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.

Mame, tbh there are too many dog owners - including some on these threads - who don't even try to exercise proper control over their dogs. No one thinks their dog is going to worry livestock or horses until they start - but if the owner has proper control over their dog, it's a good preventative first step.

The 'if you are having a picnic, you should reasonably expect to be invaded by badly behaved dogs' crowd are a big part of the problem. If they jump all over people, with no means of their owner stopping them, what's to stop them jumping at a horse?

The dog hysteria on MN continues I see.

Thank god it doesn't carry on in the RL.

because irl people are afraid twattish dog owners do something stupid...

I agree that it is (probably) a minority of dog owners, but that can be enough to ruin a nice day in the park.

Rubbish.

The people on MN who can't abide dogs sniffing round them would have no problem telling a dog owner to sort their dog out.

Jassey, could you point to one single post from an MNer that "doesn't even try to exercise proper control over their dog" please. I've never seen one. Thanks.

Well eve, I would suggest that the poster who seems to think that those enjoying a picnic should expect to be disturbed by dogs and shouldn't therefore have picnics probably defaults into that category. It's a pretty obvious implication that they don't consider it necessary to prevent this happening, which should be a very basic part of responsible ownership.

Ah well I don't agree with your assumption there, so will still like to see a post.

Assumption? So viewing the trashing of picnics as inevitable isn't an indication that the person saying that thinks isn't necessary to prevent that happening?? How odd. What does it mean then if not that?

thinks it* isn't

eve how about this: Have just spent 200 quid at vets because of people with picnics in the park. Deciding it was ok to feed my dog their picnic.

had the dog been under control it wouldn't have been able to eat food from picknickers.

Do you despair at ALL dog owners or just the rude ones?

It was given food by picnickers.

Good point mousmous.

Most dog owners are considerate and don't allow their dogs to annoy other people, but there is a significant minority who think it's okay to allow their pet to go tearing up to strangers in the park, jump up at young kids, run around people who are obviously frightened of dogs and generally behave with a gormless lack of consideration for others.
They give dog owners a bad name and should cop themselves on and show other people a bit of respect.

Mousmous, does that poster also say she "didn't even try to exercise control"? (Which is what Jassy was saying and what I have taken exception to)

owlcapone if the dog was on a lead and under the owner's control they would be able to stop picnickers from giving the dog food.

'if you are having a picnic, you should reasonably expect to be invaded by badly behaved dogs'

Clearly we are reading different threads.

No particular feelings on this but within 20 years I suspect dogs will not be allowed in public parks off lead. Or unmuzzled. The traditional British Public's love of dogs has been fast waning over the last couple of decades.

Let's just have a decoy pizza, laden with doggy laxatives. The sort that kick in overnight.

I'm not sure that is accurate vict, most people I know/have met in passing, actively like dogs, even if they don't own any themselves.

The dislike of dogs on MN is interesting though, certainly makes it seem more concentrated than it may be in real life.

I've not read the full thread as the dog owner bashing on MN is getting repetitive and boring, but I have just made myself cry with laughter at the "a dog shat on my picnic" thread. I noticed that that thread was from 3 years ago... what's happened to MN? Where's everyone's sense of humour gone?

I had pizza for tea tonight.

The dog wasn't allowed any though.

I don't mind keeping my dog being on lead. He is on lead around local parks but runs in the field, away from people, regularly instead. I would hugely object to him being muzzled. He's so happy eating grass and leaves, I'd hate for that to be taken away because of some bad dog owners and some miserable human fuckers.

Eve, exactly what UncleT said. Both ScouseBird and Dontputmedown (from memory, am on phone) both responded that if picnickers were jumped all over by dogs, they considered that to be the picnickers fault. That carries the strong implication that they don't consider controlling their dogs in that situation a particatly high priority - unlike most posters on this thread. Ffallada at least tries to control her dog, albeit apparently ineffectively.

I don't keep a spreadsheet of MNers whose attitudes to dog ownership upsets me, oddly enough, but it's rare that I don't come away from one of these threads (a) massively cranky about the anti-dog brigade and (b) massively frustrated by the posters who have 'dogs will be dogs' attitude and undo all the good the reasonable, responsible posters do in explaining about how dogs can be trained, etc. the one that sticks in my head was a poster who maintained that, because the OP and her toddler daughter happened to be in the park, they were fair game for a giant 'friendly' dog to come charging up to knock the child over, and that she would allow her dogs to do the same.

It's posters like those who gives the multitude of responsible owners a bad name.

Oh so just unfortunate wording on your part then. I get it, it's what you think may be the case.

I find most dog owners on MN, especially those who come into the DogHouse asking for help and advice, are very keen to exercise control and good recall over their dogs. Most MN dog owners would be mortified if their dog did something impolite or dangerous. It's heartening to see how many posters are willing to listen and learn in order to make their dog owning experience a happy one. Many moons ago I was one and the wealth of experience here was invaluable .

I most certainly haven't seen someone happy that a child has been knocked over by a dog. What a fool that person must be.

The only posts I have seen that could in any way be as bad as you make out are ones where a parent/child has gone into a designated dog park (ours are clearly signposted that dogs can and will be off lead) and then complained that there are dogs there acting like dogs. When I see posts like that I wonder at the lack of common sense displayed by the parent (I've been one of the dog owning posters when a parent has come onto private MOD land without permission, where I am training dogs and then complained about my untrained dogs...umm, hello?)

Our experiences are clearly very different. Any dog owner who doesn't have confidence they can control their dog when they can't control the circumstances - well, I think they're pretty feeble, to be frank, and should either rethink having a dog or

I don't have a dog these days so don't frequent the doghouse, for obvious reasons. So I only see the reprehensible minority on the mainstream threads who suggest that it's fine for their darlings to jump up on strangers, and the onus should be on parents to socialise their children to dogs rather than the owners' to train their dogs effectively, or keep them under control if they can't be trained - completely ignoring the fact that their foods approach to dog ownership might have just undone a long, painstaking process of getting a nervous child used to dogs.

Some people are just dicks, and some of those people own dogs. Pointing that out doesn't make the majority of dog owners dicks - it just means there's a rubbish subset who give the rest a bad reputation.