are usually being over cautious & assuming they're not allowed at all - when in fact they're allowed to use more than half the beach).